How to Become CEO, The Rules of Rising to the Top of Any Organization

How to Become CEO – The Rules of Rising to the Top of Any Organization
By Jeffery J. Fox
book review by vmsteveo

This book might be common knowledge for some but I have to say I laughed at myself while reading some of the chapters as I firmly believed in implementing some of the “don’ts” as “do’s” into my own recipe for success as I climbed my own ladder and wondered why I wasn’t getting anywhere.

How to Become CEO – The Rules of Rising to The Top of Any Organization is segmented into seventy-five one to two page chapters that are easy to absorb and implement even for those people who don’t have the time to read a book from beginning to end. These short chapters, or “commandments” as the author describes them, can be applied on and off the corporate playing field. I took the liberty of organizing the chapters of this book into three sub-categories marked as “Corporate”, “Job”, and “Personal” perspectives. I selected twelve (of seventy-five) chapters for this review that provoke thought and ideas you can weave into your own plan as you ascend to the top of your profession.

Corporate Perspective

Chapter 28 - Be Visible, Practice WACADAD
This chapter discusses the old adage “Words are cheap and deeds are dear”. The author challenges you to ask your company “What are the big issues that need to be solved?” and go solve them. Striving to help out with the heavy lifting gives you a chance to promote your personal brand to different divisions of the organization.

Chapter 31 - Never Surprise Your Boss
Whether with good news or bad, never surprise your boss. They have enough to be surprised about within the responsibilities that they have to manage on a daily basis. The good boss is not that interested in your surprise party but more interested with your progress on the tasks you were asked to complete. Never surprising your boss perceives you as predictable, trustworthy and therefore a candidate for promotion.

Chapter 32 - Make Your Boss Look Good and Your Bosses Boss Look Even Better
The fastest way to promotion is the ripple effects of making everyone look good two to three layers up the food chain. Also identify any pitfalls to your boss that he might unknowingly fall into as this will hurt your ability to move up the ladder. Always over communicate and inform.

Chapter 56 - Stay Out of Office Politics
I always hated office politics, but I also confused OP with the work required to promote my own brand to upper management. The first one needs to be avoided at all costs and the second one implemented at all costs. When it comes to office politics, the author urges you to be the last to know and spend your time creating and accomplishing instead.

Job Perspective

Chapter 27 - Don’t Hide an Elephant
As soon as a problem arises, identify it and inform your superiors. “The “hiders” always get burned, regardless of complicity. The discoverers are always safe, regardless of complicity.” Obvious but often overlooked.

Chapter 4 - Get And Keep Customers
This is one of the toughest (and visible) jobs for any organization to accomplish. The author explains that it is imperative that you find and keep current and future customers as they provide the ideas for new products and applications as well as a line of site into your competitors.

Chapter 62 - Become a Member of the Shouldn’t Have Club
I read this title to several people that responded with the same word, “What?” In this chapter the author urges us to take chances, there are no super stars in the non-doers club (I should have done that or I could have done that). It’s a boring place to be. Instead, take some risks, be a doer and get a little scraped up. Be the one that says “Gee, I shouldn’t have done that”, as there will be ten other times when the results prove that your decisions were correct.

Chapter 74 - To Teach Is To Learn and Lead
Take every chance available to present to a new hire or group to educate them on what you do. “Good preparation and practice will produce a good presentation. A good presentation will earn you a company-wide reputation as an expert in your job.”

Self Perspective

Chapter 35 – Add One Big Thing to Your Life Each Year
To be at the top of any organization you need to broaden your life experiences. Train for a marathon, learn to rock climb, master French cuisine, anything. Make a list and keep to it!

Chapter 5 – Keep Physically Fit
This is another obvious one but hard to keep. Discipline plays a huge role with exercise and eating right (eat to live not live to eat). Remember that if you can stick with exercising and eating right for 21 days, it will become a habit. It gives you energy to plow thorough a tough work week, to coach your child’s soccer team, volunteer at the local soup kitchen, or to have the energy to play with your kids.

Chapter 6 – Do something hard and lonely
This is a shout out to the Spartan. Do things others are reluctant to do and do it alone. Ideas would be getting your graduate degree, writing book reviews, or studying real estate. Anything, but do it alone. “All great and successful athletes remember the endless hours of seemingly unrewarded toil. So do corporate presidents.”

Chapter 9 – Keep and Use a Special Idea Notebook
Use it to brainstorm. I keep mine by the bed so if I wake with an idea, I can get the essence of it down on paper so that I don’t forget the idea in the morning. I also use it for those once in a lifetime hysterical situations that you always seem to forget soon after they happen. The point is, when you write things down, you commit to them. They can become a part of your daily or monthly “to-do list” that gets you closer to your goals. “Good ideas always have their time. When they do, commit them to action via your “to-do” list.

This book helped me better separate the lines of personal brand building vs. getting stuck in the mud within corporate politics. I liked the easy read as it sparked new ideas and rejuvenated old ones that were left unimplemented. I also found that especially reviewing the “obvious” chapters made them that much more “obvious” and easier to make permanent within my own plans to ascend to the top.

See you in the trenches - vmsteveo