Charismatic leaders have a unique ability to captivate and inspire those around them, often leaving a lasting impact on their colleagues and organisations. We all find it reassuring to have someone leading who can communicate a compelling vision, has emotional intelligence and personal magnetism because they create environments where people feel motivated, valued, and united in their efforts.
While some people may have natural traits that lend themselves to leadership, (such as confidence, charisma, or communication skills), leadership is largely a set of skills and behaviours that can be developed over time through experience, education, and intentional practice.
Performative leadership, when approached with intention and balance, can be a powerful tool for inspiring teams, influencing stakeholders, and driving organisational success. This leadership style emphasises the importance of visible leadership actions and behaviours, which can play a crucial role in setting the tone, energizing a team, and rallying support around key initiatives.
Performative leaders understand the importance of visibility. By being present in key moments—whether through speeches, meetings, or public engagements—they ensure that their leadership is felt throughout the organization. This visible presence can boost morale and signal that the leader is actively engaged and invested in the team’s success.
Through their actions and words, performative leaders can inspire confidence and motivate their teams. By projecting confidence, decisiveness, and vision, they can energize employees and create a sense of momentum and purpose within the organization.
Performative leaders are often skilled communicators who can articulate a compelling vision and rally others around it. Their ability to communicate clearly and persuasively is a key asset in aligning the team with organizational goals and fostering a shared sense of purpose.
Engaging in symbolic actions—such as leading by example, making public commitments, or recognizing team achievements can have a powerful impact on organisational culture. These actions, while sometimes more symbolic than substantive, can reinforce values, celebrate successes, and build a strong, cohesive team identity.
By focusing on visible, high-impact initiatives, performative leaders can create a sense of urgency and momentum. These leaders excel at setting ambitious goals and galvanizing their teams to achieve them, often turning ideas into action quickly.
Performative leadership can also enhance the organisation’s reputation. By being a visible, proactive leader, one can project an image of a dynamic, forward-thinking organisation, which can be attractive to clients, partners, and potential hires.
Leaders need to engage and motivate their teams, much like actors captivate their audience. Acting skills help leaders craft messages that not only inform but also inspire action and commitment.
Performative leadership, when done well, can be a catalyst for positive change and success. By mastering the art of visible, impactful leadership actions, leaders can inspire their teams, drive momentum, and build a strong organisational culture. When balanced with authenticity and substance, performative leadership becomes not just an act, but a powerful tool for achieving lasting success.
When engaging in Executive Search, the main goal for most is to find the right employee for your team. However, throughout the Executive Search process many advantages evolve as a result of the thorough market survey / market analysis that takes place.
Insights are obtained through a deep dive into the market's talent pool as well as interviewing and engaging with key executives and leaders within the industries. This provides the client and the firm with extensive information about salary levels, employment conditions, company reputation, DEI, competitor analysis, and much more. The knowledge, information and insights that are discovered during the process prove to be highly valuable.
One of the primary benefits of conducting a market analysis is obtaining up-to-date information on salary levels and employment conditions within the industry for specific profiles. This data ensures that your compensation packages are competitive, which is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent.
By engaging with market opinion leaders and senior management, we can gauge the reputation of the client company. This feedback is invaluable for assessing the company’s attractiveness as an employer and informs the employer branding strategy. For instance, if a company is perceived negatively, strategic measures can be taken to improve its image.
A thorough market analysis provides insights into the diversity of profiles in the market. This helps in understanding the current state of diversity within the industry and aids in formulating effective DEI strategies. Companies can then position themselves as inclusive and equitable workplaces, enhancing their appeal to a broader range of candidates.
The information gathered during a market analysis can be leveraged for future internal recruitment. Understanding the talent landscape helps in anticipating recruitment needs and hereby understanding how to increase retention rate, improve and promote career development etc.
By analyzing competitors, you can understand what they are doing to retain their best employees. This includes their retention strategies, career development opportunities, and overall job satisfaction levels. Armed with this information, your company can develop superior strategies to attract and retain top talent. This also includes identifying what motivates or dissatisfies employees in similar roles elsewhere can help in crafting more appealing job roles and work environments.
In 2024, organizations are increasingly recognizing that attracting and retaining top-tier talent is crucial for sustaining competitive advantage and driving innovation.
As the market for senior executives becomes more dynamic, we advise companies must adopt smart hiring strategies to ensure they secure the best leaders who can navigate the complexities of today’s business environment.
The senior-level talent market in 2024 is characterized by a blend of traditional leadership qualities and modern competencies. The rapid pace of technological advancement, the increasing importance of sustainability, and the need for diversity and inclusion have reshaped the expectations from senior executives. Today’s leaders must be agile, forward-thinking, and adept at managing cross-functional teams in a hybrid work environment.
