How to Get Hired as a CEO

What does it take to be a CEO? What traits make a person successful in that role? How do you become a CEO if you meet those criteria?

Graham Weaver, who is founder and managing partner of the private equity firm Alpine Investors, has thought a lot about these questions and many others as part of his work. He runs a training program through his firm for people — often recent business school graduates — who want to be CEOs.

Weaver, who also teaches strategic management at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business , joins LinkedIn News Editor Andrew Seaman on the latest episode of the Get Hired podcast to share what he's learned through his work. He discusses the traits of successful CEOs, how to get hired as a chief executive, and why he started a training program at his firm.

You can listen to the episode above or on Apple Podcast by clicking here. A transcript of the conversation is also available below.

TRANSCRIPT: How to Get Hired as a CEO

Andrew Seaman: People are raised to climb the corporate ladder as high as they can. In most cases, it means becoming an organization's CEO. The problem with that is that not everyone is cut out to be a CEO. But if you think you are, we're talking about how to get there, and how to get hired as one, on this episode.

From LinkedIn News, this is Get Hired; a podcast for the ups and downs and the ever-changing landscape of our professional lives. I'm Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn senior managing editor for Jobs and Career Development, bringing you conversations with experts who, like me, want to see you succeed at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

A lot of people want to be a CEO. Too many, probably. We can't all be CEOs. I mean, there's only one at each organization. So how do you even know if you're cut out for it, and how do you get hired as one? Well, Graham Weaver has spent a lot of time thinking about this.

He is the founder and managing partner of Alpine Investors, which is a private equity firm. He also teaches strategic management at Stanford's Graduate School of business. Graham also runs a CEO and training program through Alpine that places people at the head of companies in its portfolios.

So, what do you need to know about being a CEO? Here's Graham.

Graham Weaver: To your CEO point, we're hiring CEOs first. And then together with those CEOs, we're going out and targeting businesses to buy that we think we can improve. And then we're building those companies over a period of time, and then ultimately we're selling them.

Andrew: Yeah. What are you looking for when you're picking a CEO?

Graham: So let's say we're going to go buy a software company that runs software for healthcare businesses. 99% of people, what they're going to do is, they're going to go hire a recruiter. We're completely different. We hire people, in many cases, right out of business school.

So we don't care if you've run a software company. In fact, the vast majority of our people we're hiring out of those programs haven't run anything. Some of them have never even worked. Some of them have been in the military, professional athletes, or a ballet dancer. I mean, obviously we have consultants, investment bankers, everything. But we're not requiring that experience.

So we're focused primarily on who someone is way more than what they've done. So then the specific attributes we're looking for, because those are important. And also, we've gotten very good at assessing those, which is hard. Because they're qualitative.

Number one is a will to win. So this is just someone who, throughout the course of their life, have exhibited that they're going to throw the company on their shoulder, they're going to run it through a burning building. They are just going to land on their feet and win, or die trying.

And that's something that you can't teach. Other attributes we're looking for, can they build a team? Do people want to follow them? Because ultimately, that's the most important job, is building their management team and inspiring people to join them.

Can they sell? Because they're going to have to sell customers, they're going to have to sell those employees. Ultimately, they're going to have to sell the company. In some cases they have to sell themselves on continuing on.

And then there's some other things which we can teach, like ability to really create tight priorities, or ability to really focus. And those are things that we can coach and teach a little bit better.

Andrew: And that's really fantastic, especially in the grand scheme of things. We've talked a lot on this podcast and elsewhere on LinkedIn about skills-based hiring, and it really aligns with that approach. Where you're saying, regardless of what your background is, do you have the toolkit that we need to get us to where we need to go?

And can you tell us a little bit about the program that Alpine runs? Because it sounds really interesting. And can you tell us also why you decided to implement it?

Graham: So, our very first fund didn't do very well at all, and we made every mistake you could imagine. But one of the biggest ones is we didn't back great management teams in a lot of cases. Things got so bad in some cases that we took people from Alpine and put them in as the CEO. Not because we thought this was a genius idea, but because we had no other options at that point.

Fast-forward a couple years. And we're trying to figure out our strategy, and we're looking at what our best deals were. And our three best deals were the deals where we put our own Alpine person in there, out of pure necessity. And that person just started doing the right things, and hiring and building the team, and building the companies and making great decisions. So it happened purely accidental.

So we said, well, let's see. We're making our most money and it's the most fun. Let's just do that. And there's a thousand people who told us why that's the dumbest idea, and why it would never work, and here's 30 examples of people who've tried that and failed.

So then, combine that with, I started teaching at Stanford around that same time. And I would meet with students and the number one thing they'd ask me is, "Hey, I want to go be a CEO. How do I do that? Where do I get the training?"

And I never had a good answer. I said, "I don't know how to do that."

So I hired this one student one year and said, "Why don't we just teach you to be a CEO?" And then I couldn't get any of our companies to hire them. Because he was going to come in as the number two or number three person initially, and no one would hire him.

