Why Not Everyone Can Be a CEO

Not everyone can be a CEO, and the people who say it's their goal rarely get there. The ones who do usually never set out for the title. They care more about results than about being seen in charge, and authority finds them because of it.

My goal is to be the CEO one day

“My goal is to be the CEO one day.”

I have heard this line a thousand times when I ask people what their end game is. The problem is it’s very different from what CEOs say when you ask them how they got there. You always hear some variation of this quote from great leaders.

“I never really set out to be a ‘CEO’ of a company.”

Craving power and being given it

Sure CEOs are natural born leaders. Yes, they love being in charge. And they would rather not work at all than work for someone else.

The difference is subtle but telling between those that crave power and those that can’t avoid having power given to them.

Those that set out to be “in charge” will rarely find their way to the C-Suite, no matter how hard they try. And more often than not, they will despise executives above them in the corporate ladder instead of trying to observe and learn from them.

These types of people want to set the pace through their words. They see the CEO as someone who simply barks orders. They don’t see the painstaking work and strategy that goes on behind the scenes.

What the job involves

From the outside, the CEO job looks like making decisions and giving speeches. From the inside, most of it is quieter. Hiring and keeping the right people. Choosing what the company won't do. Managing cash. Answering to a board. Taking the blame when something breaks.

• Setting direction and saying no to good ideas that don't fit it.
• Hiring leaders better than you in their area.
• Making sure the company never runs out of money.
• Delivering bad news to employees, customers and investors.
• Owning the outcome, whether or not you made the call.

People who want the title often want the first part. People who end up in the seat are the ones willing to do all of it.

What the research says

The CEO Genome Project, a ten-year study of more than 17,000 executive assessments published in Harvard Business Review, found four behaviors that set successful CEOs apart: deciding with speed and conviction, engaging for impact, adapting proactively, and delivering reliably. None of them is about wanting the job.

Jim Collins found something similar in his research on great companies. In Level 5 Leadership, he describes the best CEOs as a mix of personal humility and intense will, with their ambition aimed at the company instead of themselves.

The people authority finds

Those that set out to cast vision, be vulnerable, and mentor others will generally find themselves with more authority and responsibility as their career progresses.

More often than not, These people want to work exceptionally hard and set the pace for others by their actions. They appreciate the good and the bad of a leader and embrace the sacrifices needed to lead.

I saw an early version of this myself. At 19, I was handed the keys to a gym because the owner trusted how I worked. I wrote about it in managing a gym at 19.

If you want to lead

1. Learn from the leaders above you, even the ones you disagree with.
2. Take responsibility for results before anyone gives you the title.
3. Mentor someone. Leaders are measured by the people they grow.
4. Make decisions and own them. Waiting for approval slows everyone down, as I wrote in chasing approval.
5. Ask whether you want to run a company or start one. The founder or employee question is a good place to start.

The cost of chasing the title

People who chase the title often make choices that slow them down. They pick jobs for the next promotion instead of the best learning. They avoid risky projects that might fail on their watch. They spend energy on who gets credit.

Those choices add up. Ten years later, they have titles on a resume but few hard wins to point to. The people who chased results instead have stories of problems they solved, and those stories are what get someone hired into the top seat.

What boards and investors look for

When boards pick a CEO, they look at track record before ambition. Has this person delivered results with a team? Have they made hard calls and owned the outcome? Do people want to work for them?

Investors look for the same things in founders. A founder who talks mostly about their own title is a warning sign. A founder who talks about customers, the team and the numbers is usually the one worth backing.

• Results delivered through other people.
• Decisions made with incomplete information.
• Responsibility taken when things went wrong.
• People who followed them from one job to the next.

None of those come from wanting the job. They come from doing the work long before anyone offers it.

A question to ask yourself

If you never got the title, would you still want to do the work? If the answer is yes, you're probably on the right path. If the answer is no, it's worth asking what you're chasing.

Ultimately, it’s pretty easy to tell who is going to be in charge one day. It’s the people that care more about results than about ego. Those are actually the people that end up as great CEOs.