I talk a lot about the differences between mid-market CEOs and their enterprise CEO counterparts. CEOs of mid-market companies – those between $1 million and $100 million in revenue – operate very differently from the CEOs of the enterprise and Fortune 500.

Being a mid-market CEO can be a lonely position; most mid-market CEOs were trained in something other than being a CEO. Enterprise CEOs are hired by sophisticated boards after lengthy hiring processes and were trained for the CEO role for 7 to 10 years.

Since few mid-market CEOs were trained for their CEO responsibilities, how do they develop their CEO skills? Where do they turn for training and help?

Leadership and Management Books

There are plenty of great business books written for Fortune 500 companies by CEOs and researchers (Good to Great, Jack, Execution, The HP Way, Titan).

And there are plenty of great books written for small business owners (The Art of the Start, The E-Myth Revisited, The Monk and the Riddle, Jumpstart Your Business Brain).

There are relatively few books, however, written specifically for and about mid-market companies: the $40 million electrical distributor in Waukegan, the $60 million trucking company in Wabash, or the $20 million pool manufacturer in Williamsport.

The mid-market CEO is often ignored, unable to deploy the general concepts suggested by business thought-leaders (because of bandwidth issues), or to find significant value in the recommendations given to small business owners.

Peer Groups

Many mid-market CEOs turn to peer groups. Vistage is the largest CEO organization in the world, with over 14,000 members.

Peer groups like Vistage give mid-market CEOs an advisory board, 1-to-1 mentoring and exposure to expert speakers (like our partner Nick Setchell). They provide a forum to discuss the challenges with their business, personal problems and all the things that they can’t bring up for discussion with their executive team.

On-the-Job Experience and Gut Instinct

Since almost no mid-market CEOs are trained for their role in the same manner as most enterprise CEOs, and since they don’t have access to material geared specifically toward running a mid-market company, I’ve found that they develop most of their leadership skills from two places:

• their experience on the job
• their reliance on their gut instinct

The Problem with Gut Instinct

Since mid-market CEOs have fewer resources—training and intellectual capital, nor the budget to obtain it—they’re forced to make most decisions with far less clarity than the Fortune 500 CEO. It’s quite common for mid-market CEOs to use their gut instinct for important decisions instead of relying on relevant information that will confirm or refute their intuition.

While most mid-market CEOs have good gut instincts (which has substantially contributed to their success), many make far too many important decisions on gut instinct alone. This can occur for any of the following reasons:

• They don’t have the depth of resources needed to obtain the information they need to achieve clarity.
• They are too impatient to wait on the required research necessary to get the information needed.
• They don’t know that the information is available.

Having good intuition is an important trait for a CEO, but there are many complexities in business that can easily foil good intuition, such as

• slopes of supply and demand curves
• cash flow velocity
• the motivation of a key member of their leadership team
• the quality of their revenue
• a true understanding of how the market perceives their brand
• their profitability ratings

Or, in many instances, the CEO’s intuition might be correct, but

• a lower-level manager without the same degree of gut instinct might be handling the decision
• other team members don’t trust or understand your gut instincts
• when your gut instinct is wrong you don’t why or how to fix it

As strong as your intuition may be, it’s important to support it with quality information to confirm or refute your instincts.

Fortune 500 CEOs and executives understand this, and while they also have good gut instincts, they are trained to use and rely upon information to support their key decisions that affect their company’s performance.

Most of the information that mid-market CEOs need is within their reach; they just need to know how to find it.

I’ll show you how in my next post.

Over my career as a CEO of three mid-market companies, as a chair of Vistage, the world’s largest CEO member organization, and as a consultant, I’ve had the privilege of directly working with over 1,000 different CEOs of mid-market companies.

Most of them are extraordinary men and women, leaders and diligent workers, many of whom created something out of nothing to contribute substantial value to the community and the economy.

Over the years, I began to see many similarities amongst my fellow mid-market CEOs. While CEOs of mid-market companies are different than startup entrepreneurs or the CEOs and executive leadership of Fortune 500 companies, I found that they have many similarities amongst themselves.

As I studied my experiences I realized that mid-market CEOs, almost every single CEO of a private company between $1 million and $100 million in revenue, fall into five different categories, or “personas” as I call them.  These personas may seem alike to the outsider, but the personal goals of each are distinctly different and directly affect how they manage their mid-market company.

CEO Personas of Mid-Market Companies

1. The Growth CEO – You have a desire to move forward, to get bigger, to expand, to beat your competition and win the game. While this seems to be the logical profile of all CEOs, that isn’t what I’ve experienced–approximately 30% of the CEOs I’ve encountered are true ‘growth CEOs.’

2. The Hired Gun CEO – You’ve been brought into a new company with the goal of making a short term, immediate impact. It’s usually a turnaround or preparation for a company sale, and you have a big financial gain at stake and a reputation for being a turnaround expert. Approximately 15% of the CEOs I’ve encountered fall into this persona.

3. The Strategic CEO – You’re striving for a mid-term exit in 10 years. You’re either a company founder, or you’ve run the company a long time—and you’re focused on improving the business, to sell or transfer to a family member. Approximately 20% of the CEOs I’ve encountered fall into this persona.

4. The Career CEO – You’re a new CEO taking on your first command and have achieved your dream role—you plan on being a CEO for multiple companies over your career. Approximately 10% of the CEOs I’ve encountered fall into this persona.

5. The Auto-Pilot CEO – You’ve achieved continued success with your business, but it still requires all your attention to operate the company at your desired level. You’d like to get the business to the point where it can perform at this level without your constant involvement, so you can work less and have more time for other activities. Approximately 25% of the CEOs I’ve encountered fall into this persona.

Which persona are you?

As you think about your CEO persona, consider this:

The key to being a successful mid-market CEO – the CEO who is happy because he has structured his company to meet his personal goals, whatever those may be – is to first understand your persona, and then, to manage your company around your personal goals.

Intrigued? Learn more about the CEO personas in our new book. Download here.

Vistage has put together some nice summary videos of Nick’s workshops. Below is one from March 25, 2011, in which Nick discusses real time forecasting and includes CEO feedback.

Take a gander – it’s just under 4 minutes: