Do you possess the manager personality required to ascend to the ranks of management, or even adopt the CEO personality to become the CEO of your company? Gabriel Goldbrain's insights shed light on what it takes to succeed in these roles and have a CEO mindset or a manager mindset.
To be an effective manager, you must bring an analytical mindset to the table, along with solid manager skills and basic accounting knowledge, akin to a CFO mindset, CEO mindset or a manager mindset. Being able to draw conclusions from financial data is crucial for identifying key problems and making informed decisions. However, analysis alone isn't enough; you also need strong communication skills besides your manager mindset or CIO mindset to convey your findings and persuade others to support your ideas, even when they may face opposition.
Success in management requires a proactive manager mindset, also called a CEO mindset, a CEO personality, willingness to go the extra mile, manager skills, self-assessment, an analytical mindset, communication skills, frustration tolerance and a sense of responsibility. Excuses and complaints won't get you far; instead, you need to take ownership of your tasks and deliver results consistently. You should also get used to following orders. Trustworthiness is essential—if senior managers know they can rely on you to get things done, you'll be on the path to advancement and your manager mindset or CEO mindset and CEO skills will be appreciated.
Frustration tolerance is another vital trait of a person with a CEO personality. Rejection or failure may happen, but it's crucial not to give up. Learn from setbacks, communicate better with stakeholders, and keep moving forward with determination. Adopting a CEO mindset or a manager personality means not only managing the day-to-day operations but also having a strategic vision for the company's future. It requires CEO skills or manager skills such as decisiveness, vision, responsibility and the ability to inspire and lead others so you can say you got a manager mindset. Following orders, even when they're difficult or disagreeable, is part of the job, a part of your CEO mindset or CFO mindset. However, there's a line—you should never engage in illegal activities, even if pressured by senior management. Standing up for what's right may mean risking your position, but it's better than jeopardizing your career with unethical behavior, that also is a good example of a manager mindset.
Maintaining mental health and physical health is also essential. Crying in front of your boss or breaking down under pressure can harm your reputation and career prospects, proving you do not have a CFO mindset or a CIO mindset. If you can't handle the demands of long hours, travel, and high-stress situations, perhaps you have not got CEO skills, a manager mindset or a CEO mindset and a management role isn't the right fit. Prioritize your mental health and physical health. Ultimately, self-assessment is key. If you're not cut out for the challenges of management or leadership, it's better to recognize you do not possess a CEO mindset or manager personality early and pursue a different path. Gabriel Goldbrain's advice emphasizes the importance of honesty with yourself and continuous improvement.
Video transcript:
Do you have the personality and skills required to become a successful manager, or even the CEO of your company, or a management consultant? In today's video, you will get some ideas to do a self-assessment to see if you have what it takes.
If you want to become a management consultant, which brings you pretty close to becoming a CEO or at least a successful manager, visit my website www.GabrielGoldbrain.com. There you will read more about the Goldbrain Success Training.
One of the most important things that you have to bring to the table to become a successful manager is an analytical mindset. You should have good numerical skills and some basic accounting knowledge so that you know how to draw conclusions from figures you get from the accountants and from the balance sheet. Only if you have these skills can you understand the key problems and draw the right conclusions.
Drawing the right conclusions won't help you alone; you need other skills like communication skills. You must be able to communicate your results and the consequences that result from your analytical findings. You must be able to convince other managers and maybe also parties who are not so in favor of your ideas, like the works council or the union, of your ideas. This means that sometimes you have to really fight for your analysis and for the things that need to be done because unions or lazy other managers may not want to go that route, as it's often easier and sometimes against their ideas and ideology to do what you propose. So be prepared to fight for your good ideas and for your analytical results. If you don't get your ideas through and cannot convince other parties to walk along and support you, you will never become an excellent manager or a successful manager, and probably you will not become a CEO.
In the day-to-day course of business at a company, in your role, you should be hardworking, go the extra mile, and take responsibility. If you are a person who is counting the hours or always excusing yourself from doing tasks like "Oh, this is not part of my job description," or "I can't do that, I need training first," you won't get anywhere. That's not a manager's attitude. A manager's attitude is "I get things done. I have the responsibility and I will deliver." The same with working hours. If you excuse yourself by saying, "Oh, I will exceed my working hours. I already have three over-hours this week and in total, I have collected 15 hours," you will get nowhere. Get things done, don't complain.
Other character traits required by a successful manager or maybe a potential future CEO include frustration tolerance. You may have worked on a project for several weeks, then you present it to senior managers, and they just reject what you did. That can be frustrating, even though you may have fought like a lion for it, but you could not convince the broader group you were presenting to, maybe for good reasons which you do not fully understand. But here it is important that you don't give up, that you keep going as you do, maybe that you learn from what caused the failure of your project.
Get Involved With The Responsible Co-workers
Sometimes, and this is a good tip as well, it's just that you did not involve those persons to whom you presented well enough. Communicate with them before the meeting, get their commitment before the meeting, maybe present your ideas to them before you do such a meeting. That is how you get the buy-in of these guys, and that will make you successful.
And remember, if you failed in a project, stand up again and go forward with the next project like there was no such event before. There is nothing worse than someone complaining, "Maybe I don't want to take a new project because they will reject it anyway and treat me unfairly." Stop it. No one wants to hear that. Just move on with the same passion and spirit that you had before your failure. Next time you will win.
Sometimes you have to have the ability to just follow orders. This is a difficult one. No one likes people complaining, "I think this is immoral," or "Should we do that? It could be seen as negative." If your boss tells you to do so, unless it's illegal and will bring you into jail or trouble, follow the order. Sometimes it's just better to follow it, shut up, and do it.
One thing I want to mention here is don't follow every order. There are some orders which are clearly illegal, like you have seen in Enron or Wirecard. Sometimes senior management may ask things of you which are clearly illegal. Be prepared for that situation. There are only two choices, particularly if you cannot convince your senior that this is illegal and that you should not do it. The first thing is you engage in these criminal activities, which will jeopardize your whole career. The other option is you say, "I'm not going to do it. I will adhere to the law," and then you must be prepared to be thrown out of your position. These things can happen. Just be prepared for it. No job in the world is worth criminal prosecution.
Gabriel Goldbrain Advice To you
Maybe in such a situation, it's better to find a new employer and preserve your career track record because if you get imprisoned for violating business laws or trading rules, that's much worse than changing your employer. It usually doesn't happen, but it can happen, and be careful when it does.
Other things that may harm your career include healthiness. If you have mental problems, like someone using pressure on you or if you're in critical situations and you start crying in front of your boss, come on, what picture will he have? Will he ever give you a critical job again? No, he won't. Don't cry in front of your boss. If you're not able to master critical projects, tough situations, sometimes brutal working hours, maybe working one or two weeks until 3:00 in the morning, be able to deal with these situations. Don't break down. If you do that, it's for sure a career killer, at least if you're in for an ambitious manager's job or a CEO job. Don't do it. I've seen it happen in consulting projects. It's a no-go. You will lose your reputation. But on the other hand, if you know that you're not that kind of person who can deal with these tough situations, if you don't have your emotions under control, you should consider and really think about if a management job, a management consulting career, or a CEO role is really for you. You need to be able to emotionally get through that and work under pressure.
The same problem arises if you have physical disabilities. If you work 12 hours, 16 hours, have heavy travel with maybe five flights a week, will you be able to master these challenges? If not, then probably a CEO role, a management role, or a management consultant role is not the right thing for you. Be true to yourself on this matter.
I want to recommend two videos to you. The first one is about how to become a CEO, and the second one is about industries with exceptional salaries. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. Thank you for watching.