Cornerstone Blog

Anne de Landsheer is a specialist in Intercultural Intelligence – a vitally important aptitude for executives and scientists working across borders and cultures.  Her previous post is Are You Measuring Intercultural Intelligence? .  Here, she speaks with writer Joan Miller.

 

MILLER:    Anne, how do you assess the ICQ of an executive level candidate? Are there specific tools or instruments you use?

DE LANDSHEER:        This question is about the way that each recruiter manages candidate interviews, considering the position and the core competencies it requires.

First, how could we assess that if we do not know our own “intercultural level” or ICQ? That is why at Peak Lifecycles HR,  (Cornerstone’s member in France) we decided to be trained and certified to know exactly what “cultural competency” means for each of us, in order to well understand what it means for others

As recruiters, we need to be sensitive to the mindsets people have, and we must be able to give fair and “compliant” feedback – that is, feedback that is delivered in an ethical way.

We use a specific Intercultural Quotient Assessment that is powerful and internationally recognized for improving intercultural effectiveness: it provides one of the largest datasets on intercultural competences worldwide.

The assessment helps to better understand how a person currently approaches intercultural interactions, what she does well and what she may find difficult. It identifies the intercultural competences she can develop and train, with four main dimensions and 24 cross items, including:

• Intercultural Sensitivity: How aware are we of different perspectives and signals?
• Intercultural Communication: How well do we adapt how we communicate across cultures?
• Building Commitment: How capable are we of bringing people together around shared goals?
• Managing Uncertainty: How well do we deal with the uncertainty of intercultural interactions?

Measuring the cultural quotient has become such a crucial prerequisite for recruitment success that we have taken this extra step and also developed a gamified assessment for the recruitment of corporate leaders with diverse teams.

That is what we assess in the general context. But in case a candidate (M/F) needs to know his “cultural profile” enabling him to discover which culture he is the most at ease with, and compare it to another specific one, we also can use a survey that will help people avoid cultural pitfalls that may arise when dealing with people born and raised in other cultures. This tool is used particularly in an ex-pat project

 

MILLER:  Is an assessment of ICQ important even for roles that don’t require working across international borders?

DE LANDSHEER:      Even if you are not working in an intercultural context, you will find that the competencies described here are essential for executives and teams to turn the challenges of their complex and changing business context into opportunities for innovation.

Intercultural competency is part of a global interview that we assess as soon as a candidate will have to deal with otherness, which is not only interesting but also a potential barrier. Another competency example is Leadership (representing the majority of the first requests for the jobs we recruit in Executive Search). That means that we have to assess the way a candidate actively influences the social environment, integrating different people and personalities, which requires cultural awareness

This also means that we need to understand the degree to which a candidate takes an active interest in others, their needs and perspectives (the candidate’s cultural sensitivity), how he or she relates it in his/her communication (culturally aware communications), and so on.

So: Intercultural Intelligence goes beyond purely geographical criteria. Companies have cultures which are often very distinctive; a person joining a new company spends the first few weeks deciphering its cultural code. Within any large company, there are sparring subcultures as well; for “trivial” and well-known examples: the sales force versus the engineers or researchers, and the marketing managers versus regulatory people.

We clearly see that intercultural assessment should systematically be part of any recruitment interviews for corporate leaders.

Considering a true, complete recruitment interview, the facts are that we don’t have to assess only two or three competencies but how people will be able to “cross manage” several ones. An assessment of ICQ is too often forgotten, done poorly, or misinterpreted.

 

MILLER:    At what point in the recruiting process do you like to perform an ICQ assessment? Is it part of the initial screening or is it part of the final candidate evaluation?

DE LANDSHEER:   I enjoy this quote from Peter Drucker: “WHAT managers do is the same the world over. HOW they do it is embedded in their tradition and culture.”

Persons with a low degree of behavioral flexibility always act in the same way, even in situations when they meet persons from other cultures. They are unable to consider different alternatives of action in a situation.

They will not deviate from a previously determined behavioral procedure. An inflexible person will not notice the negative effects of their own behavior on others. Thus, they cannot adapt their own behavior to specific situations or take on types of behavior from others.

