How to become CEO, Leadership lessons from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger

As a CEO of VMWare, Pat Gelsinger impressed everyone in the corporate with his leadership style. Here leadership highlights from Pat. It will help us to achieve success in professional career.
Gelsinger was given career advice by EMC cofounder Jack Egan, who told him to “dress like a CEO” and “learn corporate finance,” according to Forbes. Gelsinger has been asked “But is that still the best way to become a CEO?”

Identify gaps in your knowledge

“Normally someone has followed a career progression to get to the point where you are considered to be the CEO,” Gelsinger said, “and [in] that career progression normally you are progressing through a discipline or a small number of disciplines that gets you to that point.

“When you become the CEO you’re managing all disciplines, whether it’s legal, whether it’s finance, whether it’s operations, whether it’s sales. So you almost always show up with inadequacies in your vitae of the areas that you don’t have firsthand experience in.” How do you identify those gaps in your knowledge? Gelsinger said that people should look at the CEO of their company and compare their skills with their CEO’s skills. How do they measure up? When you see your gaps, Gelsinger said, you should figure out how to fill them.

Do great job in whatever role you’re in

“The career advice I’ve given to people is number one, do a great job in whatever role you’re in, and number two prepare yourself for the next role you want to be in.”

‘Keep broadening you beyond where you are’

Gelsinger explained that the career advice he was given by Egan can be summarized to identifying gaps in your knowledge and making an effort to fill them. “You have to do things to keep broadening you beyond where you are. Keep refreshing you. Because it’s a consuming job. In the CEO job, you should say I want to be in this role for a decade. And are you living at a pace where you can do it for a decade or beyond as well? Some people really need relaxation and beach time.”

Here are Pat Gelsinger’s 5 L’s on his Leadership style:

• Listens – A good leader listens. They listen with an open mind to their peers, employees and most importantly their customers. Listen for enlightenment, that’s when great ideas can be found.
• Learns – A good leader never stops learning and building new skills. In this day in age, technology goes obsolete in a few years. The leader must be motivated to learn and stay up to date with the changes. Maybe I have to get some of the engineers or sales or marketing people privately in my office and help me understand what is really going on – and explore the facts behind the facts.
• Lifts – A good leader lifts his employees by motivating them and providing them with the opportunities to succeed.
• Links – A good leader links effectively by building great relationships. They also ensure their employees work well together as a team. Great leaders break down silos within organizations to build trust and nurture the exchange of ideas and skillsets.
• Loves – Above all, a good leader must love what they do. They should be passionate, because seeing a passionate leader is what motivates the employees. A great leader loves his company, products, employees, communities, and customers. It’s a passion that every leader should have for every aspect of their business – with all its inherent challenges and rewards.

Reference :

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/life-lessons-leadership-pat-gelsinger-1

https://www.insider.com/career-advice-vmware-ceo-pat-gelsinger-how-to-be-a-ceo-2017-3