CEOs sit at the very top of the corporate food chain, often far removed from the lower-ranking intricacies of their organizations. But they must still understand their company’s inner workings to lead effectively, says Jim Kavanaugh, the CEO and cofounder of the $20 billion a year tech solutions provider World Wide Technology.
Still, it’s a balancing act. While good leaders should understand “how the sausage gets made,” he says, they should avoid getting stuck in the details. “You need to understand what you do and have an appreciation for that, but then you need to rise up to the 30,000-foot level and make sure that you are setting the right vision, and mission, and direction of the organization,” Kavanaugh recently told Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast.
Having this point of view is all the more important in a fast-moving industry like technology, says Kavanaugh, where swiftness trumps perfection. “You have to get good at taking good swaths of information, gathering what you think is enough information to make intelligent decisions, and you need to start moving,” he says. “If you wait for perfection, you’re going to be too late.”
Leaders don’t have to cross every T and dot every I, he adds, cautioning that they should refrain from analyzing every bit of information that crosses their desks. Instead, they should be information gatherers. “You really need to be a student of your business and a student of the market and really have this appetite to learn on a regular basis and make sure your ears are open and your eyes are open.” From there, leaders can make well-informed decisions, though Kavanaugh acknowledges that doesn’t always happen. “When you don’t, you need to adjust and admit to that.”
It’s a lesson he picked up at a young age. Kavanaugh says he grew up in a modest household in St. Louis with a bricklaying father and a stay-at-home mother. His parents instilled in him a strong work ethic and the importance of loyalty and pulling one’s weight—lessons that he says have helped guide him in business and on the soccer field.
Kavanaugh is a former professional soccer player, and in 1983, he made the Pan Am soccer team, competing in some 30 tournaments over 15 months. He was also on the 1984 U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team but left the professional sport some years later to seek a job in the tech sector. “Soccer, you know, was growing, but not at the rate that it is [today],” he says. “So I decided after a couple years playing pro that probably I just can go get a real job,” Kavanaugh says.
Nonetheless, that experience offered its own set of lessons, specifically understanding how to get the most out of a team. “Some [soccer] teams were more disciplined in regards to how they played; some were more free and flowing and had a different vibe to them. And you had to learn how to compete against those different teams,” says Kavanaugh.
In building out his own leadership team, Kavanaugh says he surrounds himself with people who he believes could take over his role if needed. Such capable leaders are in high demand for poaching, he notes, but the secret to retaining and developing them is by offering growth opportunities that foment passion for the job. “I feel very, very fortunate to have some incredible leaders that are under me that could take my position today. They would do a great job today."
