What Is That Called Certified CEO?

Just when I was beginning to believe “Entrepreneur” is the new trendy title; many find “CEO” more sophisticated. It does not end there – mere wanting to be one – there is whole lot of people who are all set to be certified as CEO from a dozen institutes that offer such courses.

This probably means – a qualified CEO (someone who has passed that CEO Program) is doing a project manager’s job in your company or a promising CEO is waiting for your current CEO or another key member in the executive board to resign so that he can take over or getting ready to use that tag at this own will, when he builds his own startup. I miserably failed to understand the rationale behind attending this course.

Being a CEO is not really about wearing a label or a new badge or aping a few traits– it is neither about believing there is an automatic raise in competency just if you adorn yourself with that title or attend a course, or by reading blogs that feeds you about their habits, what they eat, what books they read, how they cope with situations and how they lead – it is a fool’s paradise.

Does all this boil down to a cluster of behaviors a person need to have and develop, multidimensional intelligence – social, mental, financial and even spiritual – he is supposed to be born with, the milestones he has reached in his life and the business outcomes he was instrumental in achieving?

When you let yourself be lulled to believe by institutes minting money selling such courses, you only let them build a thriving business on your weak spots and latent aspirations, you do not build yours. 

You are not even close to being CEO material if you are still in a state of mind to receive ready inputs regarding your dream role by someone who is not half as qualified as you are – You are miles away from self-discovery. The only qualification they probably have is to churn some content and simulation in software to feed you in a class as they do not own it beyond that nor do they nurture you till you arrive there. Do they?

Being a CEO is a process like being anything else – a learning process. A course, a blog, a seminar can partially facilitate that mind shift or broaden your thinking horizon.

If you are not self-aware, cannot self-learn to bridge the knowledge and skill gap and be self-reliant first, you are most likely to fail as a CEO or an entrepreneur as you have not been able to stop thinking like an employee. You need programs to change the way you think, strategic or critical - not a program that is sold in the name of a role.

Here are some titles I found in LinkedIn

CEO, Investor

Founder and CEO

Entrepreneur and marketer

I tried to imagine one add this in their profile - PMP, ITIL, Certified CEO and it is a funny sight from what I just imagined. If I could not drive the point still, here is the secret I will reveal, without charging any fee. The surest way to get there is Continuous learning

The gap between you today and you as CEO in near or remote future will be narrowed down only by what you learn along the way, not by a few slides in a power point presentation.