HOW TO BECOME CEO
Presented by
William Kritsonis, Ph.D
Professor
HOW TO BECOME CEO
The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization
• Written by
Jeffrey J. Fox
• Presented by
William Kritsonis, PhD
Professor
Published by Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011
Always Take the Job that Offers the Most
Money
Advantages of higher paying jobs:
• Greater benefits , perquisites, bonuses, and subsequent
raises.
• Higher paid persons get the higher paid jobs.
• Greater visibility to top management
• Greater responsibility Opportunities to perform and
show off talents.
Remember: Money is the scoreboard.
Avoid Staff Jobs, Seek Line Jobs
• Line jobs make money for your corporation.
• Line jobs include: salespeople, sales and product
manager, marketing directors, supervisors, and general
managers.
• Staff jobs are a stepping stone to other jobs.
• Staff jobs include: lawyers, planners, data processing
employees, R&D scientists, and all administrators.
Don’t Expect the Personnel Department to
Plan Your Career
• Your career plan is not predetermined by the
corporation.
• Take responsibility in designing your own career plan.
Get and Keep Customers
Customers are the
lifeblood of any
corporation!
• Customers provide jobs for
new products and applications.
• Customers provide early
warning signals of product
quality and obsolescence.
• Customers provide vision to
the future.
Keep Physically Fit
• Ninety percent of aspiring executives are out of shape.
• Your capacity for productivity is by good physical
condition.
• Being in good shape:
Enhances your energy level
Increases sleep and motivation
Decreases depression
Do Something Hard and Lonely
• Regularly practice a solitary task to increase
mental toughness.
• Hard and lonely tasks include:
Studying late for a graduate degree
Running long distances in the early AM
Splitting wood
Working in the garden
Never Write a Nasty Memo
• A nasty memo criticizes, belittles, or degrades
a colleague.
• A nasty memo gives your rivals a
smoking gun.
• Spend your energy on positive pursuits.
Think for One Hour Every Day
• Spend one hour each day planning:
Goals
Options
Problems
• Write down ideas at a scheduled time each day.
• Keep written notes in a special “idea notebook.”
Keep and Use a Special “Idea Notebook”
• Buy a notebook that you like.
• Keep it in one place.
• Write down all ideas, plans, goals, and dreams.
• Use the notebook to record yearly, monthly, weekly,
and daily “To Do” Lists.
Don’t Have a Drink with the Gang
• Avoid drinking with coworkers after work.
• Avoid drinking at lunch. Instead, you work.
• Avoid the before dinner cocktail party at meetings and
seminars.
• Avoid getting tipsy with coworkers—Signals weakness
and lack of control.
Don’t Smoke
• Smoking can offend a non smoker who can
influence your career.
• Smoking is a self-centered interest.
• Smoking wastes time.
• Avoid smoking expensive cigars.
• Smoking gives the appearance of being in control
• Save the celebration cigar for when you
earn it.
Skip All Office Parties
• An “office party” is not a social gathering.
• Never attend a company picnic without your spouse.
• Attend the party if the unwritten rule is
“you must attend or you will offend”.
• At company parties:
Drink only soda
Stay no more than 45 minutes
Thank the boss for the invitation
Leave at company parties.
Remember: Don’t mix business with pleasure.
Friday is “How Ya’ Doin’?” Day
• Take a person that you need out to lunch
each Friday and ask, “How ya’ doin’?”.
• Choose a person not in your department—i.e. take the
sales manager’s assistant to lunch.
• Make one good ally in your company each month.
Make Allies of Your Peers’ Subordinates
• Gain support of your coworker’s teammates.
• Teammates help scuttle deliberate or unintentional acts
by your peers.
Know Everybody by Their First Name
• Learn everybody’s full name.
• Find out what they do and their job’s importance.
• Introduce visitors to other employees and explain their
job’s importance.
Organize “One-Line, Good-Job” Tours
• Get the highest ranking officer to tour
your department and thank each employee.
• Make up cue cards—One or two statements
of an employee’s achievements.
• Everybody wins on a “good-job” tour.
Make One More Call
• Inches makes the difference between successful and
average employees.
• Who does the best job?—
The salesperson who makes one more sales call
The copywriter who does one more draft
Arrive Forty-five Minutes Early and Leave
Fifteen Minutes Late
• Be first on the job—always arrive early.
• Leave fifteen minutes late to ensure your
hard-working reputation.
• Get ahead on your work--Arrive early and leaving late.