In interaction with people of other mindset, ideas, way of working, etc., it is not possible to achieve goals effectively without taking into consideration the behavior considered ‘normal’ in the immediate environment, and the expectations one’s partner has of what ‘good’ behavior is.

It is therefore necessary to be flexible and to a certain degree able to adapt to the immediate environment to achieve cooperation and understanding: that is also intercultural “intelligence.”

That is the reason why we recommend an ICQ assessment as soon as a profile will have high-stakes interaction with any interlocutor. Because each of us is unique, there will always remain differences.

We use it once we have validated the hard skills background, that is to say for the second step of our assessment about “soft skills”.

 

MILLER:  Can ICQ be nurtured and developed through coaching?

DE LANDSHEER:    Specifically in this situation: persons with a low degree of tolerance for ambiguity experience unstructured and ambiguous situations as unpleasant and threatening. They either try to avoid such situations or to get out of them as soon as possible. If this is impossible, they feel visibly uncomfortable, misinterpret unclear situations, and simplify ambiguities

When trying to solve such problems, they often neglect a part of the problem and search for simple solutions. When confronted with contradictory and ambiguous opinions, they search for a compromise and prefer a very clear and definite way of proceeding.

This is the main “lack” that we want to develop and, yes, it can be improved through Intercultural coaching.

Cybersecurity is no longer a niche issue for tech companies. With our growing reliance on online platforms, it’s very quickly becoming a priority for everyone — one that could bring about serious threats to national security if not taken seriously.

Case in point: In March 2018, the City of Atlanta faced a widespread ransomware attack that crippled critical digital systems, including their police department, judicial offices, and their payment processing databases. The cybercriminals responsible demanded $51,000 worth of Bitcoin, or they would delete all the data they acquired.

Take note that this occurred long before the pandemic took place, meaning we’re more reliant on data now than we were at the time. That only makes us even more vulnerable to cyber threats.

And when it comes to the business sector, executives are a prime target for cybercriminals. They typically have more access to company data than the average employee and their devices likely hold confidential information and valuable trade secrets. Executives face more cyber threats than other employees, which is precisely why they need cybersecurity training.

Cybersecurity, an Integral Part of Company Culture

In the digital age, no-one’s data is 100% safe. If left unprotected, cybercriminals could either steal it or, worse, use it against you. It isn’t enough for there to be technical cybersecurity measures in place. Employees across the board must also be aware of the risks, and this can be ensured by cultivating a culture of cybersecurity in the company. One way to expedite the process is to begin with yourself.

Corporate executives who have a solid grasp of cybersecurity concepts can help instill a strong cybersecurity culture in the company. It encourages employees — not just  those in the IT department — to take the initiative. And when the whole company understands the importance of cybersecurity, data protection becomes much more manageable.

Cybersecurity Training Options

Another way to cultivate a cybersecurity culture is to implement training programs for employees across the board. Employees and executives alike benefit from learning the basics, but executives should always make an effort to learn more.

You can hire a C-level cybersecurity professional who can hold in-house workshops. But this can prove difficult, given the current shortage of cyber professionals. Another option is to tap into third-party cybersecurity companies that specialize in training in the business sector. They offer various programs ranging from simple lecture-style briefings to interactive, incident response exercises.

Executives serious about building their cybersecurity credentials — as well as those working in particularly at-risk industries — can also consider university-level training leading to an online cybersecurity degree. The courses let learners complete coursework 100% online through virtual labs that pull case studies from the latest business headlines.

Moreover, being online and flexible means that these courses can be done alongside a busy job. As a result, executives come out of the program with real-world training in offensive and defensive cybersecurity, and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead in the cyber business landscape.
Both before and after these training programs, it would be wise to hire a third-party organization to assess the state of the company’s cybersecurity. These organizations can assess cybersecurity using both qualitative and quantitative measures — from gauging the technical measures to interviewing regular employees about their cybersecurity knowledge and practices.

Doing this gives executives an unbiased perspective of their security measures, allowing them to recalibrate as needed. It is vital in building a secure database and a healthy cybersecurity culture in the company.

The view of earth from the International Space Station, 400 km up, is stunning.  You can’t help wondering if you can see all the band-aids.

