"Soft skills" may be overlooked in the traditional recruitment of CEO candidates, but you might want to reconsider these as a potential focal point for your global executive search. These can be more subtle traits that define your candidates in ways you aren't normally prepared to see.
In a post for Chief Executive.net, CEO Betsy Adkins wrote about the important character traits that can make all the difference when CEOs have to interact with employees, fellow executives, board members or other important business figures. These skills can define a person every bit as much as the career choices they've made, and yet they can be undervalued by those who don't know how to fully appreciate and observe them.
"To inspire people to follow you, you have to demonstrate they can trust and believe in you, that the values you communicate are ones they can and should believe in, and that you have integrity and judgment," Adkins writes. "There's no way to analyze those qualities on a spreadsheet."
Of course, the best approach is one that balances the people skills needed to effectively lead and the "harder" knowledge to do so. The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently reported on scientific research from Case Western Reserve University that examined the neurological basis for both kinds of skills.
Anthony Jack, a contributing researcher on the project, told the newspaper, "The balanced leader switches fluidly between focusing on operations and the bottom line at one moment, and fostering a positive work environment and ethical insight the next," which are managed by two distinct, competing areas of the brain.
With the sort of oversight provided by global executive search firms, you will be able to find someone who brings the best of both worlds.
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