Be a CEO!

Management

If the answer to this interrogative and provocative, title of this piece is, a no then I am surprised. The reader must do an introspection to ask why not? Some individuals, not only shirk responsibility but are scared of assuming one; then there is that class at the far end of the spectrum, that just loves playing the second fiddle – between these two lie the majority, “the reluctant” potential, who is unsure. It is this category of people that this article is addressed to.

To those readers, whose answer was a “no”, I ask why are you wasting your time in the organisation you are a part of; seek new employment. Or is it, a case where, you wish to be a CEO In a different industry; if that be so, then as the bare minimum step, first, join that industry.

The reader could now be thinking or rather wondering as to why I have to be a CEO. No, you are absolutely right, there is no compulsion that you have to be one – you can continue to live happily with your own set of goals. That’s why the title is, “Do you want to be a CEO?". You may continue to read further, if the answer is in the affirmative, otherwise “do” something that will lead you to your destination of satisfaction.

In my numerous conversations with young professionals, both individually and in groups, I have been asked, how does one become a CEO? And consistently, I have always provoked these young Turks, on why they are an “unsure” lot in deciding whether they wish to become CEOs or not. I believe they seek tips to take the shortest route, which in any profession doesn’t exist. For me, any member, in any type of industry/organisation, who is not “interested” in pursuing to take the “numero uno” job, is wasting his/her life. A failed professional life it is when having spent two score (40) years of working, you are called by the human resource department to tell you, that you have reached the milestone of 60 years – hence stand, “superannuated". The career is over. The “busy” schedule of working 9 to 9 comes to an end. And now, twiddling your thumbs, you ask yourself what have you achieved and what’s next? The human resource or the organisation is not to blame here. The blame, only if filled with regret, is squarely upon the individual, who allows for his time, skills and abilities, to be abused, by “unconcerned superiors” who provide no career guidance to coworkers. It’s nothing but a late wakeup call for such individuals.

As lifetime students of management, we learn most about ‘leadership’ from the annals of the military and political world. It essentially follows that those leading countries/nations, are in a manner of sorts, the CEOs of their respective nations. The skills required for corporate leadership and all other types, inclusive of political leadership, are almost akin.

Napoleon Bonaparte, who died as a ‘loser' has his life as a great tuition to those wanting to take the cudgels of being a leader/CEO. Personally for me, he, besides Alexander the Great, is the most fascinating character in history. (I made a deliberate attempt to stay away from commenting on religious leadership here!).

Napoleon, in addition to skills, like Alexander too, believed in fate and destiny. Napoleon had a belief in superstition about one particular ‘star’ in the firmament, that he thought, guided him. Even Dante Alighieri, in his epic Divine Comedy, says, “….. if thou follow thy star, then Canst not fail of glorious heaven”. You build your own fortune or crack breaches into the wall of destiny, by your actions. Duke of Wellington, the victor at Waterloo remarked of Napoleon, “I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men”. That’s charisma. To be a CEO, you must be possessed of that charisma. And you also have to learn to make destiny not your excuse for failure.

The list of skills to be a CEO is endless. They should have tenacity to display a ‘skill’ that is required in any given situation. Have to be strategists and must possess vision. Should know how to deploy and enhance the use of human resource. The focus must be matched by grit and determination. A leader has to be a reservoir of knowledge, and of both, specific to the job and generally. And the most essential ingredient to becoming a CEO is that the individual should not be shy of hard work. Must be willing to go through fire and water, be determined in efforts, make a spoon or spoil a horn. Very early in the career, I had learnt what it meant to ‘put one’s hand to the plough’. Hard work, as I understand it, means simply doing the right things, at the right time until they are done. All that corporate jingo of “work smart” or to be a “street-smart” boss is nothing more than BS. You got it right!

Is honesty a trait required to be CEO? Absolutely, if there is no honesty of purpose, the needed motivation, would be continually absent. Honesty and hard work remain a lethal combination for success – add to it, the ‘smile of dame luck’, you have all it takes to be the CEO.

Abraham Lincoln, for many decades of his life, was a big time loser. He was prone to losing, all elections, despite his command and oratory skills.

But since he possessed all traits of heart and mind that make a great leader, he was possibly the best CEO of the USA, who delivered on his vision, mission and commitment to eradicate slavery and to restore the original thought of the founding fathers, that “ ...,all men are created equal, …”. Of the several books, I have read on Lincoln, the one I found that describes him best, is by Jonathan Gilford, who writes on him, “He was prepared and willing to compromise, but not on principle. He had great mental toughness and physical stamina and he worked hard. He was a good judge of people; he assembled good teams and helped to bring people of differing opinions together so that they would work towards common goal. When he found a colleague whom he could trust, he gave them considerable freedom of action. As US president, he had a clear and detailed vision of the way in which he wanted to develop the strategy and was able to pursue that vision single mindedly through the most difficult of unimaginable circumstances; a civil war!”. Now that passage tells you clearly, what you should possess to be an effective CEO.

The basics are principled behavior, mental and physical fitness, ability to see through people, team-builders, consensus creator, willing to delegate, clear on vision and resolute in adverse circumstances – these traits will make you a CEO. Do some introspection and work to fill the gaps: after putting, honesty and hard work in place, be an assured ‘sleep walker’ and “go the way providence dictates” (thought borrowed from Adolf Hitler, with my amendments to it).

Leo Amery, writing about Herbert Asquith said, “For twenty years, he has held a season ticket on the line of least resistance and has gone wherever the train of events has carried him, lucidly freestyling his position at whatever point he has happened to find himself”.

That’s also, one way of leading the corporate life; do nothing, wait for events to happen, if lucky, you will make it to CEO’s office, with or without talent, skills or knowledge. The only thing bad about this choice is that it is boring and risky! Diligence is the mother of good luck. With unconditional subscription to perseverance, try to be first among equals. Stand out. The willing is led by destiny and dragged along are the reluctant. Luck, only favours the brave and you better get lucky through hard work.

The limitation you set up in your mind, you call them fate and destiny. It is not so, fully. The CEO’s position is limited by supply constraints. Only one person in an organisation and hence only one can move into the slot. In a group of aspirants everyone may qualify individually to make it, but in the end, only one makes it to the top. Now what’s that? Equal competence and skills, how does then one person emerge? My answer to that is not based on rationality or logic – it is pure luck and destiny. “Here stand I. I can do no other. God helps me,” said Martin Luther King, senior. Be in the “laps of destiny ". A CEO in the making knows little strokes fell great oaks. Persistence and perseverance are essential qualities for success.

“The moving finger writes and have written, moves on; nor all your piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it” (Rubbiyat of Omar Khayyham). Luck is not a chance, it is toil. God does not play dice. The worthy gets the crown and knows ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’. Finally, aspiring CEOs must remember God gives the milk not the pails.

The writer is a freelance columnist