For a new CEO, the first 18 months can feel like juggling fire: financial pressures, team culture, Board politics, and the weight of defining a vision.

Here are three lessons any emerging CEO can learn from experience:

1. Financial Clarity Unlocks Opportunity

A new CEO was doing all the right things but profit was stagnant. When the company finally dug into the numbers, they realized their retail operations were profitable, but their wholesale business was losing money due to mis-pricing. Without that analysis, they might have kept running in circles. With it, they suddenly saw a path to five or six times their previous profit.

CEOs don’t need to be financial experts, but they do need to own the P&L. Knowing where the money flows, and where it leaks, turns vague stress into solvable problems.

2. Vision Needs to Be Communicated, Not Perfected

A CEO began writing to employees about the company’s direction. The response was overwhelmingly positive, staff asked questions, leaned in, and felt inspired. Contrast that with a broken Board dynamic, where “vision” became an ever-moving target and a source of frustration. A vision doesn’t have to be a polished slogan. What matters is sharing it, testing it, and letting people connect with it. Employees don’t need perfection; they need direction.

3. Don’t Let Dysfunction Steal Your Time

Board dynamics were draining 30% of the CEO’s time. What should have been a hopeful moment, setting vision for growth, was being sabotaged by mistrust and negativity. Leaders can’t always control difficult personalities, but they must notice when bad dynamics are consuming too much energy. Every hour spent managing dysfunction is an hour not spent leading the business.