The CEO Leadership Pipeline

In late June, I organized and spoke on a panel at ACCESSE, CESSE’s flagship event that brings together leaders across the association and STEM community. My panel—The CEO Leadership Pipeline: Advancing Your Career—brought together three distinct perspectives: mine as a long-serving association CEO who rose through the ranks at different orgazniations, a peer CEO who took a different path, and a recruiter who has placed 100s of executives in top roles.

Together, we explored what makes the CEO role in associations both unique and demanding and how rising leaders can prepare for it.

What Makes This Role Different

There are a few challenges that make the CEO position distinct from other senior roles:

You report to a board of directors and that board changes regularly. Unlike other executive positions, where your supervisor may remain consistent for years, association CEOs often have a new “boss” every 1–2 years. Each new president or board chair brings new expectations, priorities, and communication preferences.
You must lead across functional areas. As CEO, you’re not just an expert in one discipline. You’re responsible for aligning finance, programs, marketing, membership, advocacy and keeping the moving together toward the mission.
You balance vision with operational execution. You have to articulate a compelling strategy and make sure the trains run on time. That dual mandate isn’t easy.

Leadership Lessons That Endure

As we talked about our different career paths, I was struck by how little of this work is about having all the answers. In my experience, one of the most important CEO skills is knowing the limits of your expertise and building the right team around you to fill in the gaps.

Here are a few leadership lessons I shared during the session:

Hire well. You can’t do it all, and you shouldn’t try. Surround yourself with smart, ethical, mission-driven people.
Ask great questions. Don’t micromanage. Your job is to ask questions that push your team to think deeply, act boldly, and stay aligned with strategic goals.
Lead with humility and purpose. Vision inspires, but follow-through builds trust.

Preparing for the CEO Role

If you’re thinking about the next step in your leadership journey, consider these prompts:

Are you comfortable operating in environments with ambiguous or shifting priorities?
Can you adjust your communication style for different audiences, including board members, staff, and external partners?
Do you know what kind of leader you want to be and how that aligns with your organization’s needs?

The CEO role is not just a title change. It requires a shift in mindset from subject-matter expert to enterprise leader, from decision-maker to vision-setter.

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

Whether you’re early in your journey or already in the top job, I’d love to hear from you:

What do you think is an essential quality in a leader?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or share this post with someone who’s thinking about their own leadership path.