Last year, many executives opted for early retirement when COVID-19 hit. Others were let go by their companies due to perceived redundancy in roles or the need for financial cutbacks.

More than a year later, the economy is bouncing back and companies (both new and old) are trying to recruit quality leaders. And they’re discovering that hiring the right executive is more challenging than ever. But now is the time to invest in visionary, long-term leaders who can help your company adapt to the new future of work.

The consequences of the wrong executive hire

The consequences of making a bad hire at the executive level can be felt across the entire organization. The wrong leader — especially in the C-suite — can have lasting repercussions that continue long after they’ve left your company.

Read the full article at: theundercoverrecruiter.com

Gone are the days where the CFO title was synonymous with a shy number cruncher tucked away in a distant (and lonely) finance department. The ideal business partnership now involves striking the balance between an extremely ambitious, fearless, go-getter CEO coupled with an equally grounded strategic CFO. Each position has a distinct and crucial role that they play within the company. As someone who has played the role of both CEO and CFO, I believe the most successful businesses enable these two roles to balance each other and collaborate together.

A CEO leads with a vision, but visions don’t come without a cost. As the business environment continues to fluctuate and many industries are becoming more competitive, each and every decision a CEO makes must be analyzed from differing perspectives. Informed viewpoints increase the likelihood of making the soundest decisions possible. That’s why CFOs now find themselves working alongside their CEOs, applying their financial knowledge of the company to ensure feasibility of strategic decisions. Naturally, a new and active dynamic has developed between both roles, where the CEO steers the company in a certain direction while the CFO hits the breaks in financially unsound territory.

Read the full article at: strategiccfo360.com

What if all this while you’ve been applying for the wrong jobs, and that’s the reason your job search has not been working? Sure, after so many late-night resume revisions without any job offer to show for it, it can be tempting to wonder if getting a new job is even possible for you. But, the problem might be that you’re trying to fix the wrong thing. 

One classic mistake I see often from high-achievers in a variety of industries is that they’re applying for the wrong jobs, and they don’t even realize they’re doing it. Instead, they focus on fixing things like their resume, not knowing there’s another reason they’re not getting interviews or job offers. Or worse, if they are getting interviews and job offers, they have a higher risk of landing a new job with the same problems that motivated them to search for another job in the first place because they’re applying for the wrong positions.

Read the full article at: www.forbes.com

Covid-19 has taken its toll on the workplace; by some accounts, 7 out of 10 workers believe the Covid era has been the most challenging period of their professional lives. In healthcare—the industry in which I serve—I believe that ratio to be much higher.

The workplace disruption has translated into tremendous uncertainty in the executive job market. Candidates throughout the pandemic have been skittish though not shy about searching for new work. In a WittKieffer survey conducted last fall, 95% of executives indicated that they were at least open to a new role. Covid has given leaders a greater sense of prioritization about what’s important for them personally and professionally—and often this means a job or career change.

What has also changed is the way that executive recruiting is playing out. My colleagues and I have adopted new practices and habits in order to meet candidate expectations and serve clients better. 

Read the full article at: chiefexecutive.net

There’s no doubt that the once futuristic hybrid work model is already here. Earlier this year, a Gartner analyst was quoted saying that about 60% of the workforce are choosing the hybrid option. Even as the world begins to open up, I suspect that we will never quite return to the way things were before this pandemic started.

During 2020, many business leaders including myself faced the challenge of moving hundred- or even thousand-person teams in one direction—rallying them to use the same digital collaboration tools and adopt the same process for working with remote, distributed teams. At Whatfix, we had the benefit of already running a global distributed workforce. However, suddenly shifting everyone to remote work and now formulating strategies to create a hybrid workforce brought about its own set of challenges and learnings. Throughout this journey, I’ve learned three do’s and don’ts that helped me guide my team, which I believe can serve as a blueprint for other business leaders as well.

Read the full article at: chiefexecutive.net

There’s good news and bad news in the fight for gender equality in Corporate America.

The good news: according to a new Korn Ferry study, the percentage of female executives (identified as vice president and above) has risen considerably in the last five years, from 31 percent in 2016 to 39 percent in 2021.

The bad news: The Covid pandemic has been devastating for women on the rise to roles for the future, and there are still far fewer women executives than men in the C-Suite overall. This is particularly woeful in general management overall and in many key functions and industries, more specifically.

In many instances, setting out to simply hire more women executives won’t alleviate the gender gap at the top of organizations.

Read the full article at: chiefexecutive.net

As we have mentioned in other articles, leadership teams are not and should not be like any other team in an organization. Knowingly or unknowingly, they create the conditions for their organizations to either thrive or flounder. Because the stakes are so high it is absolutely critical for CEOs to get the composition right.

Executives at many companies rise the ranks in large part because of their past accomplishments and functional expertise; sales results for the head of sales, successful product launches for the CMO, balance sheet and capital raises for the CFO, technological innovation for the CTO. Advancement is also often a reward for putting in hard work and years of service or forming the necessary political bonds with the right senior influencers. Functional track record, work ethic and relationship skills are important for any senior executive, but are insufficient when an executive is asked to be part of an effective senior leadership team.

Read the full article at: chiefexecutive.net