There is a phrase, purported to be an ancient Chinese curse, which goes ‘may you live in interesting times’, which addresses the double-edged sword of turbulent times, with increased opportunity but also increased challenges.
While the etymology of this motto has never been fully proven out as being derived from China, the phrase has stuck down through the decades as meaning a time of excitement and also of anxiety. So to modern times, and indeed, have there ever been more interesting times for the CEO, or budding CEO?
Firstly, those at the top of the tree have to transition their companies out of pandemic times and launch head first into an economic rebound, amid a great resignation, a shift (or not) to flexible working, a talent shortage, plus a huge emphasis on ESG.
And then there’s the evolution itself of the role of CEO, from Chief Executive Officer to a growing requirement to be Chief Empathy Officer, with reports galore from the likes of PwC and McKinsey that suggests tomorrow’s leaders need to be as skilled with EQ as they are with Excel.
In short, no longer do the figures of the balance sheet suffice, how they are achieved is now equally important, if not more so.
So in this month’s CEO Middle East magazine expect to read plenty of articles reflecting the diverse nature of these ‘interesting times’.
Shane Phillips, CEO of The Phillips Group, unpacks ‘How to hire a CEO in a new era of workplace’. He says: “Today’s CEO is not 2018’s CEO. Current candidate assessments are fundamentally flawed as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding that ideal fit. Key to success is your CEO’s sense of personal identity, vision and their sense of purpose.”
Or take Sir Ian Cheshire, the Chair of the Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health, who reflects that evolving nature of the CEO in our sit down discussion ‘Why managers must be prepared to lead mental health discussions’.
“The simple answer,” he says, “is that businesses and organisations generally need to have much more honest conversations with their teams about what’s actually going on and what’s working for them and what isn’t working for them.”
He also covers the driver behind talent war abroad in the world of work, something also covered by Ray Everett, CEO of Human Capital at Aon For Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, who looks at the employment phenomenon that is creating a shortage of skilled labour in ‘What the Great Resignation means for employees and employers’.
He says: “As a result of this talent shortage, we are seeing employees getting offers of 20 percent to 50 percent on top of existing pay packages, which often starts a bidding war between potential employers. Sounds like the current real estate market.”
So here’s to those interesting times, if out of the chaos a more sustainable world of work can be born then perhaps it’s worth the anxiety to achieve the exciting in terms of an evolution into employment 2.0.