3 of the fastest ways to becoming a CEO

Are you a Mid-career or a senior leader aspiring to be a CEO? then this article is for you. Congratulations on reaching where you are in your journey. You are now poised to take that leap into senior management but as you may know, a corporate career is like a pyramid and it keeps getting narrower as you move up. Everyone at your level has an education, works hard and is aspiring to get to the next level. So what is going to separate you from the rest?

You need a “Sherpa” to guide you in your ascent to reach the pinnacle of your career. Someone who has climbed the corporate ladder himself and been a CXO himself. Someone who can change your mindset, help you with your blind spots and get you there quicker, so you avoid making mistakes. As a former CXO, a professionally certified (ICF-PCC)?and John Mattone (coach to Steve jobs) certified executive coach, I have helped thousands across the world and can help you too.

If you are a Mid-career or a senior leader who is interested in becoming a CXO, then click here know about my CXO 90 day challenge. www.cxohive.com/midcareer/

?So what are the 3 fastest ways to become a CEO?

?Perhaps you think that attending elite MBA programs, joining prestigious firms, and climbing the ladder straight to the top, whilst carefully avoiding risky moves is the best way! However a 10-year study,?called the?"CEO Genome Project", in which?a data set of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments were ?studied revealed quite the opposite. A closer look at “CEO sprinters”?— those who reached the CEO role faster than the average of 24 years from their first job revealed the following

CEO 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 that catapult them to the top. 3 types of career catapults were most common among the sprinters.?97 % of them undertook at least one of these catapult experiences and close to 50% had at least two. (In contrast, only 24% had elite MBAs.) Through these career catapults, executives build the specific behaviours that?set successful CEOs apart?— including decisiveness, reliability, adaptability, and the ability to engage for impact?— they get noticed for their accomplishments.

The catapults are so powerful that even those who never aspired to become CEO ultimately landed the position by pursuing one or more of these strategies.

1. 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 sprinters took a smaller role at some point in their career. They may have started something new within their company (by launching a new product or division, for example), moved to a smaller company to take on a greater set of responsibilities, or started their own business. In each case, they used the opportunity to build something from the ground up and make an outsize impact.

2. Make a Big Leap

33% of sprinters catapulted to the top by making “the big leap,” often in the first decade of their careers. These executives threw caution to the wind and said yes to opportunities even when the role was well beyond anything they had done previously and they didn’t feel fully prepared for the challenges ahead.

If you don’t expect this kind of opportunity to fall into your lap, you are not alone. However, what we heard from these sprinters is an attitude of “You make your own luck.” Seek out cross-functional projects that touch numerous aspects of the business. Get involved in a merger integration. Ask your boss for additional responsibilities. Tackle tough, complex problems. Above all, make a habit of saying “yes” to greater opportunities — ready or not.

3. Inherit a Big Mess

It may feel counterintuitive, and a bit daunting, but one way to prove your CEO mettle is by inheriting a big mess. It could be an under performing business unit, a failed product, or a bankruptcy?— any major problem for the business that needs to be fixed fast. More than 30% of our sprinters led their teams through a big mess.

Messy situations cry out for strong leadership. When faced with a crisis, emerging leaders have an opportunity to showcase their ability to assess a situation calmly, make decisions under pressure, take calculated risks, rally others around them, and persevere in the face of adversity. In other words, it’s great preparation for the CEO job.

While there is no single path to the CEO seat, these career catapults can be replicated by anyone who aspires to a leadership position, and could be especially powerful for those who may find it harder to get to the top.

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.

If you are a Mid -career manager or a senior leader who is interested in becoming a CXO, then click here know about my CXO 90 day challenge. www.cxohive.com/midcareer/