CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sooner or later that plum position is going to become vacant at your workplace. You know you’ll want it, but can you get it? Ask yourself: What’s my track record? Am I smart enough in the right areas? Do people like working with me? Do they respect me? Would they follow me if I were in charge?

Am I CEO material?

Any aspiring ladder-climber should be able to answer these questions—because, without a doubt, the competition thinks it can.

In CEO Material, D. A. Benton shows you how to become highly visible and absolutely indispensable to your organization. You’ll learn how to project confidence, even when something hasn’t gone your way. You’ll recognize the value of being a generalist, able to comprehend every facet of your business’s structure and function. You’ll find out how to keep learning and growing so that you never feel stuck, much less appear so to decision makers. And most importantly, you’ll master four C’s that no true leader can be without:

• Confidence
• Constant Communication
• Craftsmanship
• Coworker Collaboration

Inside, you’ll find a lifetime of top-level professional development advice that can make the difference. “CEO Whisperer” D. A. Benton is your guide to doing what must be done in order to make significant moves up the ladder. It’s not just about showing up;it’s about having integrity, taking charge, accepting challenges, and making an ally out of everyone you work with.

Conduct yourself like a CEO and you’ll be first in line for each new promotion in your field. Transform yourself from an average employee to an indispensable corporate player with the help of CEO Material.

From the Back Cover

When you’re CEO material, everyone knows it. But it has to start with you.

“Debra is the leadership Peter Drucker of the 21st Century.”
—John Bianchi, CEO, Frontier Gunleather

“CEO Material is a practical, engaging, and people savvy instruction manual on how to dial up your leadership effectiveness and enhance your career.”
—Jim Goldman, CEO and president, Godiva Chocolatier

“Whether you are already part way up the organizational ladder or just on the first rung, if you only have time to read one book this year … this one is a must!”
—Gordon Peters, founding chairman, CEO, The Institute for Management Studies

“A great book for pausing, taking stock and asking: Am I developing all the qualities of character that will allow me to lead and achieve great things?”
—Rick O’Donnell, CEO and president, Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence

“One effective way to learn how to become a CEO is to spend years learning from the best. But, if you don’t have that much time, you can simply read CEO Material.”
—Rulon F. Stacey, Ph.D., president and CEO, Poudre Valley Health System, and Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Winner

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (April 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071605452
• ISBN-13: 978-0071605458
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #106,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The authoritative confidence builder that many CEOs, leaders, management, and workers need, May 28, 2009

By	Bruce B. Razban "Bruce B. Razban" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews

This book from Debra Benton, the New York Times Best Seller author, does a fascinating job of telling us what a CEO is supposed to be, and what is meant by leadership.

Debra is the premier world class executive coach and educator who has created a monumental and real basis to judge CEOs. Her trademark extensive research and intensive fact finding interviews with CEOs and others, insight, and clear and easy to understand writing has made a masterpiece that out does her own previous work.

In my opinion, we are all CEOs of our own lives, therefore CEOs of our work and career. This book helps us regardless of where we stand in the corporate organization charts. It shows us the way up in clear and concise steps. This book empowers us to understand what it is to be a CEO and how to lead at any level of the organization.

You do not have to be a CEO to benefit from this book. This book is written for all of us who are working.

In view of all the negative images of CEOs broadcast in media in 2008-2009, this is a timely and productive insight to tell us what is right and what is not right. It helps CEOs understand and implement highest levels of integrity and profitability as two interdependent processes and procedures.

In fact, the entire media is telling us what a CEO and leadership at any level of organization is not supposed to be. This book single-handedly tells us how to be an outstanding CEO, and more importantly, how to lead. As a senior management consultant in Silicon Valley, CA I found the material in this book to be the authoritative confidence builder that many CEOs, leaders, management, and workers have been looking for to find better success in the work place.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, as expected, June 13, 2009

By	Kevin King (Longmont, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Debra has a real gift for taking a complex topic and turning it into both an entertaining and yet personally challenging adventure. There is much here from her earlier work but with a slightly different twist, including lots of challenges like "If you choose to... (because it is your choice)" and solid, tested, and trusted recommendations in nearly every paragraph.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Indispensable Book from D.A. Benton, May 19, 2009

By	Heidi A. Olinger "Heidi Olinger, CEO, Pretty ... (Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of the greatest lessons is that each of us must take charge of life or life will take charge of us. Debra Benton once again delivers the primer on the knowledge and practical steps one must take to be in charge of one's own career and its success. CEO Material not only is for CEOs and those in the making, but for everyone who wants professional and personal success. And, at heart, every person wants to be his or her level best. Benton has written another indispensable book for grasping how to move ahead, differentiate yourself, and happily lead.