The Four Elements of Leadership That Don’t Appear On A Resume

When Mina Ames, Managing Director of Russell Reynolds Associates, for evaluates potential leaders, whether it’s a CEO or a divisional role, she looks for four key attributes that are not related to either their technical expertise or experience:

LEVEL OF CURIOSITY
How willing are you to learn? How much are you willing to grow? Most importantly, how willing are you to learn about yourself? How often will you ask for feedback, and how open are you to that feedback?

INSIGHT
How do you take a plethora of information and use it to drive a new strategic insight or a new way of doing things?

ENGAGEMENT
How and with whom do you engage? You don’t want people who can only engage at a certain social or hierarchical level. You want people who can engage up, down, left and right in an organization.

DETERMINATION / RESILIENCE
This is extremely important in volatile, uncertain environments. You must be able to bounce back; to be able to pick yourself up after a setback, to pivot in an instant and remain in motion at all times.

These four elements are key considerations when Mina is evaluating potential leaders, but they are also qualities displayed by Executive Athletes.

Do you know an inspiring leader? A leader who is winning at home and at work? A leader who is able to perform in clutch moments, inspire action with their words and develop close personal relationships with their team?

Observe their actions. What you will find is that they are masters of these four elements.