The skills that successful CEO’s look for has been revealed by a survey of senior figures for companies featuring on Fortune’s 2017 100 Best Companies to Work for list. The CEO’s highlighted he importance of positive minded “soft skills” over the more traditional training programme orientated technical skills.
The attribute these execs looked for most often was “cultural fit.” Many of these CEOs explained that maintaining a company culture, which all staff bought into, was integral to success. Less tangible skills, such as “enthusiasm” and “curiosity” were also high on CEO’s lists of desired employee attributes – Fortune reports.
Mark Hoplamazian, CEO of Hyatt Hotels, explained that Hyatt’s hiring process seeks to find staff with these soft skills – rather than searching for hires with a specific skillset. He said: “We hire more for personality and growth mindset than specific skill set. We believe curiosity, passion and a love of learning together can be greater than a person’s previous experience. Care comes from a place of empathy and understanding—traits you can’t learn from a book but that produce better results.”
Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche Diagnostics, mirrored Hoplamazian’s argument, explaining that specific skills can be taught further down the line; it was the desire to learn these skills that he looked for when hiring candidates. Schwan said: “Today, the ideal candidate has the ambition and ability to demonstrate learning agility every day. No longer do we hire for specific skills, but rather we focus on individuals who bring a growth mindset, where they embody passion, embrace failure, and create change.”
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