Who wants to be a CEO?

Corporate happiness, we are made to believe, is always at the top of the organisation. Considering the glamour and dollars it attracts, unsurprisingly there is a ‘gold rush’ to get up the greasy corporate ladder. Increasingly, there is evidence of very high stress levels in corporate leadership, manifesting itself in syndromes as diverse as heart disease and white collar crime.

This rush to the top of the organisation often results in  the ‘sacrifice’ of a good functional specialist for the generalist CEO role and in the process the risk of  losing out on both positions, This beckons the question, should the position of CEO be the most sought after job? Or should each industry look at the roles creating the greatest value and make them their ‘heroes’? Interestingly the highest paid people in software development businesses are technologists, such as ‘Enterprise Architects’ and not CEOs!