We all keep hearing about that word; the one that is
supposed to be the glue of organizations, the developer of financial and human capital
sustenance and growth. Yes, I am
referring to leadership. It is not a
prized position. In fact, when things go
well, it’s all about the team, and when it goes bad, it’s all about their bad
judgment. But I am not here to define
leadership. Many sources, including Center for Work Life
blogs have done this already, but I want to shed some light on managing
your career as a leader. How would one go about using one’s abilities and
talents and focus on developing the competencies necessary to choose the right
companies, functions and teams to fulfill the leadership challenge? Pinpointing the needed competencies in
today’s highly divergent geographical and industrial market is a hard enough question. I am aiming to answer what will be useful in
the future.
I have examined hundred of executives profiles over the past
decade or so and have interviewed numerous top manager regarding the talents
and competencies of current and future leaders, especially within the C-Suite
and have found some clear “cuts” if you will (pun intended).
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Credit: James Martin (CNET)
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The
truth is that although there used to be clear lines between the various C-level
jobs and their functions, today’s
technology and global decision oriented market demands that at the
forefront of one’s technical and functional expertise, executives hone in on
their leadership and business acumen as a whole. Every C-level executive needs to have a plan
for how to develop a structure that will provide a competitive edge. This is exactly the reason why upon promotion
to the C-Suite, executives can no longer solely rely on what they had as competencies,
but rather to quickly add to the repertoire as relates to business strategies
and contributions to key decisions within the overall organization, rather than
their unit or department or function.
It is now more important than ever for functions and departments
to come out of the parochial thinking and respond quickly to what the organization’s
vision dictates, so that they can get the necessary actions built by their
teams in conjunction.
Whether a CIO, CMO, CSHO, CHRO, CFO, or CEO, the executive
suite, is less exclusively concerned with functions within their role, and is
instead more attuned with leadership
and organization effectiveness across multiple platforms, functions, and
regions across the world. In a sense,
the C-Suite today is no longer just a function leader,
but rather a “Hybrid” of all function leaders.
One of the common concerns I hear when working with our C-Suite clients
is that they feel they have more in common with their executive peers than with
the people within their function whom they have been amongst for years. “This is not a bad thing” I tell them. It means you are evolving to your needs” I
tell them. So here are some needs and the talents and competencies necessary to
meet them:
1. With the advents
of technology and generational changes in the market from baby boomers to millennials,
all C-level positions have to poise themselves to manage a workforce and a
customer base that has grown up in the digital age and has a strong desire for
speed and immediate communication.
2. One of the
greatest and most emphasized themes concerning leadership within the C-Suite is
the concept of risk management. Due to
the various global events that have shaped the economy since a decade ago, such as 911 and the Wall Street Revolution,
executives need to act as partners in making rational choices. Balancing the agenda between new
opportunities and assessing them for merits strategically and financially should
be at the heart of every C-level leader. This will mean becoming more culturally and
internationally aware and training their team
on real-time operational and legal effectiveness across multiple time
zones. Safety, security, and reputation
management are all becoming integral to the senior leadership’s agenda.
3. Less risk means
more need for collaboration, increased need for transparency, and innovation and a more
active rather than reactive mindset.
4. Investing largely
in succession
plan development is a huge component of competitiveness among
organizations, and as a talent specialist, I am so often concerned to see this
be treated as an HR priority, rather than an entire organization’s goal toward
striking a competitive advantage. Ironically, our research shows that it’s now
more common for the CEOs to owe their jobs to the boards rather than to their
predecessors. Over the past year there was a notable jump in the number of CEOs
who were recruited from their company’s board. I hope that this comes with more
accountability at the top. Internal hires are certainly recommended as C-level
recruits, as they create the right morale for teams, but board appointed
candidates are as good as the board’s effectiveness. Is the board rightly
facilitated? Is the board diverse enough?
5. With more women in the executive suite, more millennials
and more demands in work-life
balance, extrapolating the link between top performers’ personal values and
their valued proposition to the organization will need to be a top priority. Leadership within the executive suite needs to
be directly tied to the key performance indicators of an organization to deem
it as surmountable for the success and ROI of talent to organization performance. Vision execution will no longer be the CEO’s
job, but that of the entire C-Suite.
6. All and all, the
types of skills increasingly in favor are strong
communication, empathy,
collaboration, and trust building. One skill that will be of foremost
importance will be the ability to elicit public trust as the face of the
company. That will include facility and credibility with socially responsible
initiatives. To thrive as a C-level executive, an individual needs to be a good
communicator and team
player, a culturally aware collaborator, capable of leading regardless of
rank, a strategic thinker who can connect with key players quickly, able to engage
their team and customers with flexibility and resistant to stress and burnout.
This last theme has run consistently through my findings in
that the requirements for all the C-level jobs have shifted toward Emotional
Intelligence and “softer” leadership skills. Technical skills are merely a
starting point, for what is the success factor. In other words, the Hybrid
executive can no longer lead from the “Suite”, he/she has to lead, eager and
starry eyed, with a diamond hand from anywhere, and anytime, Emmy Awards not
included!
