Although the CEO position is typically thought of in the context of being at the top of a company's hierarchy, the truth is that a chief executive needs to have many of the same skills for working as part of a group that are expected of employees at other levels in your business.
Considering how different candidates approach group work can be one means of determining how the best CEO candidates will work once they've been integrated into your company.
This may raise questions about how much your CEO should enforce a culture where everyone works in a team-focused environment. Inc. reported on an approach called "performance benchmarking" that might sound a little questionable to some, but may encourage honesty during the executive recruitment process. This practice involves marketing open positions based on the actual tasks that will be done on a day-to-day basis.
This might be an elemental thing, but it also can reveal the gaps between what you think about the position and what it actually entails. And once that gap is crossed, there might be a better understanding of what your company needs from its next CEO to move forward as a whole. Making CEO responsibilities clear from the start will also help ensure that candidates know what to expect.
Nun Patricia Bombard recently contributed a piece to Quartz that detailed the importance of understanding what each member in a group can bring to the table. She wrote that when individuals spend their time in conflict, rather than collaboration, "loss of time, productivity, and money are all serious concerns, but so is the loss of ideas that can move us beyond a current impasse to new solutions."
So much is dependent on having the right leadership in place, and the right executive recruiter can help your company find a person with habits that will radiate out to your c-level staff and employees.
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