The nuances of being a young CEO (the good, the bad and the unexpected)

As career milestones go, becoming CEO is one I always aspired to reach early on in my career. I stepped into the role at 37 and at the time, I’m not sure I fully appreciated what that would mean in practice. A couple of years in, I’m still figuring that out.

Learning as you go

People sometimes ask what it felt like becoming CEO and the honest answer is that it’s difficult to pin down.

On one level, it is just another job. But in reality, the shift is significant. The skills you have relied on up to that point don’t disappear, but they become less central. The focus changes, often quite quickly, towards things you may not have had to think about in the same way before.

Without question, it has been the steepest learning curve of my career, and probably my life, and that’s speaking as a father of three. Around 80% of CEOs in the UK are over 50, so stepping into the role earlier inevitably comes with its own set of challenges.

A lot of it has been about getting comfortable with not having all the answers and recognising that you don’t need to. Experience clearly matters, but I’ve found that ability, adaptability and resourcefulness are just as important, along with a willingness to keep learning. Taking on the role at a younger age simply brings a different balance of strengths and gaps.

From IQ to EQ

In many professional services careers, progression tends to follow a fairly predictable path. If you’re a strong auditor, you become an audit manager. If you’re technically excellent, you move up the ranks.

The challenge is that the qualities that make someone good at the job in front of them don’t always translate to the role they’re moving into. In fact, they can be quite different and that becomes more noticeable the further up you go. As responsibilities shift, so do the skills required. By the time you reach partner level, for example, a greater weighting of emphasis is placed on client relationships and leadership, whereas at lower levels it is about building on technical ability.

I’ve found that progression is, in many ways, a gradual shift away from relying purely on IQ towards needing much more EQ, emotional intelligence. How you communicate, support people, and make decisions that affect others becomes increasingly important.

These are often described as ‘soft skills’, but that doesn’t adequately reflect their importance. If anything, they’re some of the harder skills to develop well. It’s something we’ve been thinking about more as a firm, particularly with the influence of our Chief People Officer, Olivia Parish, who has challenged us to see these as essential capabilities rather than optional extras.

If your career progresses more steadily, there’s often more time to build these skills along the way. If things move more quickly, you sometimes find yourself developing them at pace and that was, indeed is, certainly my experience. Early on, I was probably more hands-on than I needed to be, simply because that’s what I was used to. Over time, I’ve had to become more deliberate about stepping back, trusting others, and focusing more on the broader leadership picture.

Having a strong senior team around you makes that much easier. Our Operating Management Board brings together people with different areas of expertise, from operations and technology to people and culture, and that balance is important. It allows for better decisions, and ultimately a more effective business than any one person could deliver alone.

In it for the long term

One thing I’ve become more aware of is the longer-term perspective that comes with stepping into the role at this stage in my career.

There’s an understanding that you’re likely to be around to see the outcomes of the decisions you’re making. That naturally encourages a longer-term view, not just focusing on the next year or two, but thinking about where the business needs to be further down the line. A young CEO has more to prove, and longer to prove it. At the same time, there’s a recognition that you’re still learning as you go.

One of the more useful lessons early on was around not feeling the need to start everything from scratch. I initially spent time trying to design new systems and structures for how we manage the firm, thinking that was the right approach. In reality, it became clear that there was a lot to be gained from what already exists. Coming across the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) was helpful in that respect. It provided a framework that had already been tested, and we were able to adapt it to suit how we work.

It was a useful reminder that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to move forward, often it’s about recognising what works and applying it in a way that fits your business.

The quieter side of the role

It is no secret that the higher you go, the more isolating it can be. There is a nuance as a younger CEO that your immediate peers can become separated from you by several management levels, whilst you simultaneously find yourself leading colleagues who may have been in the workplace for several decades more than you.

This can present its challenges, but this is where the people skills come in, along with self-belief. It is vital for any CEO to listen to a broad range of voices, but it is also essential for them to believe in their own abilities and back themselves.

So, does age matter?

Probably less than I might have thought. There are examples of people leading effectively at all stages of their careers. If anything, the role has a way of exposing what you don’t know, regardless of how old you are.

Perhaps age is irrelevant and it’s all about the individual, which is why there are many CEOs in their 80s still doing a fine job. In fact, at 95, Warren Buffet has famously only just stepped down from the CEO role in January 2026, after six decades as CEO at Berkshire Hathaway, and he remains chairman of the board.

Either way, for any younger CEOs out there embarking on this stage of their career, my main tips would be:

• Don’t be afraid to be decisive and demanding, when it’s necessary. You cannot please everyone and the buck rests with you, so you have to back yourself.
  
• People are behind you, even if you don’t always feel like it.
  
• You can’t do everything. Build a strong executive team around you and use them. Their combined skills and perspectives will deliver more value than you can on your own. They will welcome the opportunity, so give it to them.
  
• Own the failures but share the wins.
  
• Read Good to Great by Jim Collins.
  
  

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