The path to CEO rarely runs in a straight line; sometimes you have to move backward or sideways in order to get ahead. More than 60% of sprinters took a smaller role at some point in their career. They may have started something new within their company (by launching a new product or division, for example), moved to a smaller company to take on a greater set of responsibilities, or started their own business. In each case, they used the opportunity to build something from the ground up and make an outsize impact.

Google staff site reliability engineer Liz Fong-Jones: “My coworkers and I are having our right to a safe workplace being endangered.” She is one of the lead organizers for a campaign for stricter conduct rules for employees at Google, as employees experience stress and fear of physical reprisal when internal conversations are leaked to media.

Study suggests women in their fifties are the most inspirational and effective leaders, so why are men more likely to become managers? Lindsay Nicholson, editorial director of Good Housekeeping, hopes the research will spark a change in the industry: “Women over 55 have hithero been invisible in business terms. What is happening now is a wonderful unleashing of previously untapped talent.”