Our poor, bruised planet and the people who live here have survived one of history’s more trying years. The worst pandemic in over 100 years has affected over 200 countries and cost two million lives.  Raging bushfires devoured Australia and the US West. The steady increase in natural disasters included a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, flash floods, earthquakes, typhoons and volcanic eruptions.  Few people will recall 2020 fondly.

But many, it would seem, face the future with hope.

Ever year at this time we invite our members to submit an assessment of how they see the coming year in their country or region.  Our members are in 37 countries around the world, nearly all of which have taken a beating in 2020.

National metrics have always included GDP (Gross Domestic Production) and now include deaths from Covid-19. The GDP number has been inevitably negative, for Covid positive.

But our people out there unanimously feel the corner is being turned as Covid numbers shrink and the GDP grows. Most spectacular of all is Asia.

Today we are launching our 2021 Outlooks, which will be published over the next few weeks.  We are starting with Asia because that’s where the good news can be found.

The star performer is China, which has been on an amazing growth trajectory for several years. In 2020, it was the only major economy to record positive GDP year over year — +1.9%.  IHS Markit forecasts growth of 7.5% this year. Only India can top that, coming in at 8%.

You can read a summary of regional expectations for Asia here, authored by Cornerstone CEO Simon Wan who is based in Shanghai. National Outlooks available today are for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

On Monday we will publish Thailand, Singapore and Japan.

Final article from Steve Manning, Head of Financial Services at Cornerstone Singapore, on finding PE company leaders.

The bar is set high. Dynamics at Private Equity firms is fast, aggressive, all conquering, and as the investor leader you’re thrust into that all too familiar position of tackling senior leadership management issues at a newly acquired portfolio firm. 

This four-part series recognizes the challenging factors surrounding a search for the ideal candidate. The focus is squarely on meeting unique demands of private equity performance, but will often square the circle for many senior executive traits.   

• Hiring Private Equity Leaders – Part I: Ideals and Compromise
• Hiring Private Equity Leaders – Part II: Core Soft Credential Constituents
• Hiring Private Equity Leaders – Part III: Then the Challenge

This fourth and final installment will balance needs with compromises; float tangential opportunities to expand horizons; and ward off the myopia clouding your view of that elusive, ‘pink giraffe,’ PE leadership candidate. 

1. Where to expand the search for tangential talent

Beyond relaxing specific credential requirements, success may hinge on the ability to think laterally, and seek out candidates with tangential experience.  A simple illustration perhaps is a CEO of a large injection moulding firm, who might be well suited to a brewing and bottling company.  Both are high volume, capital intense process industries. 

• Direct Industry Experience:

Running in a close second place to past portfolio company experience — which was addressed in part two — is the importance of direct industry sector knowledge and experience.  The new CxO will be tasked to define and craft strategy, make investment proposals, defend them (so they had better have depth in the related sector), and have a brain the size of an elephant.  Certain functional leadership positions and industry sectors can be less strident on this question.  The CFO candidate might get by with only a broad sector experience such as manufacturing, finance, or technology.

From experience, keeping an eye on a candidate’s knowledge of how a specific business model works is essential and non-negotiable.  On a macro basis, producing versus services for example are hard lines to cross.  It is imperative to probe candidates deeply on the fine subtleties of your business, such as how return on capital is impacted by elements deep down in the producing stage.  A search partner with industry knowledge is critical to this evaluation.

Sales and marketing positions appear to provide broader sector hunting grounds, but reality can be different, and there are still many constraints.  A typical conversation with your search firm might underline that the role requires a sales professional with strategic thought; an ability to distill your firm’s value proposition; knowledge of the customer base and be able to bring new key accounts to the table immediately; familiarity with your product; a finger on the competition; and has led a large regional team’.

Right away this locks the search into an ever narrowing set of industry credentials.

That said, a candidate with a good technical background will be able to learn a product or service potentially in less time than it takes to find a perfect insider who comes from a competitor.   Make an honest assessment of the complexity of your portfolio company business model and value proposition, size of business, size of organisation, sales process, before you lock into tight parameters for the role.   Don’t be guilty of over inflating the uniqueness of a business and discarding how quickly outsiders may be able to adapt.

• Think Tangentially:

The ideal candidate may not materialise from a traditional CEO profile, meaning the resume might look different from what you expected.  Compromises can include: not being business school all-stars, or even graduates; perhaps they started careers in a very different environment (a photojournalist, for example, will have travelled and understand different cultures well); or perhaps you have a failed technology entrepreneur in the mix.

