Executive pay benchmarking has long been a cornerstone of best practice for Boards and Management. The hiring process remains complex and competitive. In addition, traditional thinking is no longer relevant, as organizations adopt new and forward-thinking approaches to quantifying appropriate market-competitive pay levels as the job market becomes increasingly saturated.

Personality broadly to refers to those individual attributes that “give form, structure, and consistency to people’s behavior over time and situations. Personality traits are patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that are relatively consistent over time and across situations. There are certain personality traits, such as honesty and humility, which are mostly associated with positive company outcomes, while other personality traits, such as machiavellianism (trait which sees a person so focused on their own interests they will manipulate, deceive, and exploit others to achieve their goals) and narcissism (pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's idealised self-image and attributes), seems to negatively impact companies. This is why many endure rigorous personality tests during interviews.

Certain aspects related to those at the C-Level, such as tenure (experience), education, and also CEO’s physical appearance, facial expressions, and more recently, digital presence impact the CEO’s image and, subsequently, company reputation and performance. To a deeper level, when I was reading numerous papers that analyze the link between CEO and stock prices it has been found that firms of more conscientious and efficient CEOs tended to have lower levels of stock volatility, but were able to generate higher stock returns. A recent article I read in the Harvard Business Review suggested strong senior executives don’t make it to the top by chance. As they work their way up the corporate ladder, they acquire the right mix of skills and experience to succeed in higher leadership positions.

If personality is a fundamental aspect of the final decision-making process to hiring…should we be empirically linking CEO personality, personal branding, or impact on the digital space to employment?

But why do some leaders plateau while others go on to become successful senior executives? It all comes down to core competencies, or the innate personality traits that drive a leader’s behaviors and motivations.

Certainly, boards should place a high value on conscientiousness, and it probably goes without saying that they should avoid highly neurotic individuals when deciding on a new CEO.

In leadership research, it is well established that extroverts tend to be promoted to higher levels in the organization more frequently and more quickly than introverts. It’s not clear if this is because extroverts tend to be better leaders, or if they are just perceived to be better leaders because of their charisma.

With artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms being able to predict personality traits of video clips, social platforms, and resumes the importance of personal branding and publishing content on the digital space is more important than ever for a C-suite who is job searching.

Talent sourcing is one of the most prominent ways companies use technology in the recruitment process. Data scrapping social professional sites is becoming increasingly more common without you knowing it - especially in financial markets, where every percentage point matters, the fact that any given trait on its own is associated with such a bump could be very meaningful for firms and their investors' companies are looking for the best fit possible right from the get-go. Using AI to screen candidates helps narrow down talent, making the hiring process quicker and more efficient. I am not saying that AI will entirely replace recruitment, however, machine learning and analyzing various content in the digital space will indeed facilitate decision-making processes to hire an Executive.

So....does your personal brand matter?

Yes! As the CEO, CFO or COO, your personal brand matters — because people care about whom they work for. You are the public face of your next company. You set the tone. You are typically the most visible person in your firm, and when a job candidate researches your company or considers to buy stocks, they are very likely to look at you.

Now more than ever, one needs to focus on building your own personal brand! Let me know if you would like help! I am only an email away

info@impressivecv.com