The beauty and challenge of C-Suite leadership is primarily one – it goes beyond defined Key Performance Indicators with the need for specific transformations in the business ecosystem being constant. However, my point of view is that leadership is a mindset that has the ability with the right kind of Thought Leadership can bring in the forefront a sustainable purpose and get stakeholders aligned to the same with a listening ear. Leadership hiring has become more pivotal than ever as today there is a dire need to transform, innovate and reinvent to break from the status quo.
In addition, with the recently concluded G20 Summit, there are points such as Accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth, technological transformation, digital infrastructure, ESG at the core of India’s future. Hence leaders now also need to be equipped with the larger picture of how their organizations can step in to lead certain priorities to contribute to the vision of the nation, which must be juxtaposed with the organizational vision and goals. India is ready to lead and play a significant role in the Global economy and C-Suite will definitely have a role to play in terms of an inside out approach.
I am sharing my observations around what one needs to look at in a C-Suite persona. The below 5 points may not be the only ones, though the pivotal ones to the hiring practice.
The Leadership Style
This is the pedestal because the mix has to be right and only one style may not be sustainable for an organizational panorama. Let’s take an example – say a leader has a Transformational style of leading. However, there may be situations where people may look up to also for someone who is democratic in style of operations. This is a challenge when companies hire someone, say for the role of a CMO as very few organizations in India make an effort of a detailed psychometric test which is an effective way to bucket a personality archetype. For instance, if someone is a combination of transformative, participative and charismatic as leadership style, it may work wonders. However, there is a catch here as well that it will also depend on the legacy culture of an organization what combination are they looking at with respect to leadership style. This can also be supported by references from other leaders who have worked with the prospect in some way and can vouch.
Beyond Domain Expertise
C-Suite expertise goes beyond a specific domain expertise. For example, the role of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) today is more of a Chief Growth Officer, a brand custodian, a brand listener, a data Practitioner a storyteller and a Thought Leader. It is a mix of wearing multiple hats which also encompasses the need for a critical quality which is a non-siloed approach. For example- a CEO needs to have the ‘art’ of bringing in the CTO, CDO, CFO and CEO together for faster and better decision making.
Best Practice Vs Next Practice
Most of the leaders come with a set of best practices, however, in order to have a transformational approach it is important to get a deep understanding of the business and then think of forward thinking next practices that can genuinely enable calculated risks to map the existing process vis-à-vis what can be further simplified to achieve success. A catalyst to this is being cognizant of the existing cultural aspect of the organization and how will any step either – (1) enhance the culture or (2) leverage the existing culture to enhance the business decision. The way I see it, when business decisions and practices are taken without keeping the human aspect at the core, then it may not yield in the long run.
Impacting lives
One of attributes that is essential is to have a clear people centric approach. At the end every business has people (be it employees, investors, stakeholders, or consumers) as the centripetal force. It is the job of top leadership to build the best of second in line leadership that percolates further down. Whenever I read the characteristics of leadership by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the only thing I would add to that as a separate point is the Emotional Intelligence with the ability of foresight. Top leaders can only impact lives better if they have better foresight of situations. The experience of working in diverse cultures and teams definitely helps. I recall a quote by Maya Angelou – “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” This is one of the keys as leaders need to also maintain the thin line of complex decision making without much collateral damage, which is an attribute that C-Suite leaders need to not only master but keep practicing.
Fitment
Last but not the least and may be the most difficult aspect of C-Suite hiring in the Indian business scene is the process of evaluating the fitment. Let me try to explain with a question. Say someone has been the CMO at automobile brands for 8 years. Will an FMCG company shortlist that profile? Most cases seem to have ‘no’ as an answer. If someone with a diverse experience of having worked as a CMO in a SaaS solution, FMCG and a FinTech company, in most cases in India the Human Resources will be briefed to go with the safest option -i.e., look at profiles who have worked only in that specific industry before and there is nothing logically wrong with that. However, my take here is while hiring such leaders, it is important to also keep these aspects in tandem (if not more important as priority) – fitment of people, purpose driven, culture driven, data driven with a sustainable purpose at the core which will enable their consumers to take action.
As an ending note to this piece, I’d say there is scope to reimagining CXO hiring as it is both an art and science with every individual having their own set of views in life. This is as true with a potential candidate as it is with current stakeholders. C-suite needs to be a combination of an artist, an engineer (to calibrate better version of people), a brand custodian, a data practitioner, a storyteller and someone with excellent foresight and also driving his own inspiration from serious play.