Top Three Career Launchpads to Help You Become a CEO Faster

Management consulting firm ghSMART studied 17,000 senior executives over 10 years and identified three types of "career launchpads" that help "accelerators" become CEOs faster:

1. Retreat to Advance. The most common approach is to move to a smaller department or organization, or to start your own business, taking on greater responsibilities, even building a business from scratch to maturity. Your position will rise along with the growth of the business.
2. Leap Forward. More than one-third of individuals said "yes" to opportunities that far exceeded their own expectations and abilities. Of course, becoming a CEO at a young age means they can succeed without relevant work experience.
3. Take on a Hot Potato. This may seem counterintuitive, but solving problems that others cannot is the most direct way to prove your value. This hot potato could be an underperforming business unit, a failed product, bankruptcy, etc. A chaotic situation means challenges and opportunities to get things right. Over 30% of accelerators rose to positions this way.

The path to becoming a CEO varies, and effectively utilizing these three career launchpads is especially important for professionals facing obstacles, such as women. Generally speaking, women take 30% longer than men to become CEOs.