When you have fought hard and worked diligently to achieve success, you need to pause (for at least a moment) and celebrate.

I have had a number of clients achieve great success of a variety of types in recent weeks.  It is always a great pleasure to be able to pause and witness success with high achievers who work so hard to crush their personal and business goals.

Success story #1

Several weeks ago, a client from back east was in town visiting his family.  We had the opportunity to have dinner with them in celebration.  This CEO has been a VP with a financial institution in the west for many years but was determined to take the leap into a CEO role.  I had the honour of coaching him and working alongside him to support his development into being a more strategic leader.  I remember many coaching sessions where he worked hard to prepare himself to present his growth strategy to the Board of Directors of the company he now leads.  He began his new CEO role in eastern Canada in January and is having great success so far.

Success story #2

Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending an evening cocktail party to celebrate another client’s success.  This executive also achieved CEO status. In this case it was of a large international not-for-profit organization that is having a significant impact around the globe.  Her journey from deciding to move on from her previous employer to landing and beginning her new role, took exactly a full year.

Both of these individuals had to work hard over a period of time to prepare themselves for these positions. They worked through a long and arduous top grading process in order to achieve their CEO goal.

The journey to success

There are a few things that were common in both of these journeys.  Some of the key features that were true for both senior leaders included:

1. A keen desire to utilize their gifts and leadership skills at a level of greater authority and accountability.
2. Resilience in the face of rejection and disappointment along the way. Each of these two had their respective eyes on other CEO roles that didn’t work out, along the way.  Yet, their respective landing spots were better than those they head their eyes on previously.
3. An ability to show the recruiters that they have a high level of emotional intelligence.
4. An ability to demonstrate to recruiters they are strategic thinkers and would be able to lead effectively at the highest strategic level, delegating operations to others.
5. Families who supported them fully, knowing that jumping into demanding CEO roles would require some nimbleness and flexibility in the family, particularly during initial onboarding.
6. A willingness to take risks – in one case demonstrated by leaving the existing role to focus more fully on getting into a CEO seat.

Cameron’s Call to Action

1. Look at your current career goal(s) is. How willing are you to put in the effort and to fight your way through roadblocks in order to achieve them?
2. If you are wanting to advance, focus on developing both your emotional intelligence and your strategic leadership skills. Both of these are critical for today’s senior executive.
3. Always remember to celebrate along the way, as you achieve successes. You are worth celebrating.

Cameron is an Executive Coach and Consultant specializing in business growth and creating psychologically healthy workplaces.