Climbing the corporate ladder has notoriously been competitive—vicious even.
The C-suite is normally thought of as a collective of hard-edged sharks that only prioritize their company’s bottom line above all else. In today’s labor force however, there’s so much more needed from a leader.
According to data published by the Harvard Business Review (HBR), hiring teams are looking for good people, not just good workers.
Russell Reynolds Consulting, an executive search firm gave HBR exclusive access to 5,000 job descriptions that were developed in partnership with their clients from 2000 to 2017. In those years, it was clear that the desired traits for their leadership roles had evolved over time.
In their c-suite roster, the “management of financial and operational resources” requirement remained, but most recently, those qualities are less weighted when compared to another: strong social skills.
The data showed that little shifted from 2000-2006, but employers’ desired characteristics in candidates began to shift around 2007 when job ads began mentioned strong social skills as a line item. 10 years and ads with that trait increased 27 percent, while managerial skills weren’t as prevalent. Over the same period, fewer and fewer ads mentioned strength in managing financial and
HBR surmised that “social skills are particularly important in settings where productivity hinges on effective communication, as it invariably does in the large, complex, and skill-intensive enterprises that employ executive search firms.”