Realise that hiring for a portfolio company firm is not just competing against others, but competing against all industry to attract excellent talent.

You will subconsciously know when a candidate is CEO material.  It is not the tick in the boxes of their experience competence list, or past successes, in so much as how right out of the box they radiate confidence, and a sense of charisma.  This does not mean they are extroverted, bull-nosed, or shy, they simply exude ‘presence’.

Whatever credential strong candidates hold, they are likely to be trench fighters, with soft skills and charisma to lead and dilute egos.  They may have faced numerous setbacks, and have stories of mistakes, although they probably have a fast-moving resume and quick ascension once they found their calling.  These are healthy ingredients for success in a portfolio company.

At a functional pinnacle, although tangential compromises are available, recognise that a senior executive candidate with the requisite years of experience will have broad traits baked in hard.  You will find it difficult to move a candidate between functional management roles. To put it simply, if the role is operational then hire an operations manager, financial then hire a finance head.

Tangentially other roles that have required strong leadership but might not have been a CEO in your specific sector can be trawled; a ship’s captain, a military leader, a dean of school.

What is becoming more prevalent today is ensuring that whoever a candidate is they are fully digitally conversant.  They don’t need to know how to code, they do need to know how coding can change their business, how to evaluate solutions, and to be well versed in what’s happening in information and technology. Facebook and LinkedIn proficiency does not qualify.  Move beyond lower age barriers to capture this ability.

2. Private Equity Series Summary and Move Ahead

The above discussion, taken with the messages in parts one and two, endeavour to underline that in many instances a search for candidates can be moved tangentially, and compromises made to the ideal.

Hiring from a close competitor or from another portfolio company will plug a gap with a competent leader, but simply recycling known candidates may also recycle the same lacklustre performance that made the candidate available.

On the other hand, the time line to find an ideal portfolio company candidate could be unacceptable.  It may be better to focus on someone less tied up in the constraints of an industry, and more motivated to apply new thought leadership to create – excuse the cliché – breakthrough performance.

Realise that hiring for a portfolio company firm is not just competing against others, but competing against all industry to attract excellent talent.  While detailing the motivators on offer, also be forthright about the challenges, stake holders, and expectations.  The right candidate is likely to be a risk taker, they won’t be successful if they’re not, so don’t hold back on laying out all the cards positively.

Building a relationship with an executive search partner who understands your portfolio business model; has uncanny assessment nouse; who knows where niche talent resides; and who can call upon a global network of partners with deep sectoral, geographical and technological areas of expertise, will make the difference.  But most crucial are those people who think tangentially and can help find a way forward through comprise

Importantly, don’t have your ‘ace’ candidate guessing motives, objectives, and exit plans.  And similarly, once on board, don’t set goals in a vacuum.  Fantasy land won’t help your new hire in the development, communication, transformation, and running of the business inside your portfolio company.

The more you can share on where you want to be, the more your new hire can align and drive towards the same goals.  The position is for a mature and professional leader who will drive towards your aspirations, and find that right fulcrum in the balance to meet achievable goals.

Evaluations take time to surface compatible candidates, and comprehensive assessment tools are invaluable to bring out not only significant personality traits, but indications of how the candidate might perform under pressure, and whether personal goals align with the role on hand.

Search and on-boarding the best possible CxO leader is critical to achieving the growth you’ve projected, and so is your ability to enable their success.  It’s likely your organisation has access to mature development and talent tools to support your new best friend.  Your search consultants also can further reinforce development, so engage them to follow up actively with leadership development.

Does the Executive Search procedure still relate to work taking place in conditions of high uncertainty? As more organizations adopt the Agile methodology, executive recruiters are finding they also must develop new approaches and processes to find and engage the elusive Agile candidate.

Companies with a workforce that can adapt quickly — to new company policies or direction based on the economic or competitive climate — are the ones most likely survive. That leads to the question: how do you build an Agile workforce? How can agile recruiting find those individuals best able to adapt to new situations and thrive in a changing environment?

