Skills That Matter
More than ever, companies need leaders who are good with people. Landing a job as a CEO today is no longer all about industry expertise and financial savvy. What companies are really seeking are leaders with strong social skills. That’s what the authors discovered after analyzing nearly 7,000 job descriptions for C-suite roles.
Their explanation for this trend can be encapsulated as:
1) Business operations are becoming more complex and tech-centered; workforce diversity is growing; and firms face greater public scrutiny than ever before.
2) Those conditions call for leaders who are adept communicators, relationship builders, and people-oriented problem solvers.
3) To succeed in the future, companies will need to focus on those skills when they evaluate CEO candidates and develop in-house talent.
For a long time, whenever companies wanted to hire a CEO or another key executive, they knew what to look for: somebody with technical expertise, superior administrative skills, and a track record of successfully managing financial resources. When courting outside candidates to fill those roles, they often favored executives from companies such as GE, IBM, and P&G and from professional-services giants such as McKinsey and Deloitte, which had a reputation for cultivating those skills in their managers.
