OWP 2022: Leading For the Future

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YOUR PATHWAY TO THE C-SUITE: ALL THE RIGHT STEPS

Not everyone is cut out for executive management. What is the secret to landing a C-suite role?

There’s a lot to test the mettle at corporate executive level. Those in the chief seats need to have the ability and experience to understand the needs of the business, but still remain objective enough to cut costs or make trade offs, if necessary. On top of this, they’re expected to be as bold and adventurous as a newly minted, free thinking entrepreneur. But today, C-suite executives are dealing with a particularly key challenge. Many on their career path to those

positions don’t realize that those at executive level face a dual challenge. Virtually all companies are now facing the requirement of repositioning their core business, while concurrently creating tomorrow’s. This challenge is known as Dual Transformation. TOP BILLING IMD’s research-based executive performance model is called 5s2. Through it, our assessment of thousands of leaders revealed that only 12% of senior leaders are truly effective in this dual transformation context.

There’s a reason only a few can crack it in these roles. Leaders today require a range of skills over and above the fundamental understanding that running a successful dual demand and create a company that has the ability to exploit what exists, while looking ahead to explore, innovate, and expand, requires ‘leadership ambidexterity’. business is not a linear process. To address this

RIC ROI Professor of Leadership and Organization at IMD

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