How to Act Like a CEO: 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There [Hardcover]

Debra A. Benton (Author), D. A. Benton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2000

If anybody knows what it takes to get you to the top of the corporate ladder, it's #1 executive coach Debra Benton. Now, in this follow-up to her best-selling How to Think Like a CEO, she draws upon her work with top-level executives at corporate giants such as AT&T, Colgate, Pepsi, Mobil Oil, Nabisco, American Express, and McKinsey, and interviews she conducted with 100 CEOs around the world, to:
- Identify the 10 "rules of the game" ambitious managers need to follow if they want to make it to the top slot
- Show how successful CEOs apply the rules in their everyday business dealings, and what happens when they break them
- Provide managers with valuable pointers on how to apply each rule in their professional lives

Written by one of the most respected executive coaches in the world, How to Act Like a CEO is must reading for ambitious managers in every industry, whether they aspire to being CEOs or not.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

You are about to meet a cross-section of some of the most powerful and successful CEOs in the world. They range in age from their twenties to their sixties, come from widely divergent backgrounds, and work in completely different industries…

But every one of these successful executives has used the same 10 rules in getting to the top. Now you can too!

What qualities does it take to be CEO of a small start-up company in Silicon Valley? To head a huge media conglomerate headquartered in New York City? To leapfrog your way up the career ladder? To launch a successful new business venture? The answer is it takes the same qualities. Successful people, says D.A. Benton, may vary enormously in their personalities, temperaments, and goals, but in the ways that really count, star achievers are more alike than they are different.

Benton, a world-famous executive consultant who has been profiled in Fortune, Time, and The New York Times and has coached many of the world's most powerful executives, is the author of the classic bestseller How to Think Like a CEO – a book which gave readers insight into the decision-making processes of those at the top of their fields. For this follow-up book, she has interviewed hundreds of executives to find out exactly what they do differently than the also-rans – to provide an inside look at CEOs in action. How do they assess risks and opportunities in a new venture? How do they put together deals? How do they convince others to follow them? How do they manage a crisis?

Benton analyzes the leadership styles of such diverse individuals as Reuben Marks, head of Colgate-Palmolive; Apple's legendary Steven Jobs; top defense lawyer Gerry Spence; Brian McCune, CEO of e-merging Technologies; Dinita Johnson Hughes, CEO of Edgewater Systems; Doug Conant, President of Nabisco Foods and General Colin Powell. Benton has discovered that there are certain qualities that all of these CEOs have in common. These qualities become the basis for the ten rules that anyone can follow to achieve CEO-like results – at any level, in any career, in any industry. The ten rules are:
*Be Yourself, Unless You're a Jerk
*See Around Corners
*Act Like a CEO Even When You Don't Feel Like It
*Go Big or Go Home
*And more!

Whether your ambition is to become the CEO, start your own company, get a promotion, or just have a long and rewarding career where you command tremendous respect and admiration, this no-nonsense and insightful book will help you achieve your goal.

About the Author

D.A. Benton founded Benton Management Resources in 1976 to provide executive development and career counseling. She has worked in seventeen countries and her numerous media appearances around the world have brought her wide acclaim. Her clients include AT&T, American Express, Pepsi, United Airlines, Nabisco, Mobil Oil, PricewaterhouseCoopers & Lybrand, and NASA. Benton is also the bestselling author of How to Think Like a CEO and Secrets of a CEO Coach.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade; 1st edition (October 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071359982
• ISBN-13: 978-0071359986
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,109,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where is the beef?, July 28, 2003

By 

Stephen Northcutt (Kauai, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Act Like a CEO: 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There (Paperback)

I did get one soundbite that I hope I can use in my life from this book, "Be yourself, unless you're a jerk". However, I got so tired of: be nice, have integrity, be an example, on page after page I was only able to make it through half of the book. All of that is important, but they covered that quite well in kindergarten. If you pick it up to read on the plane bring a backup book; you will need it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No startling revelations, November 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Act Like a CEO: 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There (Hardcover)

This book is dull and does not unravel anything that the average person who can rise to the top cannot derive on its own - if you are just graduating from college, this may seem appropriate, if you've been around in the business world - seek other material. One reading suggestion, which is light and very simple, but a good reminder of what's required is the book by Lencioni: " The 5 temptations of a CEO" - worth an hour while waiting at the airport between flights.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CEO's: Walking the talk and talking the walk, July 5, 2001

By 

Richard Corbett (Plainsboro, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Act Like a CEO: 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There (Hardcover)

In How to Act Like a CEO, Debra Benton interviews CEO's from a broad range of industries, and then sets out the common elements that brought their power and success. In ten chapters - reflecting the ten rules for getting to the top - she intersperses her own assessment of how those success secrets work. Included are insights, advice and quotes from CEO's on everything from integrity to the CEO as number one salesman for the company.

Although the title suggests that "acting" is a CEO focus, and the book includes a chapter full of advice on just that, much broader leadership territory is covered. The chapter on integrity - "Be Yourself, Unless You're a Jerk" - is the first chapter and also the most compelling. You can act like a CEO, but the act will collapse without the continous practice of the highest integrity.

As leadership books go, How to Act Like a CEO comes down heavily on the side of long hard work in every aspect of your career. You must work at getting better every day. You must be passionate about your career. You must act like a leader and be of good cheer - even when you don't feel like it. This is a demanding book!

Fortunately, some of the ten rules - "Cut Through the Junk" and "Keep Good Company" - call for maintaining a healthy balance between work and play, and delegating effectively to take the pressure off. The CEO's interviewed come across as somewhat harried, but insisting on having fun, looking for opportunities, and emerging as the heroes of of any crisis - with many a war story to tell.

How to Act Like a CEO is an energizing work. It tells you how hard it is, but then gets you to see how you can meet the challenges that you think you can't. It belongs on the bookshelves of leaders everywhere.