Page 203 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

184 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

office, but none of the partners wanted to go, so I said, “Send me,”
because they said they’d give support. But it turns out they didn’t.
I learned business the way soldiers learn geography, by crawling over
every inch of it.

With the need for speed in business leadership, companies can’t
drag their feet in promoting, and you can’t be so easygoing in taking
on more.
You decide where you want to go—and go for it—rather than just
drifting. (There’s a lot of drifting going on.) Those who think about it and
plan for it (even a little) do a lot better. The odds are stacked against you
unless you do. It’s easy to be passive; that why it’s so popular.
Plan, but don’t plan on your plan working out because there is no
way you can anticipate the myriad changes, surprises, and setbacks you’ll
encounter. You’ll end up in jobs, companies, and industries you haven’t
even considered. You’ll change; the world will change. The one thing
that can remain the same is your sustained effort to learn all you can and
then move on.

If you don’t have butterflies starting your new job, you’re not reaching.

The best professional development tool is a big job. You’ve got
to try stuff that on paper you have no right to but that seems like a good
idea anyway. Some of the new big jobs won’t work out flawlessly, but if
you win all the time, it means you aren’t competing at a high enough
level.
As you progress from supervisor to manager to director to vice presi-
dent to C-level executive, as much as possible, go after jobs that you’d do
whether you were paid or not. When you choose jobs or assignments,
do it to develop, enhance, and complete the picture.

I never took a job that didn’t interest me. To make sure, I never inter-
viewed for a job that I didn’t want.
ƒ

I’ve been in sales, finance, brand management. I like to say I have a
career I wouldn’t wish on anyone but wouldn’t change for anything.