Perhaps the most important thing every leader must do is to select and prepare his or her successor, or at least to create a leadership culture where budding leaders have the best opportunity to flourish.
However, even in a thriving leadership culture, sometimes it becomes necessary to look outside the organization for its next leader. When that is the case, often the board and its search firm scour resumes to find that one person with a blue chip line of experience together with a storied body of successful experience in just those areas most important to the organization. But don’t stop there. Although experience and expertise are important, we believe there are four characteristics that are even more valuable:
Honesty – a natural inclination to do the honest thing, in both positive and negative situations.
A Listener – someone who automatically listens first and even has the skill to draw out the positions of others in the organization before voicing his/her own.
Optimism – not a Pollyanna, but a person who approaches life from a positive perspective and reflects a positive outlook and environment.
Respect – for people and their ideas, no matter what their status is.
For best results, create your short list based on resumes and then make your final selection based on these 4 qualities.
Stan Silverman is a writer, speaker and advisor on effective leadership. He is the Leadership Catalyst at Tier 1 Group, a firm of strategists and advisors for preeminent growth. Silverman is vice chairman of the board of Drexel University, a director of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and former president and CEO of PQ Corporation. Follow: @StanSilverman. Connect: Stan@SilvermanLeadership.com. Website: www.SilvermanLeadership.com