Redefine Leadership Competencies: Modern senior leaders must possess a unique blend of skills. Beyond traditional competencies like strategic vision and financial acumen, they need to excel in areas such as digital literacy, change management, and emotional intelligence. Organizations should redefine their leadership competencies to align with the current and future needs of their business.
Leverage Advanced Analytics: Data-driven decision-making is revolutionizing the hiring process. Utilizing advanced analytics can help identify the characteristics and experiences that correlate with successful leadership within a specific organization. Predictive analytics can also forecast a candidate’s potential for growth and adaptability, ensuring a better cultural fit.
Enhance Employer Branding: In a competitive talent market, a strong employer brand is essential. Companies need to communicate their values, culture, and vision effectively to attract high-caliber candidates. Highlighting commitment to innovation, diversity, and employee well-being can make an organization more attractive to senior executives who are seeking purposeful and impactful roles.
Expand Search Horizons: The talent pool for senior-level positions is global. Organizations should look beyond local markets and consider candidates from diverse geographical and industry backgrounds. This approach not only widens the talent pool but also brings in varied perspectives that can drive innovation and growth.
Emphasize Cultural Fit: Cultural alignment is critical at the senior level, where leadership decisions significantly impact organizational culture. During the hiring process, it’s important to assess whether candidates’ values and management styles align with the company’s culture. This can be achieved through comprehensive behavioral interviews and cultural fit assessments.
Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion: Diverse leadership teams are proven to enhance decision-making and drive better business outcomes. Organizations must prioritize diversity and inclusion by actively seeking candidates from underrepresented groups. Implementing unbiased recruitment practices and ensuring diverse interview panels can help mitigate unconscious biases.
Utilize Executive Search Firms: Executive search firms can be valuable partners in the hiring process. These firms have extensive networks and expertise in identifying and attracting top talent. Collaborating with a reputable search firm can streamline the process and provide access to candidates who might not be actively seeking new opportunities.
Offer Competitive Compensation Packages: Attracting top senior talent requires competitive and comprehensive compensation packages. Beyond salary, candidates are looking for benefits that support work-life balance, such as flexible working arrangements, opportunities for continuous learning, and long-term incentives like equity options.
As the market evolves, staying ahead with these smart hiring strategies will be key to organizational success.
Loneliness among business leaders, including CEOs, is a significant issue that often goes unnoticed. Despite being surrounded by teams and employees, many leaders can experience feelings of isolation due to the unique pressures and responsibilities of their roles.
I have spoken with many CEOs on this subject, and these are some factors contributing to feelings of isolation:
CEOs and other leaders often bear the weight of making tough decisions that can impact the company, employees, and stakeholders. This burden can lead to feelings of isolation, as they may feel they have few peers with whom they can discuss these decisions openly and candidly.
While leaders may have colleagues and peers within the organization, they may hesitate to open up about their challenges and vulnerabilities due to concerns about appearing weak or incompetent. This can create a sense of isolation and loneliness, as they may feel they have few people in who they can truly confide.
The demanding nature of leadership roles can result in work-life imbalance, leaving leaders with little time for personal relationships and social activities outside of work. This can exacerbate feelings of loneliness and isolation, as they may struggle to find time to connect with friends and loved ones.
Leaders are often held to high standards by their employees, board members, shareholders, and other stakeholders. The pressure to meet these expectations can be overwhelming and can contribute to feelings of loneliness, as leaders may feel they have to project an image of strength and confidence at all times.
CEOs are often seen as figures of power and success, and there's a common perception that they lead glamorous and fulfilling lives. Discussing feelings of loneliness can challenge this perception and may not align with the public image they want to maintain.
There's often a stigma attached to admitting feelings of loneliness or vulnerability, particularly in leadership positions. CEOs may fear that acknowledging their loneliness could be interpreted as a sign of weakness or incompetence, so they may be hesitant to discuss it openly.
The silence surrounding CEO loneliness highlights the need for greater awareness and understanding of the mental health challenges faced by business leaders. Encouraging open dialogue and providing support for CEOs to address their feelings of loneliness can help create a healthier and more supportive work environment.
The workforce now consists of three generations of employees which is something previously unseen in the corporate world.
Older generations are impacted by increasing pension age, oftentimes delaying retirement, meanwhile the millennials continue to enter the workforce; in fact, they already make up a significant chunk of it. To make things more complex, COVID made its mark on values and expectations of different generations - not to mention the technology-centric environment that is here to stay.
Various studies have noted that leaders of different ages bring different skill sets and know-how to the table. Diversity helps to improve discussions, foster innovation and facilitate creative problem solving. And it's not just skills but also networks and viewpoints that are complementary. As a result, age diverse teams can better reflect the needs of larger consumer segments.
Perceived receptiveness towards innovation, high energy and eagerness to learn mean younger leaders often prevail over the perceived lower energy, often fixed attitudes and questionable technological literacy of their older counterparts.
