Verified answer

It really is all about personality and ability to work with a wide variety of people. CEOs have vision and are passionate about where they are taking the company. People really believe them. And these are the smart people in uppermanagement so its not that they blindly follow him. They know what the CEO is saying makes sense and trust him. Its not like a politician who says what people want to hear just to get a vote. That doesn't work for a CEO.

Often the CEO is a cheerleader for the company. They handle the media with ease, answering their questions but subtly steering it back to the topics they want to talk about.

They have strong relationships with a lot of the right people and have an impressive background.

They have emotional fortitude, are not afraid to tell it like it is but they do it in the "right" way.

In general CEOs are people that others want to work with. There are very few people with the exact chemistry to meet all the requirements of a good CEO. That is why they get paid so much.

a dynamite personality is often quoted.

It usually requires someone who has a good grasp of the big picture, knows what needs to be done, can assemble a team and can execute.

The people who are future CEO's usually do more than what is required - and give their boss more than one option, with data and information to support each one, and well-thought analysis.

It's not brown-nosing, it's attention to detail and showing that you want to see the problem solved. Such people are promoted through the ranks because they get it done, and don't wait for anyone. If there's a roadblock, they remove it. If there's a nagging problem, they make it go away. They don't make excuses, they stay late so there are no excuses. And, they don't wait for the boss to ask them for something. They know it needs to be done ahead of time.

There is also education required of course, and many companies will not promote you without the requisite degrees - typically an MBA, with a finance and/or accounting background. But they don't teach personality, only the boring numbers.

Knowledgeable(IQ) + Vision(Think differently) + Emotional Quotation(Care about his people), willing to take all challenges, embrace new idea, a very positive forward "out of box" thinker.