The most important quality of a business leader today is integrity. This is
the finding of a recent survey developed by Robert Half Management
Resources. It was conducted by an independent research firm and includes
responses from 1,400 CFOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies
with 20 or more employees. These CFOs
were asked, “Which of the following qualities do you feel is most important in business leaders today?” Integrity garnered the
most responses at 31 percent. Experience
and communication skills were second,
each with a 27 percent response. Technical
or functional expertise was the selection of
11 percent of the respondents.
According to Terry Phillips, vice president of Robert Half Management Resources for Northeast Ohio, “Businesses have
learned some hard lessons from the corporate scandals of the recent past. They recognize, more than ever, that they need
transparency in financial reporting to retain or gain the trust of those relying on the
reports.”
Smart Business talked with Phillips for
his insight into the results of this survey
and the impact on today’s business climate.
What do the results of this survey tell us
about the needs of today’s businesses?
It solidifies what we are seeing in the dayto-day requests received from businesses.
The top three qualities in the survey are so
important and fit together. Companies
want professionals who can immediately
apply their experience in an organization.
Financial executives with Sarbanes-Oxley/SEC reporting experience and a
public accounting background are in particularly strong demand. Communications
skills are extremely important as financial
executives need to translate technical concepts into terms a variety of audiences,
both internally and externally, can understand. They have to be able to converse by
the written and spoken word to those
above and below them in the organization
chart, stockholders, bankers, suppliers,
customers and anyone else that has a financial interest or need for financial
information about the company. And, all
this must be accomplished with the utmost
integrity.
What is ‘integrity’ and why has it become
such a desired leadership quality?
Integrity is a firm adherence to a code of
values. It implies trustworthiness and
incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility or pledge.
Integrity, reputation and ethics are the
cornerstones of good business. Shareholders, employees, corporate boards and
financial institutions rely on and have an
interest in the accuracy of a company’s
accounting and financial disclosures.
Investors need to feel confident about the
underlying integrity of businesses in which
they have a stake, and in the company’s
management. The attention paid to those
situations where the line was crossed, and
the resultant losses to so many were so
great, has caused more businesses to be
even more careful in how they handle their
financial matters and how they communicate that information. It has to be accurate
and truthful.
Is integrity hard to measure?
While integrity can certainly be subjective, taking an ‘integrity self-audit’ can be a
good measurement tool. An integrity self-audit can include asking and answering
such questions as: Whom in the business
world do you admire and why? What qualities are appealing and how can you emulate those traits? Do you regularly share
appropriate information with your colleagues/team members to ensure there are
no opportunities for misinterpretation or
misguided actions?
Is integrity an innate quality or can it be
improved upon?
Successful leaders have a core set of values that they consistently uphold in business. To insure that employees have a clear
understanding of what is expected, many
companies have either implemented or
enhanced ethics training throughout their
organizations. Ethics has to start at the top
and be carried throughout the organization.
Is the CFO’s role more difficult?
Companies want financial executives
who not only have SOX experience, but
who also demonstrate honesty and integrity around corporate governance regulations. Integrity has always been a valued
trait, but it’s high on the list of qualities
sought in leaders today.
TERRY PHILLIPS is vice president of Robert Half Management
Resources for Northeast Ohio. He can be reached at (330) 252-1870 or by e-mail at [email protected].