A lot of pressure is put on a CEO, and there are contradictory ideas about the "ideal" traits for them to have. Strength and self-assurance are qualities which lend themselves well to this role, but they do have a dark side.
This manifests itself in the form of narcissism. Just as it's easy to imagine why companies would want a decisive leader, it's not hard to see where unchecked executive power can lead. This is why executive recruiters can help find balance in the selection of a company's c-level staff.
In a recent article for VCCircle, Guoli Chen argued for a successful balance of possible narcissistic traits within managers. Chen asserts that the important thing is to make sure that these tendencies don't end up sabotaging important relationships within the company.
"CEOs themselves should be aware of the narcissistic dimension of their personality and take care to control it when making decisions, by taking into consideration experience of other board members," Chen writes. "Whether CEO narcissism can be moderated over time by this self-awareness is yet to be proven."
In a piece on hiring in Inc.com that looked at Hillary Clinton's recent memoir, Ilan Mochari cited "subordinating the ego" as one of the key lessons that business leaders could take away from the book. This includes "tuning out insecurities" as well as opening up to work with others.
Relationships will differ with the respective CEO experience and personality of each candidate, but with the help of an executive search firm, your company can find someone who can be a star without becoming a diva.
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