With Agile, we’re no longer looking for the perfect candidate. The company needs to effect change as quickly as possible and we are looking for the most suitable candidate for the situation in the shortest period of time. When the need is for Agile recruiting solutions, the emphasis in search and assessment shifts from the availability of relevant professional experience (although this is certainly a very important criterion), to the candidate’s capabilities to address and manage change, capabilities which may not be confirmed by past experience.

Executive recruiting today increasingly faces the need to find key managers at the intersection of two or more industries. This has been especially evident in Life Science, confirmed by a study conducted by our group Cornerstone International Group – Key challenges in Life Science & Healthcare 2020

Until recently, such a combination of experience was not possible, for example, “a leader with a background in medicine and IT”.  And even when this unique combination of experience is available, it is not enough. It takes the right mindset to run an organization in today’s VUCA world.

What approaches in top recruiting will attract the best candidate? Let’s remember the basics of the Agile methodology:

• People and interaction are more important than processes and tools;
• Advancement is through successive projects with near-term goals
• Cooperation with the clients is more important than agreeing on the terms of the contract;
• Being ready for change is more important than following the original plan.

These approaches imply the capacity of the client to suddenly and unexpectedly put forward new requirements, often contradicting the original candidate profile. The strategic goals and objectives of the organization may remain the same, but the ways of achieving them may change.

If a search is carried out “in advance”, a clear and understandable job description alone will most likely not work.  It is necessary to rely on an understanding of the company’s strategy, its goals, capabilities, values ​​ and its development. The search process itself is being transformed and is now based on:

1. Work in short cycles;
2. Active use of feedback to adjust search and assess;
3. The search itself can become on-going after the vacancy is filled.  It now  reflects a shared way of thinking and life of the company, the formation of Agile project approaches, and the arguments for attracting other project managers.

If the candidate is not found quickly enough, the task will be transformed, the business will not wait for the “perfect” leader.

The emphasis in Executive Search is shifting. We are looking for combinations of values and personal characteristics of the candidate over the traditional work experience.  With the aid of increasingly sophisticated software, the ability of a consultant to assess the coincidences and differences of the value field comes to the fore.

Despite the the arrival of vaccines on the Covid-19 battlefields, we face many more months of segregation.

In the corporate world, it is the human resources professionals, specialized in issues of organizational behavior and emotional well-being, who play an increasingly important role, both in managing a remote work culture of the company and in labor productivity.

For companies of all latitudes and from different industries, the interruption of operations in their physical facilities can be inevitable. It will be only those that can handle the disruption that will be well positioned to overcome the outbreak and also to face future crises

The following measures have helped ensure that employees have the tools and technical support they need to perform productively and maintain a good connection when working remotely.

1. Prioritize health and wellness above all else.

As COVID-19 spreads the highest priority of every organization must be to protect the health of its talent, customers, suppliers and collaborators.

While sending employees to work under the protection of their homes keeps a large segment of the working population safe, how do you maintain a remote work  culture?  And what about those who cannot perform their duties remotely? Some organizations have taken the step to  quarantine the operations of fundamental areas that must remain in operation.  This means conditioning physical spaces where these employees can carry out their work without coming into contact with other people.

2. Build the right infrastructure for remote work.

A virtual workplace shares many of the elements that exist in a physical space: places arranged for collaboration, the exchange of ideas and the execution of work. However, it can take a titanic effort to ensure that each employee has the minimum technology to be effective in that virtual environment: laptops , a virtual private network (VPN), a virtual platform for file sharing, access to specialized software, a telephone. cellular and preferably high speed wifi.

In addition to this basic infrastructure, organizations must provide access to the appropriate collaboration and communication tools to work remotely. Designing new workplaces is almost like designing “neighborhoods” so that people in their work teams feel close to each other.

It may be helpful to assign a manager responsible for monitoring the remote collaboration virtual space or a technical support team to support staff in their transition.

3. Combat lack of productivity / commitment with virtual culture initiatives.

In this new reality when even coffee shops and bars may still be closed, working from home with little in-person interaction, even for a few days, can make some people feel lonely and this can help lower productivity and commitment.

In this situation, organizations must take a proactive stance to combat its impact, taking steps to ensure that employees still feel connected, even if they are not. Virtual chats, “Happy Hours”, book clubs, games and avatar-based socialization can go a long way toward achieving that goal. They may not be the perfect substitute for meeting rooms, coffee shops, and social events, but they offer a good office experience and bring a much-needed “sense of community”.

