And as I navigate the org charts of these companies, I wonder: what did the executives at these companies do differently that got them to where they are?
At first, I naturally assumed it was experience and age (or time within the company), but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.
What I have noticed is, generally, they tend to have MBAs or work on the business aspects of the company, or were executives/CEOs/Founders of other smaller companies that eventually got acquired.
I understand there is no single path or answer to this question but I'm curious to hear your opinions?
1. Take risks.
2. Be willing to take on responsibilities that you don't know how to do yet. If you're competent at the task you're working on, you're wasting your time.
3. Get to know all sorts of people throughout the organization. Not just the important people, but ordinary people working on interesting things. The important people notice that you know all the folks working on interesting things and start leaning on you to point them in the right direction.
4. Be the best in the vicinity in at least one area - the best salesman in your geographic region, the best frontend engineer on your product, the best UX designer in your department. The best has options, because everyone wants to work with them; the mediocre usually have to make do with what they're assigned to. The best usually also have management turn a blind eye when they steal time away from their main projects to work on professional development, because they're still outperforming everyone else. This becomes a virtuous cycle.
5. Volunteer for tasks that are a high priority for the organization. A lot of folks shy away from high-priority work because it's stressful; you have many powerful people breathing down your neck wanting things done yesterday. But everybody remembers who actually did that groundbreaking project, and it opens up opportunity in the future.
Some things I've noticed successful executives don't do:
1. Work 24/7. An occasional late-nighter on a critical project helps cement your reputation as a clutch player. Doing it all the time cements your reputation as a schmuck with no life.
2. Talk a lot. The best executives I know spend about 90% of their time listening and 10% talking. People who keep their mouths shut and ears open when they join an organization tend to outperform those who keep their ears shut and mouths open after about a year (it takes that long for the phonies to shake out).
3. Think of themselves in terms of one particular functional group. Being an executive is its own skillset - if you think of yourself as an engineer, or a salesperson, or a lawyer, you're artificially limiting yourself. Think of yourself as a provider of solutions - heck, doesn't patio11 give the same advice for small business owners?
4. Be cynical. It's interesting that the Gervais principle is the top comment here - there's a grain of truth to that, but if you believe it too literally you're doomed to underperforming loserhood.
Even with my company being so large, there's a few key names I always hear dropped. Those are the "A" players, and always busy. For new projects, they're always the first people managers try to draft on to their projects. This relates to both #4 & #5, where high priority people get high priority projects which leads to further high priority things.
What I'd like to know for my own career is (in a large and bureaucratic system) if there is a repeatable way to find the high priority projects. The "A" players get tagged first, and work seems to be silo'd so you don't hear about the cool/high priority projects until after it's underway and they've already staffed out the team through people they know.
My current strategy is to work with one of those "A" people in hopes of getting projects passed on that he's too busy for. We're in similar roles, and I work well with him. I recently got a fairly high priority project because of that, but I didn't know if anyone else had any strategies.
Find an "A"-player and make her your mentor
Especially at the more junior levels, you also need to make yourself stand out. Competence is a given, so sometimes you do need to work longer/harder than your colleagues to get ahead.
People that are bought out are sometimes given an executive title, but often are forced out as the whole idea of buying a company is that the new management wants control.
Other people hire executive coaches, lie profusely about their experience, suck up, and do whatever it takes to get into one of these jobs. Lots of execs are like this. I dare say most. It makes no difference to them what company they are at or even what the company's business is. You can be illiterate and follow this path. lots of people who do this can just barely send an email.
That fits with something I read eons ago: That the 2% of people with financial goals tend to outperform the other 98% combined.
