The Unwritten Rules

Maximize your chances to get promoted to the executive level

As predictable career paths have become extinct in most organizations, managers aspiring to the C-level job are left to their own devices to determine how to advance their careers. Even in companies committed to talent development, guidance to aspiring executives is often vague and contradictory. This happens, executive coach John Beeson argues, because executive promotions are made based on the decision makers' intuitive sense of whether or not a manager can succeed at higher levels within the organization. Beeson decodes these leadership criteria--the unwritten rules--that companies use to make decisions about who gets promoted and who doesn't, and identifies the six core 'selection factors' that are imperative for success at the executive level

• Demonstrating strategic skills
• Building a strong management team
• Managing implementation
• Exhibiting the capacity for innovation and change
• Working across organizational boundaries
• Projecting executive presence

Filled with stories of managers who successfully climbed up the executive ladder-and some who struggled-The Unwritten Rules is an invaluable resource for aspiring executives.

John Beeson is principal of Beeson Consulting, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in succession planning and top talent development, executive assessment and executive coaching, and organization design and change. His articles on succession planning and talent development have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Across the Board, and Business Horizons.