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.

Does Social Learning Really Work?

One of the top challenges for businesses today is learning and development issues. Each industry is preparing for growth and a million training tools, products, courses that have evolved claim to deliver desired results – with no tool to measure learning or results.

People learn from each other in social environment and casual settings from time immemorial, encouraged by a sense of competition, inadequacy or basic survival instincts. The popular belief system that is prevalent and most of us are conditioned to believe that learning happens only in classrooms.

The reality is classroom instructions are mostly just informational and even if it leads to skill acquisition, it does not prepare the learner to try the new skill in the context of real life or business scope. It is only if there is opportunity for experiential learning, individuals can relate to learning; knowledge they receive, its application and think critically about their learning experience.

The term social learning can be applied and effective in any setting or circumstances where there is a group of individuals with a shared learning goal – either consciously or instinctively or both.

Imagine “Decision Making”; “Presentation Skills”; “Team Building” “Strategic Thinking” or any of the popular franchisee models that is generally delivered with a power point and accessories – Unless learner takes critical decisions in real time scenarios or presents to a live audience or builds a team for a purpose evaluating individual strengths and think strategically to lead a project or company, where does the learner stand in the crowd?

Even if these modules are taught in class rooms, it is automatically followed by social learning, where the learner practices and his peers or leads guide him towards mastery.

Benefits of social learning

•  Better engagement and better learning
• Opportunity to engage with an expert even in informal setups.
• If you can check within your team for an expert to address critical business challenges and complex issues
•  Cost effective and can be managed with limited budget leveraging strengths internally

Approach towards social learning

• Assess learning needs not based on level or role, but based on individual learning gap and get the learning road map ready regarding what kind of social environment learning suit his style
• Identify preferred learning methods - If one is more attentive in a small group and feels lost in large learning groups, accommodate that.
• Based on the above two, design learning methods. 

A mentoring program, like-minded meet-ups or an action learning project with members from different departments or background, could be great social learning opportunities.