Taking on the CEO role at QFG

Hey 🙂

So, at the start of May I put my hand up for the CEO role at The Question First Group.

No fanfare. No announcement. Just me, in our Thursday owners huddle, saying: “I’ve got a big idea. I think I should be the one to build out the CEO role.

Everyone said yeah, let’s do it. And that was that.

What’s funny is it felt like it came out of nowhere in that specific meeting, but it really didn’t. I’d been secretly working towards this for about six months. I knew the company would need a CEO, so I was reading the books a CEO should read. Using Claude and ChatGPT to map out what the CEO role actually looks like. Identifying where my strengths are and where my gaps are. Deliberately doing the work of a CEO without actually having the title.

So it wasn’t a snap decision. It was a build-up until one morning I just woke up and thought: I’m doing this.

I remember the day after it was agreed. Waking up and feeling like a weight had been lifted. Like I’d finally given myself permission to just do the job that needed done.

The thing about role clarity — and this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot — is that it’s not just about what the CEO does. It’s about what the CEO doesn’t do.

For example: the CEO shouldn’t be tied to clients. Or workshops. Or any one thing. The job is to set direction, manage the rhythm of the business, and find the right people for the right work. And as soon as I claimed that, it freed everybody up. Turns out the partners are quite happy to be guided. Chris needs this approved? Done. Chris wants us to do this? Let’s go.

Now, the challenges. The obvious one is: it’s my first CEO role. But the management stuff, the leadership, communication, building meeting rhythms, coaching the team — that all sits in my wheelhouse. I’ve been doing versions of it for decades.

Where I’m going to be stretched is the financial side. Budgeting. Revenue modelling. Making calls about when to spend money to move faster. That’s the area where I know I need good people around me. Not having a strength somewhere is useful — it forces you to think about who you need rather than trying to learn everything yourself.

The last time I had a promotion in the traditional sense was 2006. Twenty years ago. Since then, every role I’ve had — every step up — I’ve basically created myself. Mid-twenties, I built two roles that didn’t exist before I got there. And honestly, that pattern has just continued.

I’m not a ladder climber. I’m more of a… role carver. I find the edge of what I’m doing, figure out what the next thing is that’s going to challenge me, and move towards it. Not because of a title or a salary band, but because stagnation scares me more than uncertainty does.

This is the next one. CEO. It’s probably a 10x decision for me personally — in terms of how much it’s going to force me to grow. Five years from now I want to look back and think: yeah, that changed me. Simply coaching more clients wouldn’t have done that.

Lots more to come as I figure this next transition out.

🗣️ 👀

Chris.