Leadership Is What Gets You to the C-Suite
New research from Harvard1 confirms that it is your leadership, not your technical or functional competence, that gets you to the C-Suite, and that aspiring c-level HR executives would be well advised to focus their efforts on developing internal leadership talent.
The 2 critical capabilities for all c-level executives were leadership and hard-edged business acumen, suggesting that at this level, the chief HR officer has more in common with the chief financial officer, the chief legal counsel and other c-level peers, than they do with the professional specialists within their own division.
Two implications flow from this research. The first is that individuals with ambitions to make it to the top need to invest in developing their own leadership and business acumen. The second is that ambitious HR executives need to build a reputation for developing leadership in others.
Notes
1 Groysberg, B., Kelly, L. K., & MacDonald, B. (2011). The New Path to the C-Suite. Harvard Business review , 61-68.