How your perspective on life and work colours your decisions as a CEO
- Hans Smellinckx
- Dec 8
- 3 min read
Introduction
Being a CEO is not a 9-to-5 job.It’s a role that deeply affects how you live, think, and dec
ide. Yet in boardrooms and strategic sessions, people rarely talk about the CEO’s view on life. While that is exactly the source of many strategic choices, conflicts, and growing pains.
In the book “100 Days to Make Your Mark as a CEO” I very deliberately start with the human being behind the title. Because your company can never be structurally healthier than the person leading it.
Why your view on life is strategic
For many CEOs, it feels odd to talk about “life vs. work” in a business context. That belongs in coaching or therapy, right?
And yet, you see the impact of your life perspective everywhere:
In how hard you push for growth.
In how much risk you accept.
In how you deal with failure.
In how present you are – at home and in the office.
If deep down you believe that you are only “valuable” when you are always performing and always available, then chances are that you:
have an overloaded calendar,
struggle to let go,
and are building a company that depends on your personal energy.
That’s not strategy. That’s survival.
Typical tensions for CEOs of SMEs and scale-ups
In working with CEOs in Belgium and the Netherlands, I often see the same tensions come back:
Impact vs. peace of mindYou want to build a company that truly matters, but you also long for more mental space.
Control vs. trustYou want to be sure things are done well, but you know micromanagement blocks growth.
Short term vs. long termYou need results today, but you know some decisions will only pay off in 2–3 years.
Business vs. private lifeYou want a stable home base, but your calendar and energy are unpredictable.
These tensions don’t disappear with yet another strategy workshop or extra KPIs.They only become manageable when you are clear on this: what kind of life do I actually want to live – and what kind of company fits with that?
Three key questions for your 100-day plan
Before you, as CEO, start working on a 100-day plan, I invite you to first answer these three questions. Not as a theoretical exercise, but as an honest conversation with yourself:
1. What does a “good life” look like for me?
Describe it concretely:
How many days do I want to work?
How do I want to spend time with family/friends?
What kind of energy do I want to feel?
What impact do I want to have?
2. What kind of CEO role fits with that?
Maybe you are, by nature, more of a:
strategist,
coach,
builder,
or dealmaker.
If your current role is completely at odds with your natural strength and the life you want, that’s a red flag.
3. What does this mean for my decisions in the next 100 days?
For example:
A different division of roles within the management team.
Redesigning your agenda (less operations, more strategy).
A conscious choice about which customers, markets, or projects you will drop.
Your 100-day plan should be built on these answers. Otherwise, you’re building a plan for someone you no longer are.
From life vision to concrete decisions
The risk here is to get stuck in “nice insights”.That’s why it’s crucial to link your vision on life to three very concrete decisions:
What will I stop?Tasks, projects, roles that no longer fit with who I want to be.
What will I fully commit to?Themes, customers, markets, products you can truly stand behind.
With whom do I want to do this?The people you want to build the next phase with – internally and externally.
These three categories show up in every 100-day plan we design with CEOs at Markies.
How this comes back in “100 Days to Make Your Mark as a CEO”
The book is not a purely strategic manual.It’s a practical guide in which:
you first look at yourself,
then at your environment,
and only then at structures, processes, and plans.
Your perspective on life and work is not a side note.It’s the starting point for sustainable strategy, healthy growth, and leadership you can actually sustain.
Buy the book here: https://www.lannoo.be/nl/100-days-make-your-mark-ceo
Want to talk about this as a CEO?
Many CEOs carry this alone. No time, no space, no safe place to say it out loud.
At Markies, we create that space in soundboarding calls and strategic trajectories:with respect for the numbers, but also with respect for the human being behind the title.
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