How to Become a CEO

Business
September 9, 2024

By Kristian

Many dream of getting to the top of the totem pole, so if you’re one of those big dreamers, you’d be looking at becoming the CEO. But the journey to becoming a CEO is complex and requires many different things to come together. It takes a mix of education, experience, skill, and personal traits to reach that lofty goal, and even then, there might be some other requirements or reasons why some can get the position and others can’t. This article will look at what is generally required to get the CEO position.

Experience and Educational Requirements

Most CEOs have at least a bachelor’s degree, and many hold advanced degrees. The most common fields for undergraduate degrees among CEOs are business and the various flavours of engineering. The hiring trend for CEOs favours those with strategic MBAs and other certifications in essential areas, and continuous learning helps candidates move upward in an organisation.

However, to acquire significant experience, you must start your career early and begin in entry-level positions. The most common type of business exposure for undergraduates is through internships, which is standard advice, but because it works. It is the most straightforward way to get direct exposure to business operations from the ground up. Then, you’ll likely start to move from department to department, gaining a more comprehensive knowledge of how the business works.

Once you’ve attained an understanding of the various positions, you should aim for some type of management position. This experience leading teams and projects is the clearest pathway to acquiring the leadership skills necessary for operating as a chief executive.

Vital Skills Required as a CEO

Developing vital skills is paramount for those who aspire to become CEOs, so understand that it’s not just about the degree. The CEO’s role, enshrined at the very pinnacle of the corporate hierarchy, demands a range of key leadership and management skills.

Interpersonal skills are pushed to the forefront, for it is clear that effective communication and collaboration are what truly make good leaders among their teams. The second most important one is strategic thinking, which is the right questions and the right talk combined with a thinking style that ensures the CEO aligns decisions with the company’s long-term vision. Finally, we have financial acumen, which is at the heart of all business endeavours and will come into consideration during decision-making.

The Importance of Personal Branding

Creating a personal brand is a crucial part of the journey to the CEO role or any higher-level position, for that matter. It’s not just about having a good Instagram profile. The personal brand is your reputation as an individual, and as the CEO, your reputation is tightly linked to the business. It is enveloped in many components as a corporate brand, including visibility, reputation, and story, which are all equally important.

The visibility piece is mostly about the platforms we use online and how our story is told, while reputation is something developed over time from your actions and your interactions with other people. Developing your story is also an integral part of your brand, and like corporations, individuals also have stories. Speaking opportunities are a means of amplifying your story, and writing can be good for spreading this online.

Advancing Closer to the CEO Role

Taking opportunities for advancement is vital in the journey to the CEO position, so you must be willing to move up and across to where you want to go. This can even mean jumping ship to a completely different company where you can get offered higher positions or move to a senior role in your original company. When you look at the profiles of many current CEOs, many have diverse backgrounds that involve many positions and companies, so be open to these ideas.

When you set your sights on executive positions, aiming for roles like COO or CFO can put you in the top-level job you want. Those roles act like gatekeepers to the position, and you’ll need to be in the same circles when you get closer to your goal of the CEO role.

Now that we’ve laid out the general roadmap for achieving the position of CEO, it’s important to realise that it’s not only about being in charge and making big decisions. Being effective means you’re also focused on the development of individuals and the company. So, dedicate yourself to your growth and to the evolution of your company, and when you do that, you will position yourself to be a leader who can serve effectively as CEO.