When thinking of ways to reinforce organizational culture, recognize the variety of challenges that employees will face during social distancing from COVID-19. A single, outgoing employee who works alone outside his or her department may feel profoundly lonely.  Others  might feel  pressure to care for their young children or elderly parents, while still having to closely monitor their virtual classes.

The desire to participate in virtual cultural events will differ, but all employees can benefit from regular phone or video calls with their direct teams on work-related matters.

4. Explore alternative work sites.

In some cases, employees will not be able to enter the office, but working from home is not an option either.

That is why some organizations are evaluating alternative workspaces such as sanitized coworking centers . In this option, it is important to know who else has access to those facilities. We can expect more organizations to recognize the value a network of alternative workspaces where employees can continue their duties and be productive during emergency situations

5. Managing communication is vitally important.

Maintaining clear communication is essential to provide transparency during this time of great change. Establish communication protocols and guidelines to inform employees and suppliers of your action plans in the event of infectious disease outbreaks. An intranet could provide access to whatever information employees are looking for on policies and updates on COVID-19 at work.

Recognize that employees will be very concerned about the impact this situation will have on their workday, and about the long-term implications for the economy and their job. It is advisable to communicate with them on a regular basis to report on the impacts of the pandemic on their business and expectations regarding their performance during this period.

How will the way of working for COVID-19 change?

It is impossible to predict the long-term implications of the sudden and massive shift to remote work that we are currently experiencing, but it is possible to predict some outcomes.

One of them is that employees and business leaders will open their eyes to the value that can be activated when each individual has the freedom to work where and when it makes the most sense. That can happen from home at least some of the time.

Yet we are just as likely to end this period wishing for the much-missed, face-to-face interaction, and with a better understanding of how physical space influences the way we all feel and work.

[This article first appeared in the La Nacion, Costa Rica]

 

 

 

Thanks to COVID-19, every member of the G7 is in a deep recession, from Japan’s 7.6% contraction to Britain’s 20.7%. China, the first country that reported an outbreak last January, is already back to growth. China may be the only major country to end 2020 with a growing economy.

China owes its spectacular economic turnaround to many things, among them timing and culture. The government moved quickly and decisively. Most of the hardest-hit nations did not implement face-covering requirements and strict quarantines until much later in the early summer.

Cornerstone has six of its 56 member offices in China. As many populations approach a traditionally festive time under severe duress, we looked for support from colleagues much closer to the finish line.

According to Simon Wan, the Chairman of Cornerstone International Group who is stationed in Shanghai, Chinese culture played a major role in speeding the recovery.

“The Chinese by nature are more likely to trust government instructions,” he says. ”I expect we were among the most compliant populations when it comes to masking and social distancing.

“We are also a nation of savers. That gave most of the population a buffer when the pay-cheques stopped. I don’t think our people were as stressed as highly as others during the recessionary period.”

Executive Search is Cornerstone’s primary business and the state of the industry in China is a likely guide to expectations elsewhere. China has two market segments.

The first, and longest established, is made up of subsidiaries of offshore companies around the globe. This sector is static, reflecting conditions in the home office regions.

The second is comprised of China-based enterprises. This group has been on a rebound since May.

Graphic forecasts of economic recovery over this year and next have taken many shapes. Early expectations of a “V” recovery have been discredited and even stretching it into a “U” is questioned. Based on the experience of our colleagues in China, a more likely choice would be an “L”.

That would represent the abrupt drop caused by the pandemic, followed by a lengthy period bumping along at a much lower level.

With the arrival of several vaccines in the next 2-3 months, maybe medical science will succeed where human behavior fell short and we might all get back to a relative normal before the end of 2021.

Why should you coach a Leader?

By the time an executive gets into the top chair he or she has been through a lot and learned a lot. Or, if they have been recruited into the job, their credentials have been microscopically reviewed and evaluated. So, why would you need to coach a leader?

Leadership coaching has exploded as a line of business in recent years. Forbes places it as a $366 billion industry. The reasons are not hard to find.  Notwithstanding the highly developed skills of a leader, the ground is continually shifting. Technology and the speed of business has made five-year plans obsolete and new, or modulated, leadership skills are constantly required.

