Page 49 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

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

harmonized the food on it, how they coordinated the staff, and what
draws the customers.

Know your own job well, but make certain to know other jobs, the
marketplace, the business and industry history, the current economic
climate, corporate culture, customers, colleagues, senior management,
technology, entry/middle management, overall policies, reputation, and
the way it all relates together. Get a grasp on how every function in the
organization works and the fundamental drivers from top to bottom.
Understand financial impact of your core competency (how your
work gets money, makes money, or keeps money). Gain financial literacy
in general. Understand financial statements, budgeting and planning, cor-
porate structure, and how equity and debt work—in your organization
and in general. (It also doesn’t hurt to know compensation, bonus levels,
and stock options in your equivalent job with competitors.)

One good outcome of the dot-com bust was that a lot of young CEOs
were forced to return to working for a company. Having had gener-
alist responsibility, they became more effective, quicker in specialty
roles, because they knew the impact overall.

ƒ

Because of my generalist experience, at 35 I was running a division
with the median age of other decision heads being 54.

ƒ

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I volunteered
anyway.

Seek rotation work in other areas, but don’t wait until you have a
bigger job to grasp who and how things intersect, overlap, and affect each
other. Stay on top of things as they change locally, regionally, and glob-
ally. Only then can you anticipate, capitalize, and maybe even initiate
changes in the marketplace. Upward mobility requires more experience
that’s general in nature and less functionally specific.