When asked, 88% of Americans will say they’re above average drivers. In the ability to get along with others, 25% of students rate themselves in the top 1%. When couples are asked to estimate their individual contributions to household work, the combined total routinely exceeds 100%. These are all statistical impossibilities. They’re also great examples of how we’re predisposed to overrate our abilities and contributions. As an aspiring CEO candidate, it’s important to have the humility to recognize your inherent, self-serving bias and counteract it through the following steps:
- Objectively assess your capabilities versus what’s needed
- Fill your skill gaps and gauge your progress on the way
- Refuse to play politics in the process
What the company needs
Assessing your capabilities starts with understanding what the company needs in its next leader. Brad Smith, the former CEO of financial software giant Intuit, uses a horse racing analogy: “The reason there are very few Triple Crown winners,” he says, “is because the Kentucky Derby is a very different track from the Preakness, which are both different from the Belmont. The right horse will win on the right track. If you’re a candidate, first ask yourself in an intellectually honest way, ‘What does the company most need?’ and then ‘Do I have that skill set today?’”
To understand if you have what’s needed, and where you stand, analyze your abilities along at least four dimensions. The first is breadth of experience and record (for example, leading transformational change, delivering a profit-and-loss statement, and representing the company externally). The second is knowledge and expertise (as it relates to such things as financial acumen, sales leadership, technology, target markets, and industry trends). The third is leadership skill (for example, your ability to think strategically, establish executive presence, build teams, and show self-awareness). The fourth is the strength of your relationships and overall reputation. How are you viewed by internal stakeholders, such as your boss, peers, direct reports, and influencers? How about by external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, suppliers, regulators, and community leaders? And how do board members size you up? Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, summarizes success on this dimension as whether you have “followership.” “The best definition of a leader,” he reflects, “is if people are willing to follow you.”
Consult others
To help break through your self-serving bias, it’s important to seek others’ views. That might involve getting feedback from mentors, confidants, peers, and so on, but more often than not, you should ask someone else to gather that 360-degree information. The person who collects the feedback could be a trusted colleague, but most often, it’s an external coach.
While some leaders view having a coach as a weakness, the best point to the sporting world, where no player or team gets to the championship without a great coach. Nasdaq’s CEO Adena Friedman shares, “Before I became CEO, I was getting 360s and coaching over a period of years. The coach gathered all the feedback. Then I sat down with them, and we discussed it together. It helped crystalize the feedback into ideas for improvement and action.”
Robert Smith, founder and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity partners, explains the value of doing so. “If you’re right-handed, you usually have a weak left hand.” A great coach, he suggests, helps you see “What’s your left hand? What are you weak at that you can learn to be better at? And what are the things you need?”
A learning journey
Once you’ve assessed how you score along these four dimensions, it’s time to start improving yourself. Think of it as embarking on a learning journey that involves cycles of taking action and then reflecting with a close group of advisers on the progress being made. Such journeys typically combine ongoing leadership coaching with participation in various forums or roundtables, visits to other companies, targeted reading lists, briefings from experts, and finding opportunities to gain experience and build relationships by dealing with the media, presenting to the board, and representing the company externally.
Pursuing this path requires striking a delicate balance. Without being seen as self-promoting or currying favor, you’ll want to increase your visibility so those who need to know are aware that you want to make the final ascent. “I’ve seen this go awry so many times when people begin to run for the job,” shares Intuit’s Smith. “They almost campaign for the role, and that’s the quickest way to throw you off track.”
How it all comes together
Former CEO of Westpac, Gail Kelly shares her keys to success: “Don’t play politics. Don’t undermine people. None of that ends well. Be authentic, transparent, a team player, and an active supporter of colleagues for the greater good, even if they’re also in the running for the role.” Her advice reinforces the importance of taking a gut check of your motivations and intentions. If they’re not sustainable, you simply won’t be able to walk the line with authenticity.
Michael Fisher, the CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center summarizes how it all comes together: “It’s a quiet ambition pursued with humility. You gain confidence as you go by learning and growing every day.”
Getting the balance right doesn’t just set you in good stead as a CEO candidate. It’s also a win for the institution. What company isn’t better off for having more service-oriented leaders connecting across the enterprise and boldly solving for the good of the whole organization—especially if they’re doing so while delivering on their core responsibilities, building their self-awareness, and developing new capabilities and more fruitful relationships?
Adapted from CEO for All Seasons. Copyright © 2025, Dewar, Keller, Malhotra, Strovink. Reproduced by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.