The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the highest rank in any organization and leads all functions of an organization, including human resources, production, operations, marketing, and finance, and coordinates all stakeholders, including employees, customers, shareholders, financial institutions, and reports to the board of directors of a company. It is a highly challenging role that invites both bouquets and brickbats. When everything goes well, it is the stakeholders who take the fame, and when something goes wrong, it is the CEOs who take the blame. But it is worth taking up this position to see the highs and lows in professional life and, above all, to make a difference in organizations.
Every executive aspires to become CEO. The road to this tipping point is not easy. Proper planning in the early stages of a career and the right guidance and passion can help anyone reach this highest position. Management graduates asked me whether B-schools prepare students as leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs.
What business schools don’t teach
There are many things business schools cannot teach, including leadership and entrepreneurial skills, because of several constraints. Business schools prepare students with lots of theoretical concepts and case studies that help them grow as entrepreneurs, leaders, and CEOs partially, not entirely. B-schools serve as basic launching pads to build successful careers. The educators in B-schools share their own corporate and academic experiences with students, giving them the adequate strength to take on corporate challenges effectively. If working executives also pursue management education in B-schools, they can share their corporate experiences in the classroom, thus adding value to conventional classroom learning. There will be lots of brainstorming and exchange of knowledge. Additionally, faculty members facilitate the sessions by adding their experience and expertise on the subject. Hence, B-schools share their knowledge at the maximum level to groom students as leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs.
You cannot become a crankshot unless you lose some ammunition. Hence, real learning starts in the corporate world with lots of observation, experience, mistakes, and learning from failures.
B-schools serve as launching pads for students to enter the corporate world. Students must prove themselves by working hard and smartly applying what they have learned in B-schools. Hence, B-school education helps minimize mistakes and maximize performance and productivity in the workplace.
There is another school of thought that some leaders became successful leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs without a B-school education. Of course, there are leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Marc Zuckerberg who are successful without having formal degrees. Hence, it is obvious that passion is more important than education to grow as successful leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs.
Tips to fast-track your career and grow as a CEO
Here are some tips to touch your tipping point in the corporate world:
- Develop a CEO mindset. It is rightly said that a battle is won twice – first in your mind and then in reality. You must think like a CEO first to become a CEO. Find out what is required to become a CEO and start acquiring the knowledge, skills, and abilities to excel as a CEO.
- Acquire a positive, right, and strong attitude. It is your attitude that determines your altitude. Hence, you must build your attitude. At times, attitude is preferred over experience. For instance, a person with a great attitude with nil experience is preferred over a person with great experience but with a nil attitude. That is the power of attitude! You must possess a positive, right, and strong attitude. A positive attitude is about looking at things from a positive perspective. The right attitude is about emphasizing the right means to achieve your outcomes. A strong attitude is about sticking to your principles through thick and thin to accomplish your goals despite the odds being stacked against you.
- Acquire technical, business, and conceptual acumen. Be strong in your domain. Improve business acumen to address business challenges. Possess conceptual acumen to see the invisible forces and factors, especially in the external business environment.
- Emphasize emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) more than intelligence quotient (IQ). And the good news is that you can acquire EQ by working in teams and understanding group dynamics.
- Emphasize more soft skills than hard skills because soft skills matter a lot once you reach senior-level management.
- Don’t job-hop often, as it presents you in a poor light professionally. Work in the same company for as long as possible. It helps organizations train and groom you to keep you ready for the leadership pipeline. Research shows that those who became CEOs have worked in their companies for many years.
- Enter into line functions rather than staff functions. Line functions are the core functions, while the staff functions are the supporting functions. Those who enter line positions have better career opportunities than those entering staff positions.
- Involvement in job rotation. Job rotation is about doing various tasks outside your routine nature of work. It has multiple advantages. It eliminates boredom and keeps you active. You get to know what is happening in other areas. It helps you develop conceptual skills. Above all, it helps you stay motivated. Hence, undertake various roles and responsibilities beyond your specified nature of work within the organization to know something of everything and everything of something.
- Brand yourself. Nowadays, branding is imperative. It is an effective tool to build your career and project your personality to others. You must be careful before branding. Choose carefully how you would like to brand yourself, as your brand will enhance your professional image and longevity. It would be best if you branded based on your principles, philosophies, competencies, and capabilities. Update with the latest technology. Technology is changing rapidly. You must update yourself with rapidly changing technology to leverage several benefits and save your time, money, and energy. Additionally, most of the young CEOs are from the technology domain. If you are good at technology and start doing research, you will get more ideas, thus founding a company and becoming a CEO at a young age.
- Learn, unlearn, and relearn. Update yourself regularly with the latest tools and techniques to reach your next higher position. What helped you reach your present successful position might not work to reach your next higher position.
Final thoughts
You must plan well in an early career stage with a long-term goal and work hard and smart to touch this tipping point. You must be a continuous learner, accept challenging roles and responsibilities, be willing to explore and experiment, learn lessons from mistakes, unlearn and relearn quickly with the changing times and technology, and above all, have the heart to serve the people. To conclude, becoming a CEO is not a decoration but a big responsibility. It requires consistent and persistent efforts with a vision and passion to serve the people to reach this highest rank.
