Executive Skills...

Nearly ever person I've met who has some executive experience would agree with this comment: that people without executive experience generally don't have the faintest idea what an executive does, or what skills are needed to be an effective executive. That would include executives, before they became executives.

Like most people with executive experience, I've got my own collection of “executive wisdom” and rules-of-thumb. For instance, I've often commented that one of the key skills for any executive is the simple willingness to make decisions in the face of insufficient or conflicting information. Most people are very uncomfortable making important decisions until they've had a chance to do all the research, to think about the pros and cons, consult with trusted advisors, and generally to have enough time to get comfortable with their decision. Executives often are forced to make decisions without any of these luxuries.

Another of my executive rules-of-thumb is “embrace chaos”, by which I mean that an executive should learn to relish the never-ending stream of surprises that the messy real world throws at you. Too often executives see these events as a stream of problems and annoyances, rather than as a stream of opportunities being presented (even if the only opportunity is to suffer less damage than your competitors!).

TigerHawk dissects another such executive skill, a better articulated version of my executive rule-of-thumb “Do something, even if it's wrong!”