Don’t Take Work Home from the Office
If you always take work home you are:
• Not managing your time properly
• Boring
• Wasting your precious leisure hours
Remember: No real work is done at home.
Earn Your “Invitation Credentials”
• Every corporation has a cosa nostra-- an inner,
special family.
• This inner group decides:
Who becomes CEO
The length of tenure
• Entrance credentials characterize those in the inner
circle.
Avoid Superiors When You Travel
If flying with an executive, be sure to:
• Avoid clever conversation—You are judged on results.
• Avoid creating an overly industrious image.
• Sit in a different section.
• Best option—Fly by yourself.
Eat in Your Hotel Room
• Breakfast and dinner in your room saves time, money,
strengthens your individuality, stretches your workday,
and extends your office.
• Hotel room activities include:
Planning your day
Setting daily objective
Writing e-mail
Work, Don’t Read Paperbacks, on the
Airplane
• Have specific objectives for each trip.
• Plan your work according to the allotted time
• Carry a small stapler.
• Bring a large prestamped envelope to send to your
office.
• Bring envelopes and stamps for handwritten follow-up
notes.
Keep a “People File”
• Obtain a large address book or a notebook computer.
• Keep a file of people you meet, work with,
and get to know.
• Use a pencil to record notations.
• Obtain a business card for file.
• Keep a backup copy in a safe place.
Send Handwritten Notes
• Handwritten notes make you stand out.
• Handwritten notes are non digital and personal.
• Handwritten notes include thank-yous, congratulations,
regrets, for your information, etc.
• Send one handwritten note per week.
• Make sure notes include cards and envelopes.
Don’t Get Buddy-Buddy with Your Superiors
• Remain business associates and not friends.
• Do not to cross the line between business
and friendship.
• Know your boss and/or subordinates’ problems, plans,
personalities, strengths and weaknesses, and
idiosyncrasies.
Don’t Hide an Elephant
• Avoid becoming a “hider”.
• Become a “discoverer” and expose the problem
immediately.
• Turn a big problem into an opportunity to shine.
• Always act in control of the situation.
• Classic Elephants: Watergate, Vietnam, and surprise
business bankruptcies.
Be Visible: Practice “WACADAD”
• Prove your abilities with action—”Words are cheap and
deeds are dear.”
• Work on visible projects.
• Examples of visible activities include:
Presentations to senior management
Instructing a training class
Speaking before the sales force
Always Take Vacations
• Your department should function without you.
• Always plan vacation in advance
• Never cancel or leave a phone number
• Inform superiors of trip in advance
• Take a vacation to:
Increase chances of meeting helpful people
To observe new business practices and trends
To think and plan
Always Say “Yes” to a Senior Executive
Request
• Always say “I can to it” when a top executive asks.
• Listen carefully to the request.
• Give the boss:
More than she/he wanted
Sooner than expected
With your own touch of ingenuity
Never Surprise Your Boss
• Bosses dislike surprises—good or bad.
• No surprises keep your boss feeling in control.
• Surprising your boss leads to mistrust.
Make Your Boss Look Good and Your
Boss’s Boss Look Better
• Improving your boss’s promotion chances leaves a
vacancy for you.
• Your boss’s boss is always the key to assure your
promotion chances.
• Make your boss’s boss look good by anticipating their
needs and problems.
Never Let a Good Boss Make a Mistake
• A good boss is essential for climbing the
ladder of success.
• Help your boss avoid making hurtful mistakes by:
Doing their homework
Giving a heads-up briefing
Beefing up a weak presentation
• Avoid making personal your boss’s mistake.
Go to the Library One Day a Month
• Going to the library:
Increases motivation to work harder
Enhances self-control
• Organize administrative tasks and update your people
file.
• Write all correspondence (memos, thank you notes,
customer letters, etc.)
Add One Big New Thing to Your Life Each
Year
• Broadens your horizons and prepares you for a top
executive job.
• Examples of big new things:
Learn a foreign language
Write a book
Make a list of things to accomplish in 10 years
Study These Books
• Obvious Adams by Robert Updegraff
• The Bible
• The Art of War by Sun-Tzu
• The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Forbes Book of Business Quotations Edited by
Ted Goodman
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Anything by Thomas Jefferson
“Dress for a Dance”
• If you Dress for business, you do business
• Dress for success—Your dress = your personality.
• Buy a book on how to dress in business, such as:
Dress for Success by John T. Molly
New Women’s Dress for Success by John T. Molly
Overinvest in People
• Hiring the best people Great return on investment.