Because they said, "Let me get this straight, Graham. You're pitching me this super expensive person with no experience, who kind of is entitled?" So I couldn't get anyone to hire him, so he left.

And the next year I had this woman, and we tried again. And this time I said to the CEO, "Why don't you hire her? If she doesn't work out after a year, I will reimburse you." And she knocked it out of the park.

And the next year, the CEO said, "Okay, I want three more of those people." And then the program kind of took off from that. And now, because we're doing a lot of smaller deals and add-on acquisitions, now we're putting those people mostly directly in CEO roles right out of the school.

Andrew: When I first heard about your program, what I started thinking of is that there are a lot of CEOs out there who work their way up. But then, there are CEOs that I meet and I'll sort of look at them and say, you were sort of born to be a CEO. This is the job you were meant for, and you could probably be picked up and put in any company and you could run it.

And so these people, do you think they go into business school, or they go into your program saying, "I want to be a CEO?"

Graham: Yeah, definitely. And it's a little self-selecting from the class that I teach, but most of the people that I meet with, that's what they want. They want to be the CEO. They want to be a leader. And some of them are a little embarrassed to say that out loud, or they're worried or they're not sure how they're going to do it. But if you really ask them, and they weren't afraid of how it was going to sound, that's what they'd say. I want to be the leader, I want to be running it.

Andrew: A lot of people see the CEO role as the top dog, they're probably getting one of the highest salaries. But not everyone can be a CEO, right? It takes a certain person to do that. And it's also okay if you realize that's not for you, right?

Graham: I think people don't have any idea how hard it is. When we're interviewing folks, I left this off my list about attributes we're looking for, but grit/persistence is so important. Because when you become the CEO, you start to realize it's super lonely.

One of your top employees leaves, or a customer leaves, or you get a lawsuit or something like that. It's hard to not take that super personally. It's a hard job. And the other thing I can guarantee is you will get kicked in the face, in a way that you haven't failed previously. So it is a much harder job, I think, than people realize.

Andrew: For people out there listening who say, I want to be a CEO one day. Regardless of the company, what attributes do you think they need to see in themselves to say, okay, I can do this.

Graham: I'll try to share some things that may be not as obvious. Maybe the most important one is your timeframe.

So, you're not going to be good at this right away. It's going to take you a while, and you're going to have things go wrong, and next time you're going to not make that same mistake hopefully. And you might make a different mistake. It takes time to get really good at it.

So my number one thing would be, are you willing to actually not be good at this right away, and have it take a while? And I think a lot of people aren't. A lot of people, I would say, are better off taking a job when you come out of business school, consulting or something. So that'd be number one.

Second is, it is a hundred percent a people business. There's this glorified thing where people think being a CEO means that you're staring out the window, thinking of big thoughts about strategy. That is a very small fraction of the job.

The main job is, can you get the right people on your team, get them excited, keep them excited, build the culture where people want to stay? Coach your best people, unfortunately have to get rid of people that aren't performing. So as a CEO, if you want to solve the problem of people, then that's, I think, a great job to have.

Andrew: We'll be right back with Graham Weaver.

Andrew: And we're back, talking about how to get hired as a CEO with Alpine Investors' Graham Weaver.

For people who say, okay, I think I have these attributes, but how do I actually get there, how do I put myself in the running for these positions? What is your thoughts on getting there?

Graham: See this all the time in my class. And people say, If I knew I wouldn't fail, I would want to be a leader of a business. But right now I'm going to go in, invest in banking. Or right now I'm going to go do consulting because I've got to pay off my loans or whatever.

The problem is, that does nothing to move you toward your goal of becoming a leader. In fact, it moves you away. Because you start to create new priorities, new goals that have nothing to do with being a CEO.

So the first thing would be, put yourself in a position that, you're acquiring the skills. I think the fastest way to do that is, first of all, take an operating position. Not an analytical position, but something where you're actually on the ground, moving an organization towards something. You're hiring, you're firing, you are dealing with people, the problem's number one. So be in a role that is similar to what you're trying to learn.

And second, try to work for the best, smartest people you possibly can. Because for example, it took me 30 years into my career. I've learned a lot about being a CEO, I could teach you a lot in two years or three years. You could shortcut a lot of my 30 years from learning from me. So that would be number two, is put yourself with someone who has that experience that you want, and is willing to teach it to you.

So those sound like great things. And then the trade-off for that is, were you giving up? Number one, you're not solving for your resume. So that position I just said doesn't exist probably at Apple or Goldman Sachs. You might have to sacrifice on the resume and work at a smaller business or something.

And number two, you might have to sacrifice comp. Because think about the comp thing for a second. You will get paid the highest amount of money for the thing you're already good at, right? I mean, of course. Who wants to pay you to suck at something?

