What Does it Take to be an Effective CEO?
This is a crucial question and one that must be answered well every time an organisation is looking to appoint their new leader.
Unsurprisingly, Harvard has been attributed with a view: producing 7 elements that need to be demonstrated for a person to carry the role off.
These points have been put into a very nice document and shared by Eric Partaker which is attached below. It is being well shared around LI with people expressing preferences for various aspects of the list. Eric should take a well-deserved bow for bringing this to people’s attention.
For brevity and those seriously short of time, the list is:
- Can you develop a simple plan for your strategy? (simplifying complexity is the CEO’s superpower)
- Can you make the culture real – and matter? (walk the talk)
- Can you build teams that are true teams? (the key to driving the strategy)
- Can you lead transformations? (the status quo is very powerful & is the enemy of change)
- Can you really listen? (via all channels and in an active and empathetic manner)
- Can you handle a crisis? (how good a ‘swan’ are you?)
- Can you master the inner game of leadership? (managing conflicting demands and challenges)
These points make a great list. The key thing is that they are all required: picking 2 or 3 just isn’t enough.
I would also add elements of:
- Personal humility and confidence at the same time. This is implied above but not stated.
- Building rapport with any stakeholder
- And of course, enough ‘technical’ competence required for the role
This list needs some serious thought – but what, if anything do you think is missing that would cause you to say ‘No’ if you were the recruiting organisation?
HBR_Partaker Can you pass the CEO test