• Overinvest in salary and emotional currency—praise,
encouragement, freedom.
• Corporate leaders should never be anti-people.
• Hire according to the three “I’s”—
“I” for integrity
“I” for intelligence
“I” for the “I can to it” attitude
Overpay Your People
• Underpaying decreases employee productivity.
• Do not people cost and expect to save money.
• Key to success: Hire fewer exceptional people all
making money than more people at a lower payroll cost.
“Stop, Look, and Listen”
• A good president must Stop, Look, and Listen
before acting.
• Listening is a learned art and essential for
business success.
• Listening = wisdom and intelligence.
Be a Flag-Waving Company Patriot
• Show total commitment to your company and
to its products and services.
• Use your company’s products and promote them.
• Buy company stock.
• Never be cynical about your company
Find and Fill the “Data Gaps”
• Identify what you don’t know and what your
company doesn’t know.
• Get the facts. Talk to customers and users.
Homework, Homework, Homework
• Avoid the “rocking chair syndrome”—lots of movement,
but no real productivity.
• Find the facts and cover all the bases.—
Do your homework!
• Homework precedes a successful project.
Never Panic---or Lose Your Temper
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over
another as to remain cool and unruffled under all
circumstances---Thomas Jefferson
• In a heated situation, tell yourself to “stay calm.”
• Signs of panic:
temper tantrums
immobilization
finger pointing
cowardice acts
rash decisions
Learn to Speak and Write in Plain English
• Poor communication = loss of time and money.
• Be “to the point”.
• Guidelines for better communication:
Write necessary correspondence
Choose specific objectives
Choose simplest mode
Gather facts
(continued)
Learn to Speak and Write in Plain English
Write a scattergram
Organize message
Write a zero draft
Write a first draft
Edit to a one page final draft
Tailor language to audience
Treat All People as Special
Excellent managers make people feel that they—
• are asked, not questioned…
• are over paid, not underpaid…
• are measured, not monitored…
• are people, not personnel…
• are sold on what to do, not told…
• are instrumental, not instruments…
• are workers, not worked…
• are contributors, not costs…
• are needed, not heeded…
Be a Credit Maker, Not a Credit Taker
• A credit maker gives 100 percent credit for work done.
• A credit taker assumes responsibility for other’s work.
• A credit taker is insecure, dishonest and known to all.
Give Informal Surprise Bonuses
• Give bonuses for extraordinary work done.
• Give bonuses randomly to avoid drawing attention.
• Surprise bonuses increase employee motivation and
innovation.
Please, Be Polite with Everyone
• Use good manners with everyone.
• Be gracious
• Never pull rank
• Never smoke at meetings or meals
• Never let visitors or clients wait in lobby
• Always say “please” and “thank you”
• Always introduce yourself and others clearly and slowly.
Ten Things to Say that Make People Feel
Good
• “Please”
• “Thank you”
• “That was a first-class job you did”
• “I appreciate your effort”
• “I need your help”
• “Congratulations”
• “I am glad you are on the team”
Remember: Always be sincere
The Glory and the Glamour Came after the
Grunt work
• The visible parts of business success = The glamour
behind the scenes.
• The invisible, day-to-day toil = The grunt work.
• The grunt work precedes the glory.
• Some examples of grunt work:
Homework
Weekend travel
Checking and rechecking
Trial and error
Tinker, Tailor, Try
• 97% of people in all companies fear change.
• Be an innovator--It catches attention!
• Tinker with and tailor new ideas to specific needs.
Haste Makes Waste
• Speedy decisions are risky
• Revocable decision: Changeable decision that is made
quickly with less risk.
• Irrevocable decision: Non changeable decision that
involves more time and risk.
• Examples of revocable decisions:
Choosing office layout and advertising schedules
• Examples of irrevocable decisions:
Choosing brand names, acquisitions, executive hires
Pour the Coals to a Good Thing
• Never change the formula for success—Only
add improvements.
• A good example of a good thing investment—
Disney’s legendary Mickey Mouse.
Put the Importance on the Bright Idea, Not
the Source of the Idea
• Good innovators always listen to the ideas of others.
• Idea sources include customers, children, competitors,
cab drivers, etc.
• What matters is who implements the idea--Not who
created the idea.
Stay Out of Office Politics
• Rampant office politics symbolize a weak leader.
• Symptoms of office politics:
Fighting each other instead of competition
Currying favor
Wasting time
Implementing unfair and unclear reward systems
• Spend time creating and accomplishing—Not practicing
office politics.
Look Sharp and Be Sharp
• A little vanity is good.
