How to become a CEO (The fastest way)
Some people’s careers take off, while others’ take longer — or even stall out.
Common wisdom says that the former attend elite MBA programs, land high-powered jobs right out of school at prestigious firms, and climb the ladder straight to the top, carefully avoiding risky moves. But a 10-year study from CEO Genome Project — shows a completely different picture.
One of the striking finding : Sprinters don’t accelerate to the top by acquiring the perfect pedigree. They do it by making bold career moves over the course of their career. We found four types of career moves that are so powerful that even people in our study who never aspired to become CEO ultimately landed the position by pursuing one or more of these strategies.
Make a Big Leap
More than 30% of the CEO surveyed said they making “the big leap” often in the first decade of their careers. They said yes to opportunities even when the role was well beyond anything they’ve experience with and didn’t fully prepared for the challenges ahead.
You make own luck — if you don’t expect this kind of opportunity to fall into your lap, you are not alone. Seek out cross functional projects that touch numerous aspects of the business. Ask your boss for additional responsibilities. Solving tough, complex problems. Above all, make a habit of saying “yes” to greater opportunities — ready or not.
Do Something that Scares You
Not everyone’s a risk taker, especially when it comes to work, but moving forward in your career often involves taking risks, both big and small. That’s what all of this advice ultimately comes down to — making sure that you’re regularly doing things that make your heart beat just a little bit faster. Maybe for you that’s asking for more, asking a stranger for coffee, or getting a certification to verify how awesome you are.
Acknowledging where you’d like to grow professionally — and taking steps to get there — takes bravery, and it’s likely something that you’ll work on over the course of your career. But small, incremental improvements starting now will help you grow into the professional you want to be.
Inherit a Big Mess
One way to prove your worth is by inheriting a big mess — it may feel daunting but more than 30% of our CEO sprinters led their teams through a big mess.
Messy situations is a perfect stage to showcase your strong leadership. When faced with a crisis, emerging leaders have an opportunity to showcase their ability to make decisions under pressure, gaining commitment over their team, persevere and grit in the face of adversity, assess a situation calmly, and take calculated risks — it’s great preparation for the CEO job.
Go Small to Go Big
The path to CEO rarely runs in a straight line, sometimes you have to move backward or sideways in order to get ahead. More than 60% of the sprinters took a smaller role at some point in their career. In each case, they used the opportunity to build something from the ground up and make an outsize impact.
In his late twenties, “David” was hired in a strategy and business development role inside a multibillion-dollar marketing and communication business. Early in his career, he was offered the chance to build out one of the new businesses. “It was zero revenue when I stepped in, and we built that business to $250 million.” he says. By building a new business, he picked up essential management skills, such as running a P&L, managing a budget, and setting a strategic vision — all critical skills to becoming a CEO. Thirteen years later, he found himself the CEO of a $ 1.5 billion business.
While there is no single path to the CEO seat, we know for sure that accelerating your career through these catapults doesn’t require an elite MBA or a select mix of inborn traits, but it does require a willingness to make lateral, unconventional, and even risky career moves. It’s not for the faint of heart. But if you aspire to top leadership, you might as well get used to it.
