What do companies look for while hiring CEO’s? Statistics from the top recruiters in India tell us-70% of organizations in India were looking for a CEO who is humble, has a high EQ with good people skills. This was clearly called out when they received the hiring mandate from their clients. I read an article a while ago where a senior executive being considered for the position of a CEO was turned down because he was extremely rude to the driver that had come to pick him up for the job interview. The prospective CEO was running late and passed his anxiety and frustration onto the driver who had come to pick him up.

Several companies may overlook senior leaders riding roughshod over the emotions of team members, however we see this trend changing. Slowly but surely, the value of control over one’s emotions, demonstrating emotional intelligence and being empathetic are slowly competencies that people hire for.

Way back in 2008, when ShradhaHRD was conducting an intervention on Conducting appraisals for a Global Bank, it was interesting that the only thing that managers scored their team members on were hard skills. Even though there was a detailed matrix describing expected behaviors to be demonstrated, these were largely overlooked. Less than an hour in an entire year was spent talking about these competencies!!!!!!!!

Thankfully change , ushered in by the growing Millennial population in the workforce and other factors has brought emotional intelligence to the forefront.