It seems obvious that knowledge of experienced generations combined with a fresh take of younger ones produces better results. But how to get the mix right?
Different attitudes towards remote work, preferred styles of communication, respect of hierarchy (or absence of it) are the key pitfalls faced by the age diverse teams. It can lead to serious trust, collaboration and miscommunication issues which then result in lower productivity.
Every organization is unique, so are the markets in which the organizations operate. For example, Central and Eastern European companies usually have rather young management boards and need to attract older talent from the West.
The way forward may lie in embracing the culture which celebrates the strengths of different generations. The challenge is to find a formula that employs generational differences for the benefit of the organization. For example, adopting a decision making approach where the preference for very fast and reactive decisions is combined with well thought, double checked, experience based attitude. Also, embedding training and mentorship programs to ensure the knowledge transfer becomes a necessity.
“Decision making is the specific executive task”
Peter Drucker
Timely and effective decision-making on management level is a key factor driving the performance of a business organization.
Deciding about strategic choices, or solving operational challenges, is a complex skill relying on data analysis capacity, sound judgement, logical thinking, ability to trust one's own intuition as a distillation of previous experience and last, but not least, a strength of character enabling one to take risks and responsibility.
The management consulting firm Bain, performing a survey of more than 750 companies, found a clear correlation of 95% between the corporation`s financial results and their effectiveness in terms of decision-making. Another insight of the survey showed business organizations that are especially good at making and executing strategic decisions report returns nearly 6% higher than their competitors.
Research by consulting firm McKinsey, with more than thousand managers from global companies, gave clear indications of increasing levels of frustration from broken decision-making processes, with the slow pace of decision-making and with the inconsistent quality of the results from the decision-making. Less than half of the survey participants reported that decisions are timely, and more than 60% say that at least half the time spent making them is ineffective.
Decision-making is not a eureka moment of revelation. It is a process, and assuming a structured step-by-step approach could help gain control and ensuring its effectiveness and efficiency:
According to Schlesinger it is critical to ensure the pieces are in place for implementation. An effective team decision-making process encompasses:
By following a structured, multi-step process, you can make well informed, effective decisions and achieve the desired outcome. But even the not so perfect decision is often far better than no decision at all.
As Gordon Graham wisely pointed out, “Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight; indecision, a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it.”
In the realm of leadership, technical skills and strategic thinking often take center stage. However, there's a crucial yet often overlooked aspect that separates good leaders from great ones: Emotional Intelligence (EQ). In this article, we explore why EQ is indispensable for effective leadership and how it can transform workplace dynamics.
At its core, EQ encompasses the ability to recognize, understand, and manage both our own emotions and those of others. In a professional setting, this translates into improved communication, stronger relationships, and better decision-making.
In conclusion, Emotional Intelligence is not just a nice-to-have skill for leaders—it's a must-have. It underpins effective communication, builds trust and rapport, facilitates conflict resolution, cultivates resilience, and empowers others to thrive. As we navigate the complexities of the modern workplace, let's remember that true leadership begins with understanding ourselves and others on a deeper emotional level.
At Friisberg & Partners, we emphasize EQ while evaluating the leadership qualities of our candidates. We never forget to look beyond the CV, and consider the power of Emotional Intelligence. It could be the difference between a candidate who merely manages a team and a candidate who inspires greatness.
Thirty-three years ago I spent two years in the middle of my studies sailing in the Whitbread Round the World race on s/y UBF. It was a great experience. Then came work, family and all other priorities and duties. My friends often asked, if I would do the circumnavigating or an ocean racing leg again, should the opportunity arise? Hell yeah! I always answered but continued that no one would take a 58 year-old, grey haired and bearded office guy on-board... so not a chance.
But then luck kicked in the form of The Ocean Globe Race, a fully crewed retro race in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. There it was, my chance to relive my great adventure.
Sailing the Leg 3, from Auckland of New Zealand via Cape Horn to Punta Del Este of Uruguay, on a Nautor Swan 651, s/y Spirit of Helsinki was beyond great - as well as the team.
One special element of this race is that no communication to and/or from the boat was allowed except some tweets to the organizers or in case of an emergency. So we were really 100 % offline for five weeks: no emails, no social media, no WhatsApp, no sms, no phone calls - totally disconnected from work and from families.
During those five weeks, our universe was the boat, the ocean, the sky and the 14 team members - and being offline is inspirational.
You can actually live without emails, calls, news and social media for five weeks, no problem! I suppose we aren’t irreplaceable after all. My only concern was my family: was everything OK with them. That bothered me quite a lot. It was such a relief to get the phone from the sealed bag in in Punta del Este, to call home straight away and to hear that everyone was OK!
