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The Conference Board Review® Article
Making the Grade
How A-list candidates can reach the C-suite -- and what keeps them out.
Paula A. Klein is a multimedia business editor and writer based in New York.
As impatient boards and CEOs seek quick fixes to their business woes, executive turnover is rampant. But before you pack up your desk with sights on a corner office, take note: Even being next in line doesn't mean you'll necessarily step to the front. Your career planning may not be as comprehensive as you thought; your interviewing skills may be rusty; your experience may be less global than the CEO is hoping for.
In short, it will take more than a mile-long résumé to move up the ladder. If you can't market yourself as a problem-solver with wide business breadth, you'll lose out to a competitor — from inside or outside the company — who can.
Today's high-end job market isn't particularly forgiving, and hiring managers have tough expectations about who will make the grade. Broad business sense versus a single focus or expertise, global economic awareness, and a proven track record are at a premium in the current environment. Before your next boss offers you a seat in the C-suite, you'll need to prove that you can add unique value to the business. And that's a tall order.
Multiple DimensionsCompanies of all sizes are increasingly seeking multidimensional and multidisciplinary qualifications in their top ranks. More than ever, there's a cross-pollenization of executive talent, with MBAs going into IT and marketing leaders moving into CEO spots. And companies are looking further afield for top people; tomorrow's management stars can come from a competitor, or another country, or outside the industry. Traditional talent-pool boundaries are washing away.
Job-seekers unaware of these macro trends — and of how to use them to their advantage — will be left adrift or, at the least, left behind.
And it's not only external business trends that impede advancement. Many executives looking for a new job — whether by choice or otherwise — lack a clear vision of their own future. However knowledgeable in their functional area, it's likely they haven't been considering career management on an ongoing basis. Just like professional athletes, executives need to take the long view about their career goals while they're still employed, says Jeffrey Crown, managing partner at Essex Partners, a Boston outplacement firm for senior executives. They need to ask themselves where they want to be and what they want to do. "It's astounding that these strategic thinkers haven't thought about that in their own lives," Crown says. Job candidates can mess up if they don't have a clear focus and can't convey their goals to prospective employers. Ambiguity doesn't sell.
Patty Greene landed a position as a VP for a major financial institution in five months, but only after she worked hard to better present her skills and experience. "You have to have your communication plan, marketing plan, and research done," the 47-year-old writes in an ExecuNet newsletter. "Be prepared to focus your communication to each company you're soliciting. You're selling yourself, and to close the sale, a good marketing plan is essential."
Lou Adler, an executive recruiter and management consultant in Irvine, Calif., singles out global experience as "absolutely critical" in the face of business expansion and collaboration. For instance: How can you address outsourcing to India if you haven't been there yourself? Besides understanding the worldwide business environment, execs need to demonstrate solid interpersonal and language skills to deal across functions and across cultures. "Starbucks and Coke may look the same in every country," Adler says, "but the way the business is run may be very different."
Adler promotes the idea of performance-based assessments and identifies three key areas that executives must master to land a senior-corporate position: strategic versus tactical thinking; outward versus focus; and global versus domestic knowledge.
Too many executives get stuck in niche positions, and that works against them in a competitive market. Jeff Sanders, co-managing partner of the North American CEO practice at Heidrick & Struggles in Menlo Park, Calif., advises executives to combat this by getting involved in the operations side of the business — even if that's not their primary responsibility. CEOs want someone not only to keep score but to play on the field in marketing, in the product arena, and running and governing the business itself, explains Sanders, who works with many high-tech firms and investors in Silicon Valley. Likewise, CIOs are being asked to develop systems that incorporate customer and business-partner input. To meet these and other needs, technology chiefs must understand online buying habits, customer demographics, quality-assurance issues, and manufacturing cycles before they can deliver the right IT system. Trying to impress a headhunter with your expert knowledge of SAP or Microsoft Vista won't cut it anymore.
In most searches, being well-rounded is a strength, but there's one caveat: If your background is too eclectic — if you've dabbled in too many industries or functions — it's harder to position yourself, especially with time-pressed recruiters and scanners who want a quick sound bite of what you've done, Crown says. If they don't get what you do in the first thirty seconds, you'll be passed over.
Many managers have never thought seriously about how they're viewed by executives at their own company or by competitors. As Crown notes, "there really is no Career Management 101 class" — not that plenty of would-be C-suite inhabitants couldn't use one. Recruiters often see highly qualified executive candidates fail to land coveted jobs as a result of avoidable mistakes. And even the savviest executives learn many hard lessons about the recruitment process on the rocky road to their next professional goal.
Comments? Write a letter to the editor.
Return to the January/February 2008 The Conference Board Review® issue.
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