How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization
192How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization
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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780786871056 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Hachette Books |
Publication date: | 09/01/2001 |
Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 192 |
File size: | 655 KB |
Age Range: | 13 - 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
VI
Do Something Hard and Lonely
Regularly practice something Spartan and individualistic. Do something that you know very few other people are willing to do. This will give you a feeling of toughness, a certain self-elitism. It will mentally prepare you for the battle of business. Something that is hard and lonely is studying late at night for a graduate degree in fashion design, especially in the winter, when everyone else is asleep. Or running long, slow distances early in the morning (versus jogging at lunchtime with a mob). Split wood, write, work in the garden, read King Lear, but does it by yourself. Do something that is solitary. All great and successful athletes remember the endless hours of seemingly unrewarded toil. So do corporate presidents.
XII
Skip All Office Parties
There is no such thing as a business or "office party."' It is not a social gathering. It is business. Never party at an office party. It won't hurt you not to go at all. Don't offend people by criticizing the party or by publicly announcing your intentions. Simply don't go. Give polite excuses. Never ever go to a company picnic if you cannot bring your spouse. A company picnic without spouses is trouble. To go is to run the risk of being tarred with the bad brush of others' actions. If the unwritten rule is "you must attend or you will offend"' then go. Drink only soda. Stay no more than forty-five minutes. Thank the boss for inviting you, and leave. If anyone asks where you are going, tell that person you are meeting your spouse, or parents, or fiancée, or doctor, or music teacher, or personal trainer. Parties are supposed to be fun, enjoyed with friends. Heed the old axiom: "Don't mix business with pleasure.'''
XVIII
Arrive Forty Five Minutes Early and Leave Fifteen Minutes Late
If you are going to be first in your corporation, start practicing by being first on the job. People who arrive at work late don't like their jobs at least that's what senior management thinks. People don't arrive twelve minutes late for the movies. And being early always gives you a psychological edge over the others in your company. Don't stay at the office until ten o'clock every night. You are sending a signal that you can't keep up or that your personal life is poor. Leave fifteen minutes late instead. In those fifteen minutes organize your next day and clean your desk. You will be leaving after 95 percent of the employees any way, so your reputation as a hard worker stays intact. There are too many times in your career when circumstances such as airline schedules and sales meetings and yearend closings and such will keep you away from home until late. Give more time to your family. Plus forty-five minutes early and fifteen minutes late is an hour a day. That's two hundred fifty hours a year or 31 days. You can get ahead quickly working one extra month a year.
Table of Contents
- I: Always Take the Job That Offers the Most Money
- II: Avoid Staff Jobs, Seek Line Jobs
- III: Don't Expect the Personnel Department to Plan Your Career
- IV: Get and Keep Customers
- V: Keep Physically Fit
- VI: Do Something Hard and Lonely
- VII: Never Write a Nasty Memo
- VIII: Think for One Hour Every Day
- IX: Keep and Use a Special "Idea Notebook"
- X: Don't Have a Drink with the Gang
- XI: Don't Smoke
- XII: Skip All Office Parties
- XIII: Friday is "How Ya' Doin'?" Day
- XIV: Make Allies of Your Peers' Subordinates
- XV: Know Everybody by Their First Name
- XVI: Organize "One-Line Good-Job" Tours
- XVII: Make One More Call
- XVIII: Arrive Forty-five Minutes Early and Leave Fifteen Minutes Late
- XIX: Don't Take Work Home from the Office
- XX: Earn Your "Invitation Credentials"
- XXI: Avoid Superiors When You Travel
- XXII: Eat in Your Hotel Room
- XXIII: Work, Don't Read Paperbacks, on the Airplane
- XXIV: Keep a "People File"
- XXV: Send Handwritten Notes
- XXVI: Don't Get Buddy-Buddy with Your Superiors
- XXVII: Don't Hide an Elephant
- XXVIII: Be Visible: Practice WACADAD
- XXIX: Always Take Vacations
- XXX: Always Say "Yes" to a Senior Executive Request
- XXXI: Never Surprise Your Boss
- XXXII: Make Your Boss Look Good, and Your Boss's Boss Look Better
- XXXIII: Never Let a Good Boss Make a Mistake
- XXXIV: Go to the Library One Day a Month
- XXXV: Add One Big New Thing to Your Life Each Year
- XXXVI: Study These Books
- XXXVII: "Dress for a Dance"
- XXXVIII: Overinvest in People
- XXXIX: Overpay Your People
- XL: "Stop, Look, and Listen"
- XLI: Be a Flag-Waving Company Patriot
- XLII: Find and Fill the "Data Gaps"
- XLIII: Homework, Homework, Homework
- XLIV: Never Panic...Or Lose Your Temper
- XLV: Learn to Speak and Write in Plain English
- XLVI: Treat All People as Special
- XLVII: Be a Credit Maker, Not a Credit Taker
- XLVIII: Give Informal Surprise Bonuses
- XLIX: Please, Be Polite with Everyone
- L: Ten Things to Say That Make People Feel Good
- LI: The Glory and the Glamour Come after the Gruntwork
- LII: Tinker, Tailor, Try
- LIII: Haste Makes Waste
- LIV: Pour the Coals to a Good Thing
- LV: Put the Importance on the Bright Idea, Not the Source of the Idea
- LVI: Stay Out of Office Politics
- LVII: Look Sharp and Be Sharp
- LVIII: Emulate, Study, and Cherish the Great Boss
- LIX: Don't Go Over Budget
- LX: Never Underestimate an Opponent
- LXI: Assassinate the Character Assassin with a Single Phrase
- LXII: Become a Member of the "Shouldn't Have Club"
- LXIII: The Concept Doesn't Have to Be Perfect, but the Execution of It Does
- LXIV: Record and Collect Your Mistakes with Care and Pride
- LXV: Live for Today; Plan for Tomorrow; Forget about Yesterday
- LXVI: Have Fun, Laugh
- LXVII: Treat Your Family as Your Number One Client
- LXVIII: No Goals, No Glory
- LXIX: Always Remember Your Subordinates' Spouses
- LXX: See the Job through the Salespeople's Eyes
- LXXI: Be a Very Tough "Heller Seller"
- LXXII: Don't Be an Empire Builder
- LXXIII: Push Products, Not Paper
- LXXIV: To Teach Is to Learn and to Lead
- LXXV: Do Not Get Discouraged by the Idea Killers
- Epilogue
- II: Avoid Staff Jobs, Seek Line Jobs