Planning of projects, managing the hand-overs to colleagues (a big thank you to my fellow colleagues at Friisberg!) and making sure that all administration eg. billing, taxes etc. are all well-planned beforehand. Nonetheless I was feeling a bit shaky when I opened my email after the five weeks offline, but fortunately there were no crisis, no big issues waiting there. My projects had gone well during and despite my absence and I had few calls from new clients waiting for my return.
We hardly ever talked about our land based professional lives during the five weeks. The talk was around sailing, watch systems (work-schedule on board), competition, sail-trim, strategy, maneuvers, food, weather or sleep - not work. It was a time for something else for everyone. On the boat we were helmsmen, sail-trimmers, not CEOs or Executive Search Consultants. Thirty year-old Hilla, the only female on board was our most accurate and by far the fastest in celestial navigation with the traditional sextant. And our excellent second mate, 22 years old Aaro, told the four CEO's aboard what to do in the sail change. And that worked well. Should we change our roles more often in the office work as well?
Now that I’m back online I challenge you to try being offline. Try it for a week or two at first - like on your next holiday.
In the ongoing pursuit of gender equality, inclusion stands as a cornerstone principle, essential for breaking down barriers, challenging stereotypes, and creating environments where all women are valued and respected.
World-renowned feminist, journalist and activist, Gloria Steinem, reportedly once explained:
"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."
While progress has been made in advancing women's rights and opportunities, true gender equality remains elusive in many parts of the world. Inclusion is vital to drive meaningful change to a more equitable future.
Inclusion is not merely about representation; it's about creating spaces and systems where all women, regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances, feel valued, heard, and empowered. This means recognizing and addressing the intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalization that women from diverse backgrounds face, whether based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Women encounter various obstacles on their path to equality, including structural barriers such as discriminatory laws and policies, limited access to education and healthcare, and unequal opportunities in the workforce. Inclusive action involves identifying and dismantling these barriers to ensure that all women have equal access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making processes.
Stereotypes based on gender, race, ethnicity, or other factors often limit women's potential and perpetuate harmful biases and discrimination. By challenging these stereotypes and promoting diverse representations of women in media, education, and leadership, we can create a more inclusive narrative that celebrates the richness and complexity of women's experiences and identities.
This entails fostering inclusive attitudes and behaviors at all levels of society, from families and communities to workplaces and policy-making institutions. It involves promoting ally ship among individuals and organizations, amplifying marginalized voices, and actively challenging discrimination and exclusion wherever it occurs.
Inclusion is not just a buzzword; it's a fundamental principle that underpins the pursuit of gender equality. By breaking down barriers, challenging stereotypes, and creating inclusive environments where all women are valued and respected, we can build a more just and equitable society for everyone.
In an era defined by technological leaps, artificial intelligence (AI) stands as a transformative force reshaping industries across the globe. The realm of executive leadership is no exception, as the advent of AI brings forth a wave of changes that will significantly influence how organizations identify, nurture, and leverage their top-tier talent.
AI is revolutionizing the way leaders make decisions. With advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms, executives can now rely on data-driven insights to inform their strategic choices. This shift not only enhances decision-making precision but also demands a new set of skills from executives, emphasizing the importance of data literacy at the leadership level.
As AI systems take over routine tasks, executives will find themselves freed from mundane responsibilities, allowing them to focus on more strategic, creative, and high-impact aspects of their roles. This augmentation of leadership responsibilities requires a paradigm shift, encouraging executives to develop a symbiotic relationship with AI tools to maximize efficiency and innovation.
The rise of AI necessitates a reevaluation of the skills expected from executive leaders. While traditional leadership qualities remain indispensable, proficiency in understanding and leveraging AI technologies becomes a critical asset. Executives need to cultivate a deep understanding of AI applications relevant to their industry, ensuring they can harness these technologies to drive organizational success.
The ethical implications of AI adoption are a growing concern. Executives will play a crucial role in navigating the ethical landscape of AI, ensuring transparency, fairness, and accountability in its implementation. Leaders must proactively address ethical challenges, building trust both within their organizations and among stakeholders.
AI facilitates remote work, opening new possibilities for global collaboration. Executives can harness AI tools to identify, recruit, and manage diverse talent from around the world. This globalization of the talent pool requires leaders to adapt their management styles to accommodate diverse perspectives and work cultures.
AI evolves rapidly, and executives must keep pace. The expectation for continuous learning and adaptability becomes a cornerstone for effective leadership. Executives need to cultivate a mindset of lifelong learning, embracing new technologies and staying abreast of industry trends to lead their organizations through the dynamic landscape shaped by AI.
As artificial intelligence continues to permeate the business world, executive leaders face both challenges and opportunities. Embracing AI as a strategic ally, redefining skill sets, navigating ethical considerations, and fostering a global perspective are essential elements for executives to thrive in the AI-driven future.
The journey ahead requires leaders who can seamlessly integrate AI into their leadership style, guiding their organizations towards sustainable success in an ever-evolving landscape.
