Your journey up the CEO ladder

What does a CEO role entail today, against a backdrop of uncertain markets and challenging economic times? Then, even if you’re sure of the specs on paper, how will your unique personality traits enable you to thrive in this, the working world’s most demanding of positions, asks Charles Edelstein of Executive Placements.

A chief executive officer, or CEO, is generally considered to be the top-ranking individual at a firm. While CEO is a globally acknowledged position, in some territories the role may be referred to as managing director, or even president. Once in this position, you will be at the beck and call of the board of directors of the specific company to which you have been hired, so joining a company where the board holds many friendly faces is likely to make your work that much easier, and more pleasant, to accomplish.

Getting there

Some say it pays to begin with an engineering degree and, after gaining some reputable on-the-ground experience, to study further for an MBA. Yes, both education and experience will stand in your stead here – but chance and circumstance can also play their role in your securing a CEO job.

Didn’t go to the top university in your immediate district? Don’t stress. The Malcolm Gladwell book Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2015), shares extensive research and examples of the David-and-Goliath variety, in which those individuals with similar reading, writing and mathematics scores to their peers – but who attended more lowly-ranked schools, universities, and technical colleges – went on to do quite a bit better in life.

Gladwell’s stance is that it allows those hailing from lower-ranked schools to remain poised, confident, and fulfilled, versus their peers at a high-ranking school where even the brain boxes and/or arch socialites may battle to make in-roads, or feel heard and appreciated.

Experts at the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL), however, admit that there is no unique, guaranteed, or clearly defined path to becoming the CEO of a big firm. Because this role is a completely different thing to any other leadership position you may have encountered over the course of your career, it can be extremely helpful to take on board the CCL’s four key areas of growth as you embark on this journey.

Four agreed keys for CEO readiness

• Experience: you will be poised to take responsibility for profit and loss; your experience outside of your home territory will be duly noted, and will be viewed as a bonus; and you will be able to function highly in more than one business area, with finance and operations ranking highly among fellow board members.
• Personality: you are a good fit for the position – your beliefs and values will gel with those of your board members; you will be likeable (friendly to sit next to on a long-haul flight); your intelligence and public-speaking skills will shine through; and your integrity and openness to new ideas will delight your company’s high-performing teams.
• Network: you will have influence outside of your immediate surroundings, and you will leverage these key individuals – across media, government and banking, as three pertinent examples – to solve problems and encourage value-bringing interactions.
• Relationship: you will maintain positive relationships both within, and outside of the firm where you are employed; inspire confidence among employees, fellow executives, and external stakeholders; and will generally handle all your personal relationships in an enviably sorted manner.

Breaking in…

While it can prove tough for insiders to infiltrate a big, stock exchange-listed firm, your experience at a global consulting firm such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture, PwC or KPMG in your youth (accolades to those who spot this on your CV), will put you ahead when it comes to aspirational career jumps.

Another nudge in the right direction could be that you’re heading up a listed firm’s most impactful operational team – and are making positive waves that are resounding in the marketplace.

Just avoid a situation where your focus appears to be too narrow to accomplish the demands of such a role, thereby limiting your networking clout and ability to keep in touch with other trusted individuals across the firm – and even within the marketplace at large.

Mind on the money

Another grand option is taking the financial route to CEO – although, it is generally considered a secondary alternative, as opposed to engineering and/or an MBA, for example. If you’re in the 32% minority walking this path, be mindful of the limitations of viewing an entire organisation from a figures perspective – as you would be inclined to do if you were previously a CFO.

Benefits of travelling this route to CEO? You can converse easily on financial matters, and are able to convince shareholders of your standpoint; plus, your extensive business experience will rest easy with most members of the board.

Critical personality traits

If you could weigh up your career track record versus individual characteristics, it’s clear that personality traits emerge strongly among successful CEOs. This is generally referred to as the “gift of the gab” – we all know that individual for whom nothing seems to slows them down, or get them down, and where their personal drive and ambition keeps shining through whatever the weather.

At this point, it’s worth asking yourself: do I communicate well, and effectively? Am I aware of my failings, and prepared to up my game through coaching, and/or mentoring, if it becomes clear this is essential to my future success?

Other questions to ask yourself include: can I switch from performer (at a conference), to listener (back in the head office)? Being in touch with the gossip that’s doing the rounds at the most junior level of the business is only going to be possible when you’re well liked, and juniors feel comfortable opening up to you about their fears and concerns.

Further, the role of CEO requires a social being, more than an academic. Can you – and do you – thrive on building connections; and maintaining them?

This takes time and care, and those who do so, go that much further on the job ladder than those without arch allies.

A shifting landscape

As all hell breaks loose around us – from wars and pandemics, to volatile financial markets and unfathomable inflation rates – so the CEO of an organisation is tasked with soothing all the ruffled feathers they may encounter each day, or meeting.

While entrepreneurs may be permitted to breeze into a meeting, cause an about turn in every attendee’s thinking, and leave in a rush for their next appointment, so the CEO must arrive, soothe, and stay the distance so that all environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns are addressed to the satisfaction of each present stakeholder.

There’s no skirting around an issue when it comes to being a CEO. But, on tackling the most difficult ones, this individual needs to be able to reassure, encourage, and praise – despite any personal misgivings he or she may harbour.

Last thoughts

So let’s just make it clear as you apply from the outside, or express internal interest in a CEO job, that there’s no optimal route to get there – and that women may arrive in their first CEO role 30% slower than men (this statistic should certainly not put you off!).

Can you take a calculated risk, think on your feet, speak convincingly in public, charm the investors, breeze through junior offices and make such staff members’ days with a few kind words? These traits, more than any elite schooling or family name, will ensure your ultimate success in the CEO role.