3 ms·
Usually C-level execs is all about connections or where they went to university. They are not smarter than folk in the trenches.
by sys_64738 4y ago
Usually C-level execs is all about connections or where they went to university. They are not smarter than folk in the trenches.
- anonymousDan 4y agoMaybe that is the way to hire good ones. Exclude all candidates who went to a 'brand' university.
- Spooky23 4y agoThey do that in government. You just get different cliques. You hire executives for different reasons. Sometimes loyalty or incompetence to a degree is valuable as the person isn’t a threat. Other times people are hired to drive a particular agenda and can be relied upon to do that because they are too dumb to do otherwise. And sometimes they are sacrificial lambs.
- doctor_eval 4y agoYou can hit the jackpot by hiring a CxO from a brand university who has both the connections and the skill set. Unfortunately you can’t discover the strength of either until you’re in quite deep. That’s the risk.
- swyx 4y agoas a fellow skeptic, this oversteps. your mistake is that smart = value. connections do have value, as does experience and other leadership qualities than domain expertise. your criticisms will be stronger if you recognize this.
- doctor_eval 4y agoYes - this is the problem. I worked at a company that was relatively successful because of the connections the CEO brought to the table. Objectively, the company would have been far less stressful to work at - and more profitable - if we had a better leader, but it wouldn’t have existed without his connections.
- knightofmars 4y agoYou're lucky the CEO had connections that somewhat panned out. I've experienced the "connections" based C-suite hire that was a complete and total net negative. It took 3 years for the removal to happen. It was a painful 3 years.
- doctor_eval 4y agoYes, to be clear the CEO was also a founder, so he didn't just parachute in. I have, unfortunately, also seen something similar to your experience. This is why hiring for a role like that is tricky. I want to say for the record I also once hired an awesome CEO who was humble, sincere, reasonable - and very effective. We're still friends after 25+ years.
- smeagull 4y agoConnections have value, but that value can easily be negative.
- TrackerFF 4y agoIf your goal is to become a C-level executive, start your career (and excel) at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or similar elite management consulting firms.
- spaetzleesser 4y agoThey also work very hard as in spending enormous amounts of time working.
- refurb 4y agoThis is the thinking that technical folks often fall into - raw intelligence is the best indicator of performance. At the core, C-level roles are often sales roles. They need to sell their ideas both up (to the CEO and board) and down (to their org).