In a recent study of Fortune 1000 companies, 48% of leaders that underwent coaching exhibited an increase in work quality, leading to higher engagement and productivity.

Here at Cornerstone International Group, we have over 100 professional coaches around the world, most specialized in executive coaching. As a separate initiative, we will shortly be launching the Cornerstone Leadership Academy which will address the impact of Industry 4.0 on the executive leadership function.

So, back to why? The Fortune 1000 study mentioned above offers five key benefits of leadership coaching:

The 5 Reasons for Coaching a Leader

1. Empowerment

Leadership coaching uncovers hidden strengths and weaknesses in the leader. The coach establishes a reflective process which encourages the leader to appreciate what they have accomplished and recognize what still needs to be done.

2. Insight

The leader gains new insight. In a setback, the coach will push to expose deeper issues by analyzing the problem and identifying plans for similar situations in the future.

3. Thought association

Coaching will make a narrow-minded leader open thought patterns and consider a wider range of views. Flexible leadership today is considered a business necessity.

4. Performance

Directing coaching to problem areas changes attitudes and abilities and teaches new leadership techniques. It reduces the use of “but” or “however” with the result that the leader’s openness fosters dialogue, greater input from employees and superior performance.

5. Communication

Leaders may believe they are communicating clearly but an observer may find otherwise. A coach may also show a leader how to communicate with different personality types, ages and cultures.  Good communication skills are essential for the leader but often hard to self-analyze.

Having your leaders get great coaching to accomplish their job well is crucial. Learn more about how Cornerstone can provide Executive Coaching Services or go directly to find a coach in your region. 

Ferrari is one of the world’s most recognizable and powerful brands. The cars are beautiful to look at but the most important component is seldom on view.  The Ferrari 12-cylinder engine – with cylinders that could fit in a teacup – was the heart of a legend which includes 16 world F1 championships and 256 race wins.

An organization’s leadership team is the Ferrari engine — not in the public eye but the core of exceptional performance.  Every part of a competitive company performs in relation to the output of the leader group.

On the track or in the Board room, competition of any kind is testing. Recognising and engaging the right executive today has become one of those failure-is-not-an-option tasks that demand high levels of knowledge, experience and technology to get right. Here are six steps to guide your success in executive search.

1. Understand the stakes

You are not filling a position. You are looking for a strategic component that will integrate with the rest of your team. Human Resources Directors today focus on impacting the company’s bottom line not just swapping in skill sets and experience.

This means taking a longer term mindset.  Ideally, it means finding a partner in the enterprise, not just contracting a recruiting specialist in a one-off support role. To achieve the best result, you must become partners with your retained executive search firm.

2. Understand the Executive Search process

Keep your briefing on who you want at a high level. What your executive search specialists are interested in is what it is you need to accomplish. They think like engineers: they need to know the desired end-state and then look at how they can get you there.

These preliminary discussions are critical. Help your recruiting partner to understand the organization and where your team wants to take it. This can influence the job parameters you started out with.

3. Know who you want

This is a double-barreled step. You start by defining the candidate you think you need, but then you should work through what kind of outside help you are looking for.

The best executive recruiters work to the “Retained Search” methodology and are members of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership. The AESC logo is a respected and reliable indication that you are choosing to do business with an expert and trustworthy organization that works to high, global standards. (Cornerstone International Group is a member)

Your due diligence should cover basics. Does your talent pool need to be global? Does the search firm have a track record in your business?  Is this a domestic position or cross-border? If the latter, who is managing it and who is benefitting from it? What is the search firm’s track record in your niche?

4. Help the candidate to know you

It is fundamental and essential that, when you arrive at the person you want, you understand each other fully. Depending on the position, the person you engage will be your peer and will have to fit in with the leadership team.

Trust is fundamental to a company’s corporate strategy. You and your colleagues must be satisfied that this is someone you can work with, someone you feel you can trust.

Remember that while you are studying the candidate, he or she is assessing both you and the opportunity. It is important that you communicate well and create a favorable impression.

This a mission-critical procedure for you and the candidate is also making a major life choice. A bad placement can have a devastating effect on a person’s career and reputation.

5. Stay with it

It’s not over at the signing and the champagne. You are in recruit/assimilate mode for at least another six months.

