It is more important for senior executives to be able to motivate and inspire others than to perform well themselves, new research suggests.
According to a study of top leaders by executive search firm Curzon Partners, more than two-thirds (68%) of top leaders ranked the ability to motivate and inspire others as the most desirable attribute in a senior executive.
The next most important traits that leaders valued in senior executives were the ability to manage change (51%), the ability to identify and develop talent (48%), and consistent high performance (26%).
Interestingly, innovative thinking was seen as the least important attribute, cited by 30%.
Curzon’s survey, The Global Succession Planning Study 2014 revealed that the average senior executive team is 25% female and 75% male. Meanwhile, more than half of senior executive teams globally (55%) are made up of 75% or more males.
Overall, nearly 57% of organisations said gender composition in the senior executive team was an important issue for them. Meanwhile, 45% of respondents in Europe, the Middle East and Africa expect to see more women in senior executive positions over the next three years.
The survey also found that companies around the world have different expectations of how long a senior executive will remain with an organisation, but the average is seven years. In the Americas, the expectation was slightly longer (7.9 years), while in Europe and Asia-Pacific, it was shorter (seven years and 5.9 years respectively).
Worryingly, over a third (35%) of executives globally said that their organisation did not have a succession plan in place for the senior leadership team.
Sally Percy is editor of The Treasurer