THE VISION THING

  Creating a strategic vision and inspiring others while maintaining leadership responsibility are key character traits for successful CEOs according to research from global talent and career management consultancy Right Management and the Chally Group. Conversely, the survey carried out among 1,400 CEOs and human resource professionals found failure to build a relationship or team culture and a basic mismatch with company culture were most likely to lead to the failure of an organisation’s big boss.

The research asked respondents to rate four competencies critical for C-suite positions and creating a strategic vision came in with a convincing lead at 92%, 30 points above inspiring others and maintaining leadership responsibility. Developing an accurate and comprehensive overview of the business and wise decision making also proved popular at 57% and 55% respectively.

“Leadership development today is more science than art,” commented Sue Roffey-Jones, Practice Leader at Right Management. “In today’s business environment leadership development needs to be grounded in real work and focused on the critical competencies required for success in C-level roles.”

The research revealed that while leaders evolve from a wide variety of backgrounds, experience and job functions, western corporate CEOs are most likely to come from operations and finance. When asked what functional areas are most likely to produce a company’s C-level executives, operations were the most likely to be indicated (68%) and finance was second ranked (56%) with sales third (49%).

Sue Roffey-Jones continues, “We would assume that people are promoted to CEO from operations and finance because they are perceived to have developed competencies that are important for the CEO role.”

“With talent now seen as one of the only competitive differentiators left, there is growing recognition that management succession is no luxury,” says Roffey-Jones. “Board members, executives and business leaders are now openly acknowledging that talent management plans – which include succession management – are absolutely essential for sustained performance in today’s organisations.”