How to Become CEO

The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization

Jeffrey J. Fox

Publisher: Hyperion, 1998 , 162 pages

ISBN: 0-7868-6437-0

Synopsis:

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In recent years, the CEO's position within the typical high-profile company has been receiving more media attention than ever before. The job and paycheck of a CEO can quickly turn a relatively unknown top-level manager into a powerful international business leader with celebrity status. But how do those people get so lucky? What's their secret? Employees and recent graduates everywhere are asking, How can I get ahead? How can I become CEO? This book has the answers.

In How to Become CEO consultant Jeffrey Fox has written an insightful handbook of traits to develop for all generations of CEO aspirants — or for anyone who wants to get ahead in today's business world. Open it to any page and find a short, provocative piece of brutally honest advice written in a conversational tone. Each of the seventy-five "rules" focuses on a specific action that should be taken, a trait that needs to be developed. or a prohibition to follow. The words never and always are used frequently. These are smart, no-nonsense business messages that are meant to be revisited in your rise to the top.

But don't think for a moment that this is a cynical book. Rather, it is one of hard-headed idealism that will empower you to develop the qualities that are required of leaders: vision, persistence, integrity, and respect for superiors, subordinates, peers. and self.

Anyone looking to climb the corporate ladder will be grateful for Fox's direct, pithy advice — the essentials to follow if you want to reach the top.

Table of Contents:

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1. Always Take the Job that Offers the Most Money
2. Avoid Staff Jobs, Seek Line jobs
3. Don't Expect the Personnel Department to Plan Your Career
4. Get and Keep Customers
5. Keep Physically Fit
6. Do Something Hard and Lonely
7. Never Write a Nasty Memo
8. Think for One Hour Every Day
9. Keep and Use a Special Idea Notebook"
10. Don't Have a Drink with the Gang
11. Don't Smoke
12. Skip All Office Parties
13. Friday is "How Ya' Doin'?" Day
14. Make Allies of Your Peers' Subordinates
15. Know Everybody by Their First Name
16. Organize "One-Line Good-Job" Tours
17. Make One More Call
18. Arrive Forty-Five Minutes Early and Leave Fifteen Minutes Late
19. Don't Take Work Home from the Office
20. Earn Your "Invitation Credentials"
21. Avoid Superiors When You Travel
22. Eat in Your Hotel Room
23. Work, Don't Read Paperbacks, on the Airplane
24. Keep a "People File"
25. Send Handwritten Notes
26. Don't Get Buddy-Buddy with Your Superiors
27. Don't Hide an Elephant
28. Be Visible: Practice WACADAD
29. Always Take Vacations
30. Always Say "Yes" to a Senior Executive Request
31. Never Surprise Your Boss
32. Make Your Boss Look Good, and Your Boss's Boss Look Better
33. Never Let a Good Boss Make a Mistake
34. Go to the Library One Day a Month
35. Add One Big New Thing to Your Life Each Year
36. Study These Books
37. "Dress for a Dance"
38. Overinvest in People
39. Overpay Your People
40. "Stop, Look, and Listen"
41. Be a Flag-Waving Company Patriot
42. Find and Fill the "Data Gaps"
43. Homework, Homework, Homework
44. Never Panic...Or Lose Your Temper
45. Learn to Speak and Write in Plain English
46. Treat All People as Special
47. Be a Credit Maker, Not a Credit Taker
48. Give Informal Surprise Bonuses
49. Please, Be Polite with Everyone
50. Ten Things to Say That Make People Feel Good
51. The Glory and the Glamour Come after the Gruntwork
52. Tinker, Tailor, Try
53. Haste Makes Waste
54. Pour the Coals to a Good Thing
55. Put the Importance on the Bright Idea, Not the Source of the Idea
56. Stay Out of Office Politics
57. Look Sharp and Be Sharp
58. Emulate, Study, and Cherish the Great Boss
59. Don't Go Over Budget
60. Never Underestimate an Opponent
61. Assassinate the Character Assassin with a Single Phrase
62. Become a Member of the "Shouldn't Have Club"
63. The Concept Doesn't Have to Be Perfect, but the Execution of It Does
64. Record and Collect Your Mistakes with Care and Pride
65. Live for Today; Plan for Tomorrow; Forget about Yesterday
66. Have Fun, Laugh
67. Treat Your Family as Your Number One Client
68. No Goals, No Glory
69. Always Remember Your Subordinates' Spouses
70. See the Job Through the Salespeople's Eyes
71. Be a Very Tough "Heller Seller"
72. Don't Be an Empire Builder
73. Push Products, Not Paper
74. To Teach Is to Learn and to Lead
75. Do Not Get Discouraged by the Idea Killers