The Road to CEO: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top [Paperback]

Sharon Voros (Author), Philippe De Backer (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002

Now in paperback -- the secret to getting the key to the executive suite!

In today's competitive workplace, hard work, self-sacrifice, and a great resume simply aren't enough to propel executives to upper management. Achievements and credentials are only the minimum requirements -- to stand above the competition, executives must cultivate the intangibles: the elements of Leadership Presence.

In The Road to CEO, seasoned executive recruiter Sharon Voros presents her own insights and those of hundreds of top executive recruiters to show aspiring managers how to enhance their executive presence and significantly improve their career prospects. Using case studies, interviews, and profiles, Voros describes how to develop the leadership skills that big businesses are looking for, as well as the personal abilities executives need in order to get the job. This essential resource reveals:

-- How recruiters assess Leadership Presence

-- How aspiring executives can assess their own Leadership Presence

-- Who has Leadership Presence

-- How to enhance Leadership Presence

With invaluable inside information on what it really takes to make the grade, The Road to CEO reveals the crucial traits that distinguish successful candidates from the runners-up.

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580627099
• ISBN-13: 978-1580627092
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,806,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reviews Interviewing Basics - A light read, April 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Road to CEO: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top (Paperback)

The premises of the book are: executive presence is the most important aspect of becoming a CEO, headhunters are the most influential people in the executive placement process (so you better be nice to them), and that poise, good looks, and charm win the day.

The book goes through the basics of successful interviewing (CEO level or not), but does not distinguish itself among other books of a similar nature.

Author Voros is lucky she will never have to be on the other side of the interview desk. She tries her best to define executive presence, but ends up stating, "Like pornography, leadership presence is hard to define." Perhaps so, but analogies to pornography are definitely not appropriate for upcoming CEOs.

Later in the book, she presents the leadership presence profile of a successful businesswoman who got herself where she is today by succeeding within the same company for a number of years, not by zig-zagging between companies and functions (also not by working with head hunters). Good thing too, as the profiled Ms. Miller sounds like she would not survive one of author Vero's screening interviews because she "looks like a librarian," in sharp contrast to Voro's advice in Chapter 6 "How You Look."

I am not a CEO, but have reported directly to and worked directly with a number in different industries. Some of the CEOs fit the "looks like an airline pilot" standard espoused in this book, but they also are the CEOs I watched crash their companies into the ground. The "quirky" CEOs I have worked with outperformed the "airline pilots" every time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty look at how recruiting really works, May 8, 2002

By 

Don Ashcroft (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to CEO: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top (Paperback)

Voros slices, dices and dissects how headhunters assess job candidates in a painfully objective but highly readable style. Her stories about the people who showed up for interviews wearing the wrong kind of clothes or those who ordered the wrong kind of meal at the lunch interview are amusing. It's sobering to realize that how you look, act and talk are being examined so closely by recruiters. It's clearly not just what's between your ears that counts when you're going for C-level positions.

Good reading for anyone planning to hunt for an executive job.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many surprising gems of wisdom, March 26, 2003

By 

Bob Nichols (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to CEO: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top (Paperback)

I recommend this book to anyone interested in being promoted in their career, whether to manager, VP or CEO. As a young career ladder-climber, I found many gems of wisdom in this book: most are common sense, but a few are surprises, like acting and dressing the part,talking about your mistakes and ordering fish.
Even for someone who isn't interested in climbing the corporate ladder, this is a practical book and an illuminating self-diagnostic.