But I'm actually telling you to go suck at something, and therefore you're not going to get paid that much. So you really want to be a CEO? In the short term, you're probably going to have to give up those things.

Andrew: I think that's really good advice. And especially treating it as sort of another career path. And I've seen people do just as you said incredibly effectively, where they've moved into an operating position. And it's almost like they get into a new lane and say, okay, this is what's going to get me there.

And then what about an MBA? Do you think that helps in the process? What's your thoughts on that?

Graham: I teach at a business school, so I think there's value or I wouldn't be doing it. A hundred percent not necessary. As you know, there's so many examples of people who our CEOs, never got an MBA.

I think what can be helpful about the MBA is when you're changing directions. MBA is really good for a number of reasons. One is, you can take some space, and just get some time to think. Be around a whole bunch of other people who've had all kinds of different careers and different jobs. A lot of people come to recruit, so you get this access to this large aperture of job possibilities you might not have thought of.

You do learn things that you might not know. Investment banking, and then you're going to learn finance and marketing, operations, and a whole bunch of other things like that. So I think from that perspective, it can be a really good reset launching pad. You don't need an MBA to be a CEO.

But I think for your listeners, it can be a really good path if you're in a career and you're just feeling stuck.

Andrew: That's really good advice. And for people out there who, obviously they say, okay, this is the path that I want to go on. How will people know when they're ready to say, okay, I want to throw my hat in the ring for these types of roles?

Graham: They're probably never going to feel ready. And I think that's important. Because if you said, "Well, I'm going to move when I feel ready," you might never move. And so just knowing that, I think for almost any entrepreneur you talk to, it felt scary. That's a pretty common feeling. If you're feeling that, that's probably normal.

I think that it goes back to what I was saying before about timeframe. So, here would be my framework I would use, is to say, in five years, in 10 years, what's nirvana for me? What's my ideal role? What's my ideal career, job, talent, skills? What do I want to be great at? And then just start working toward that.

And then the decisions are super clear. I want to be a leader of a company five years from now. What is the best thing to do today, right now, to move me toward that? Where people get stuck is, they just are solving for one year. And one year, you're always going to favor status quo, and you're probably going to be a lot more rewarded to be an individual contributor.

So the biggest thing I would tell people who are wondering if it's time is just, hey, really take the time to do the exercise of where you want to be in five or 10 years, and now your decision is probably pretty clear. I'll get really tactical.

Make a list of 30 things you could do to move toward that goal, and then start scheduling those on your calendar. Because your calendar's ultimately where you spend your time, so it's your secret weapon.

So you start actually putting blocks on your calendar to do those things you came up with. And every day, write down what are the three things I could do to move toward that goal? And then work on those. But the combination of being intentional about your five, 10-year goals, combined with matching that to your calendar, that's really the formula for moving forward on a big goal.

Andrew: Yeah, I think that's really good. But especially the idea of, if you have goals for a week, how are they laddering up into that big goal?

Is there anything else that maybe I didn't ask about that you feel is important for people to know?

Graham: I'm 51 now, and I've been working for 29 years. So, most of my life. And even prior to that, had a lot of experience too. So with a little bit of perspective what I'd say is, ask yourself the question, what would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail? And continue to ask that question often, and be really honest with yourself on the answer.

And the answers could change. And the answers, you might be kind of unclear at times. Like, I kind of know I want to lead something, I know I want to be my own boss, I know I want to be a CEO. And that can be enough. It doesn't have to be super crisp.

But keep really being intellectually honest. What would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail? And that's what you should go do, in most cases. Because you're going to show up differently, you're going to have more energy. You are going to persist for longer in that thing than you would something else. And you're just going to get rid of a lot of friction of wondering if you're in the right thing or not.

And part of you is going to assume the identity of someone who's already achieved that goal. So there's this magical power that happens when you start moving yourself toward that. That's the good news. The bad news is, it takes a while. Because it's probably hard.

So it's not something that's going to happen in one year or six months. It's probably going to take a while. So that would be my sort of overriding formula.

Andrew: Yeah, I think that's a great note to end on. Thanks so much, Graham.

Graham: Thanks for having me, Andrew. Really enjoyed it.

Andrew: That was Alpine Investors' Graham Weaver. You can find out more about him in the show notes.

Remember, it's up to you to put our advice into practice. Still, you always have a community backing you up and cheering you on. Connect with me and the GetHired community on LinkedIn to continue this conversation. Also, if you like this episode, leave us a rating on Apple Podcast. It helps people like you find the show.

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Get Hired is a production of LinkedIn News. This episode was produced by Alexis Ramdaou. Asaf Gidron engineered our show, Joe DiGiorgi mixed our show. Dave Pond is head of news production. Enrique Montalvo is our executive producer. Courtney Coup is the head of original programming for LinkedIn. Dan Roth is the editor in chief of LinkedIn. And I'm Andrew Seaman. Until next time, stay well and best of luck

Until next time, stay well, and best of luck.