Our conversations indicate that career aspirations are being re-shaped by two main factors:

1 – The desire to experience and practice wise leadership.

Wise leadership is ethical, responsible and sustainable, even if this may mean some loss of short-term gain. A shift is underway from smart and reasonable leadership, that purely focuses on immediate economics, to more holistic leadership that emphasizes ESG criteria.

2 – The desire to have greater control over their own destiny.

They seek this, even if it means some loss of predictability and security. The emphasis is shifting from highly engineered organizational structures to more self-organizing, fluid ecosystems that are collaborative and trust-based.

We theorized that these factors are no longer ‘nice-to-have’ for senior executives; they are becoming fundamental selection criteria. Were we right? If anything, we under-estimated their importance. They are becoming non-negotiables to a degree that surprised us.

Measuring what really matters to senior executives now | 4 areas of investigation

1 – NEEDS: What do senior executives deeply want from organizations? What profile of organization are they actively seeking or avoiding?

2 - APPROACH TO THE HIRING PROCESS: How are senior interview candidates examining hiring organizations? What do they really think of AI hiring tools?

3 - DEPARTURE REASONS: What is causing senior executives to leave their organizations?

4 - CONFIDENCE IN CHANGING ORGANIZATIONS: How are global developments affecting senior executive confidence in making a move? A business barometer and diagnostic tool