From manager to leader: what really changes in your first 100 days as CEO
- Hans Smellinckx
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Intro
Becoming CEO is often presented as a promotion.In reality, it’s a change of species.
If you’re moving from a director, country manager or business unit role into the CEO seat of a SME or scale-up in Belgium, the Netherlands or anywhere in Europe, your first instinct will be:
“I’ll just do what I did before – but a bit bigger.”
That instinct is understandable.I
t’s also dangerous.
In “100 Days to Make Your Mark as a CEO”, I see the same pattern again and again:the CEOs who struggle the most are the ones who stay stuck in manager mode for too long.
The core shift: from “in the business” to “on the business”
As a manager, you are rewarded for:
solving problems fast,
keeping your own team aligned,
delivering results in your domain.
As a CEO, you are responsible for:
choosing which problems to solve,
aligning the whole system (not just one department),
protecting the long-term health and direction of the company.
This means your first 100 days should not be filled with:
fixing every detail,
joining every meeting,
being the escalation point for everything.
Instead, they should be used to:
understand the business as a whole,
choose a clear strategic direction,
design how you want the company to be led.
Four concrete shifts in your first 100 days
1. From doing to deciding
Old reflex (manager):“I’ll jump in and help, I know how this works.”
New responsibility (CEO):“I’ll decide whether this deserves my attention at all – and who should own it.”
In a SME or scale-up, especially in Belgium or the Netherlands where teams are small, it’s tempting to keep “helping”. But if you keep doing, you are not deciding:
what the company says no to,
where to place your best people,
where to allocate scarce capital and time.
Your first 100 days are the moment to train yourself to stay out of certain problems.
2. From team to system
Previously, you might have led:
the sales team,
the operations team,
the marketing function.
Now you lead a system:
customers and markets,
employees and candidates,
suppliers and partners,
banks, investors, family or board.
Your conversations change:
from “our department target”
to “how all these pieces fit together”.
In practice, that means your first 100 days should include:
conversations with key customers,
listening sessions with different layers of the organisation,
honest talks with your board or owners about expectations.
3. From tasks to trade-offs
Managers optimise tasks:“How can we do X more efficiently?”
CEOs manage trade-offs:
Do we grow faster or protect margin?
Do we hire now or wait?
Do we focus on Belgium or expand to the Netherlands?
Do we keep this legacy product or phase it out?
Those trade-offs are where your first 100 days really matter.They set the tone for:
what gets attention,
what “good enough” means,
which promises you make to the market.
4. From personal performance to shared performance
As a manager, your KPI is often linked to your team’s results.
As a CEO, your performance is:
how well your management team functions,
whether the organisation delivers without your constant presence,
whether the company gets stronger, not more dependent on you.
Your first 100 days are the perfect time to:
assess your management team honestly,
clarify roles and decision rights,
start weaning the organisation off the habit of “asking the CEO everything”.
How to design your first 100 days as a leader (not just a manager)
In “100 Days to Make Your Mark as a CEO”, I propose a structure you can adapt to your SME or scale-up:
Days 1–30 – Listen and observe
meet customers, staff, partners, owners;
see how decisions are really made;
notice where you are pulled into manager work.
Days 31–60 – Decide your role and focus
define clearly what only you can do as CEO;
decide which topics you will own, delegate or stop;
start reshaping your agenda and your management team’s responsibilities.
Days 61–100 – Implement and communicate
adjust meeting structures and reporting;
make a few visible decisions that signal your new role;
communicate clearly what people can and cannot expect from you.
You don’t become a leader by changing your LinkedIn title.You become one by changing your behaviour and choices.
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