For some time now, it has been known that 40% of executives fail inside the first 18 months. It’s a staggering percentage and translates into equally staggering costs of failure. What has become apparent more recently is why.

To be accepted, an incoming executive will clearly have been qualified, energetic, strategic and have appeared to be a good fit with the organization.   But the weak link seems to have been a subsequent inability to understand the organization’s priorities and perhaps also its quirks that surface over time.

The standard formula onboarding doesn’t counter this. The response revolves around certified, customized coaching directed at familiarization with the new environment.

6. Next Steps

In most instances, seeking someone at the executive level will have been planned for some time. If the need does arise suddenly, all the more reason to be prepared.

A valuable exercise is to identify the information required and the steps to acquire it. The starting point is selecting that partner, a professional retained search firm, and arriving at some form of understanding.

Cornerstone International Group is such a firm. We are in 37 countries, representing critical value dealing with cross-border operations and foreign jurisdictions.  We invite you to get in touch if you would like to know more.

Today, more than ever, the topic of leadership competencies has become very important. Among them in particular is the level of vital energy (VQ or vitality quotient).

The vital energy coefficient is applicable to both an individual and an organization. Leaders who are unable to control and replenish their VQ according to circumstances will not be able to achieve high results.

And the unpredictable world of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity ) gives us new lessons and sets new accents.

It doesn’t matter how strong your blow is, the main thing is how strong a blow can you withstand”, – the words of the legendary Mike Tyson

Which companies will resist a blow today? What qualities of a leader allow you to do this?

Resilience has become an important concept and is actively applied nowadays in the context of the resistance to stress of different countries due to unexpected changes. But being resilient to risk is important not only for countries but also for companies and top managers.

Lee Howell, Managing Partner and Head of Global Programs of the World Economic Forum, defines the concept of resilience as an element of systems thinking and the strongest competence of countries in general, organizations / enterprises and their leaders. He emphasizes that resilience to risk is just as important for companies and leaders as it is for countries.

The degree of resilience should also be adopted by recruiters and consultants who assess the top managers of a company at different stages: from attractiveness to the organization to participation in various projects that require this competence.

A system or a person possessing this resource can withstand even the most severe crises since they are capable of amortization and recovery. Energy, inner balance, the ability to define reality and move forward are preserved. This is what determines the productivity of actions in various difficult situations.

Crises and transformations are becoming an integral part of our life: in economics, politics, business, social relations.

A stable business is almost an illusion, and you must always be ready for changes or, better yet, anticipate them. If resilience in earlier days was necessary in rare critical situations (deep failures and defeats, difficult choices, qualitative life changes), today it is a mandatory competence of the leaders of companies in the modern world.

This means the ability to correctly assess whether oneself and others have the ability to quickly recover, to not lose energy and to remain balanced. In other words, the ability to be ready to accept any risk of being in a stressful situation, regardless of its origin, be it a pandemic, global economic crisis or unexpected threat to business.

For a better understanding of the assessment of this competence, you can separate the concept of resilience into components:

• As a personal skill, resilience is, first of all, adaptability. Ability to quickly accept and then reap the benefits of unexpected changes. It is important to be able to assess all these changes as positive, as new opportunities, and not just obstacles and unpleasant circumstances.
• Also, I include in the concept of resilience and stress resistance the ability to maintain a constant level of vitality, health, performance and just a good mood. More than ever in a crisis it is necessary to create additional value, which is impossible in a state of one’s own stress.
• Proactivity is the most important competence for a leader, as in the ability to act proactively when it is necessary, to engage and consciously make efforts and direct energy in the required direction. And this is a discipline.
• Resilience is also the ability to think strategically, to think “on the contrary”. In other words, to analyze and assess the existing risk not only from the angle of the present day, but also from the future, suggesting and evaluating various ways in which events might develop.

A leader with such qualities is able to create a stress-resistant environment in the company, a strong anti-crisis team and a system that can withstand stress of any complexity.

Such systems can adapt to changing conditions, withstand sudden shocks, and not only recover to the desired equilibrium, but also develop.

Please contact Anna Nesterchuk or your region’s Cornerstone Office to discuss how we can help you place your next executive with a high vitality quotient.