An article from the life of a CEO-

I received the question below and it got me thinking about how you can become a CEO. 

For this writer, the first i have a question - why do you want to become the CEO of a large company?  There can be many reasons for this ranging from money, to power, to status or to actually making a difference.  I would examine these first before deciding on the goal. 

For me it is about making a difference and to fundamentally changing how things operate.  I am less fussed about the size of the business and more about what we are trying to achieve. Being the CEO of any business has its downsides - you are often alone, there is resentment in the business (usually because of pay), politics, a Board to deal with and if you are public, massive scrutiny from how much you earn to everything you do.  Oh --- and everyone has an opinion as to what you should be doing.

So back to the real topic of discussion ... "are CEO's born (nature) or can they be created (nurture)?

I hate sitting on the fence however i am going to have to.  I think it is a combination of both.  Firstly i think that you need to naturally have some innate qualities.  You need to be able to lead, to communicate and to be able to juggle lots of things at the same time.  While in theory these can be taught or learned, i think really good leaders just do this type of thing naturally.

Secondly, i think there are a range of skills you have to learn.  These are generally around finance, HR procedures, strategy, operations etc.  The books give you theoretical guidance on how to do them but there is nothing like actually doing them.

So if you want to become the CEO of a large business.  I think you need to have and do the following

 I got this article from the Net and copied here for the community,s benefit.