Page 234 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Conclusion • 215

Still CEOs and C-level executives are the mainstay of our country.
Without them, we’d be in trouble.
It’s hard to group them, but CEOs generally are overstretched, over-
whelmed, overworked, and incredibly challenged because of the speed
at which business takes place. (Sounds like your job today, doesn’t it.)
Generally, CEOs are good, honorable, and decent. To be success-
ful over a long time, they have to have a servant-leader mentality.
You may aspire to be chief accountant, marketing officer, finance
officer, operations officer, or executive officer. Whatever it is, aim higher.
You just might get it or at least more than you aimed for. If you get too
much of the “good thing,” you can always turn it down and walk away
(usually with more money, by the way).
At the end of a long career, you’ll “get” the significance of every-
thing said in this book by the CEOs I interviewed. But why wait? Get
it now at 22, 32, 42, or 52 years of age.
The takeaway to work with every day is consistency in your

■ Craftsmanship
■ Having a good track record
■ Taking on a generalist not just a specialist mentality
■ Constantly seeking information
■ Having a fire in your belly
■ Confidence
■ Feeling broadly adequate
■ Being decisive
■ Seeking honest feedback and improving from it
■ Being unafraid to take risks, even make mistakes
■ Managing your own career
■ Getting your family on board
■ Constant communication
■ Being willing to stand out
■ Yet fitting in
■ Listening more than you talk
■ Coworker collaboration
■ Being someone to trust
■ Developing others to take your job
■ Causing people to follow you even though they don’t have to