Two weeks ago I had a simple question to a couple of executives I was interviewing for my panel discussion with the Villanova MBA class in April. Instead of sharing my opinions with the MBAs I decided to reach out to a dozen or so of my peers and ask what they would tell the class. I will share the results of those interviews after my talk with the class in April.
What came from the interviews though is a series of spectacular insights. One of which is that in these times executives should focus on different skills than just business expertise and personal development. My friends told me that the ability to execute and build relationships will surpass all IQ and business acumen.
I decided to put the theory to the test. I reached out to my LinkedIn network and conducted the following poll:
In these times what executive skills should we focus on?
The response was overwhelming to say the least. In a week I received 170 completed polls, 40 detailed comments and over 50 emails detailing and arguing various points.
Here is the bottom line:
Ability to Execute is the Most Important Skill.
40% of those polled believed that Execution is the most critical while 31% put Relationship Building first.
Interestingly only 10% put Business Expertise on top.
Again, like the adage says: IT IS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW…
Interestingly the ranking was almost identical from both men and women:
We will be dedicating a new site to publish the details of our polls and interviews soon. Stay tuned.