The Path to Leadership

A few years ago I met a VP of Engineering of a fairly large publicly traded company. He introduced himself as “Results focused leader”, that was quite impressive.  Unfortunately, it was also the last byte of leadership I saw from him. As a matter of fact when it comes to executive positions you do not see leaders too often, even thought you hear the word all the time.

What does it take to become a leader, is there a secret passage? Or maybe a stairway covered with red carpet? Or it’s just a corporate ladder?

Well, it’s not a path or stairway… it’s a maze! Dark, multidimensional, decorated with confusing and fake road signs, with a lot of traps and dead ends. Good luck navigating it by yourself ;) Of course it could be done and we all heard the stories about people rising to success and making lasting dents of history. Of course it only takes incredible talent, the right time / the right place, and phenomenal luck. Such combination can not be arranged and is akin to hitting a jackpot. But do only people who win the lottery make money? Nope, as a matter of fact most of people who made money through out the history of humanity did not even play the lottery.