• Avoid faddish or cheap clothes.
• Avoid a pale, unhealthy look
• Have a bright smile
• Practice good grooming
Remember: Be up. And smile
Emulate, Study, and Cherish the Great Boss
• Great bosses are rare.
• Traits of a great boss:
Sets challenging, fair goals
Honest
Fosters employee growth
Experienced
Hard-working
Smart
• Model a good boss’s business behavior
Don’t Go Over Budget
• Get the job done on time and within budget.
• Tight budgets promote creativity, ingenuity, and
inventiveness.
• See a tight budget as a challenge.
Never Underestimate an Opponent
• Opponents are:
Competitors
Rival managers
Buying committees
• Appearance or reputation can be misleading.
• Never underestimating an opponent’s intelligence, skill,
dishonest, and cunningness.
• Overestimating your opponent may lead to being
pleasantly surprised.
Assassinate the Character Assassin with a
Single Phrase
• Beware of the character assassin.
• The character assassin lives by the motto, “the truth is
not hard to kill,” but “a lie well told is immortal.”
• Two vulnerable traits of an assassin:
Obvious
Attacks everyone
• Use one single phrase to assassinate the character
assassin: “Of course, with Mr. X, no one is spared.”
Become a Member of the “Shouldn’t Have
Club”
• Avoid the “should’ve club” of risk adverse, non doers—”I
should’ve done that” or “I would’ve done that.”
• Join the “shouldn’t have club” of doers and risk takers—
”Gee, I shouldn’t have done that.”
Remember: No guts, no glory
The Concept Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect,
but the Execution of It Does
• Waiting for the perfect time or perfect product
or perfect way Nothing.
• Execute the concept with meticulous attention to detail.
• Excellence of execution Success.
Record and Collect Your Mistakes with Care
and Pride
• See mistakes as learning tools.
• Record in your “idea notebook”:
Mistakes
Causes of mistakes
How to handle the same event again.
• Acknowledging mistakes signals security and
confidence.
Live for Today; Plan for Tomorrow; Forget
about Yesterday
• Do not rekindle yesterday--It is past history.
• Get on with today--It is whatever you want it to be.
• Plan for the future
Have Fun, Laugh
• Is your job not fun?--Change jobs or make it fun.
• A serious, pressured work environment leads to stress
and inefficiency.
• A sense of humor = A successful executive
Treat Your Family as Your Number One
Client
• Put your family 1st place to work.
• Schedule your family on your calendar.
• Put family activities on “To Do” list.
• Respond to your family as you do your job
or an important client.
No Goals, No Glory
• No goals, no win, no glory.
• Goals shape your plans, direct your energies, and focus
your responses.
• Record goals in “idea notebook”—
Business and Life goals
Use 25, 10, 5, and 1 year timetables.
• Create a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily
“To Do” list--record a plan to reach goals.
Always Remember Your Subordinates’
Spouses
• A spouse can be an:
Important ally
A virulent enemy
• Always thank spouse for their support.
• Arrange a “weekend for two” for a job
well done.
• Invite spouse to dinner with a colleague.
Seeing the Job through the Salespeople’s
Eyes
• Selling is key to the corporation.
• A salesperson has direct contact with the customer.
• A successful executive spends time in the sales field.
Be a Very Tough “Heller Seller”
• Learn to sell like hell
• To be a salesperson that sells:
Determine “customer’s” needs
Determine how “product” will satisfy customer needs
Develop “persistence” and “tenacity”
Make sales calls necessary to get the order**
Don’t Be an Empire Builder
• Get the job done with less--less people and less money.
• Promotions and power go to producers, not to people
administrators.
Push Products, Not Paper
• Corporations encourage the “bureaucratic creep”—
steady growth of red tape.
• Corporations need innovators and prudent risk takers—
internal entrepreneurs.
• Typical corporate entrepreneurs are:
informal
anti-policy
anti-procedure
Remember: Avoid getting paper-trapped
To Teach Is to Learn and to Lead
• Always accept a chance to teach others:
What you do
Why you do it
How you do it
• Good preparation and practice = A good presentation
• A good presentation creates:
A reputation for being an expert in your field
Familiarity with other company departments
Strong circles of influence
Do Not Get Discouraged by the Idea Killers
• Idea killers say, “we’ve tried that before,” “management
won’t buy it,” “we can’t afford it,” or “it won’t work.”
• Idea killers nourish the status quo.
• Idea people build businesses.
• Fight the idea killers by making your ideas work.
