60-Minute CEO

Book excerpt: Looking toward the C-suite? Take heed. Author and serial CEO Dick Cross pulls back the curtain on this top leadership role, explaining in his new book that being a successful leader, running a business, and doing it extraordinarily well isn't a full-time job. In 60-Minute CEO: The Fast Track to Top Leadership, Cross makes the case that the single greatest determinant of business success revolves around the job at the top. Cross suggests that the most important, and often overlooked, duty for a CEO is thinking about how to improve his or her business and how to be a leader. Cross also reveals that a mediocre leader can be transformed into an exemplary one simply by refining two key things: thinking and character. In Cross's trademark conversational style, he conveys why strategy and execution, while important, should take a back seat to authenticity and responsibility, and that the essential elements of the CEO role can be accomplished in several 60-minute sessions every week. Executives may fill their time with other tasks, but leading and running a company requires explicit skills different from those needed for any other corporate position. The good news is that those skills are easy to learn, fun to do, and not time-consuming. In an entertaining style, Cross offers executives the fast track to the top leadership position. And while 60 minutes may seem like a quick fix, as Cross sees it, three 60-minute sessions a week devoted solely to considering your business and your role as leader are crucial to business and leadership success. In 60-Minute CEO, Dick Cross brings over 25 years of experience of transforming companies in various stages of underperformance into industry powerhouses. Cross combines his knowledge and experience with the stories and lessons of preeminent leaders and thinkers including General George Patton and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.