CEO Assessments:
How Top Boards Pick Winning Leaders

What Sets Successful CEOs Apart

While boards spend considerable time reviewing credentials and conducting interviews, they don't always assess the specific leadership competencies that determine whether a CEO will actually succeed.

Korn Ferry research has identified three areas where the right leadership makes the biggest difference. We also drilled down to discover the leadership competencies that drive success in each.

Here’s what the research reveals.

1. Strong Financial Results

Every board wants a CEO who can deliver consistent financial growth and create shareholder value. But what specific leadership competencies actually drive superior financial results?

Our research shows CEOs who scored high in these eight core competencies consistently delivered better financial results for their organizations:

1. Expands global perspective: Understanding how global trends impact business decisions
   
2. Shapes strategic vision: Seeing beyond immediate challenges to long-term opportunities
   
3. Aligns execution: Ensuring strategies translate into concrete actions across the organization
   
4. Drives results: Maintaining relentless focus on outcomes that matter
   
5. Engages and inspires: Motivating teams to perform at their highest level
   
6. Communicates effectively: Ensuring everyone understands priorities and expectations
7. Builds networks: Creating valuable relationships that unlock opportunities
8. Persuades: Building consensus around difficult but necessary decisions

2. Successful Digital Transformations

Every CEO today faces pressure to modernize their business with new technology. But simply investing in digital tools isn't enough. Companies need leaders who can actually drive successful change.

Without the right leadership approach, even expensive technology projects fail to deliver real business value.

Our research shows CEOs who possess these five skills successfully lead their companies through technological transformation:

1. Strategic thinking: Balancing immediate technology needs with long-term digital vision
   
2. Network building: Creating strategic partnerships and alliances that enable digital transformation initiatives
   
3. Effective communication: Creating trust and buy-in for transformation efforts across the organization
   
4. Courage: Making bold technology investments and managing inevitable pushback
   
5. Resilience: Creating an adaptable culture that’s ready to handle rapid changes

3. Tenure That Helps Strategy Stick

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of CEO success is tenure itself. The most brilliant strategy means nothing if the leader departs before implementation.

Our research shows that certain leadership capabilities predict whether a CEO will have the staying power to execute their plans. Three key competencies separate leaders who last from those who leave early:

1. Manages conflict: Navigating disagreements without creating lasting organizational damage
   
2. Balances stakeholders: Managing competing interests and maintaining key relationships
   
3. Builds networks: Creating strong connections that provide support during challenging periods

CEOs who scored low on these three competencies were 54% more likely to depart within three years compared to high scorers.

However, the most telling predictors of early departure relate to emotional intelligence. Three traits stand out:

• Empathy: CEOs with low empathy scores were 94% more likely to leave within three years. Leaders who struggle to understand others' perspectives create friction with boards, teams, and stakeholders.
  
• Collaboration: Less collaborative CEOs were nearly twice as likely to exit early. When leaders operate in isolation or fail to work well with their teams, they miss critical insights and lose the support needed to navigate challenging periods.
  
• Independence: Highly independent CEOs were 48% more likely to leave within three years. While decisiveness is important, excessive independence undermines collaboration and empathy, alienating stakeholders and fostering an "us versus them" dynamic.

Staying Power Matters

CEOs recommended by Korn Ferry after rigorous assessment significantly outlast their peers:

• CEOs assessed by Korn Ferry:
  18% departed within three years
  
• General CEO population:
  34% departed within three years
  
• 47% reduction in early turnover risk

This shows the measurable difference these leadership competencies and traits make in CEO staying power.

How to Assess CEO Candidates

Now that you know the leadership competencies and traits that predict CEO success, how do you look for these qualities during the selection process?

Boards lean heavily on interviews and reference checks, and that’s a start. But these traditional methods can easily miss the deeper capabilities that drive CEO performance.

The solution is a comprehensive, multi-method assessment approach that looks beyond credentials and interviewing skills to evaluate the specific competencies and traits that research proves actually matter.

Why a Comprehensive Assessment Approach Works Better

Most processes for assessing CEO candidates rely heavily on evaluating credentials and past performance.

“While these still are important considerations, the odds for success can be significantly improved with scientific assessments of their enterprise leadership attributes,” says Jane Edison Stevenson, vice chair of Board and CEO Services at Korn Ferry.

A comprehensive CEO evaluation process combines data from various sources and situations to give a more accurate picture of a candidate's true leadership capabilities.

A candidate might interview brilliantly but struggle in scenario-based evaluations that reveal how they handle pressure. They might have glowing references from direct reports but show concerning patterns when assessed by former board members who witnessed their stakeholder management skills.

When systematically designed and executed, these methods reveal whether a candidate possesses the specific, research-proven leadership attributes that drive CEO success.

Here are the assessment methods that have proven most effective:

Structured Behavioral Interviews

Traditional interviews focus on achievements, but behavioral interviews reveal how candidates actually lead.

Instead of: "Tell me about your leadership style."

Try this: "Describe a time when you managed conflict between key stakeholders. Walk me through your approach and outcome."

Multiple board members should conduct separate interviews, each targeting different competency areas from your success profile. This prevents groupthink and ensures comprehensive coverage.

Scenario-Based Evaluations

These CEO assessment tests place candidates in realistic situations they would face as your CEO, revealing capabilities that might not emerge in traditional interviews.

Present candidates with actual challenges your organization faces—a stakeholder crisis, a digital transformation decision, or a major strategic pivot.

The goal isn't finding the "right" answer but observing the candidate's thinking process. How do they gather information? Do they consider multiple stakeholder viewpoints? How do they handle ambiguity and conflicting priorities?

360-Degree Reference Checks

Standard reference checks often sound uniformly positive because candidates control who you speak with.

A 360-degree approach goes deeper, gathering insights from former board members, peers, direct reports, and other stakeholders who observed the candidate in different contexts.

The key is to anchor your questions to the success profile, not general impressions. For example:

• “How did this person handle situations where stakeholders had conflicting interests?”
• “Can you give me an example of how they managed significant organizational change?”
• “What would you say about their ability to lean on their networks during difficult periods?”

Psychometric Assessments

Psychometric assessments provide objective data on personality traits, cognitive abilities, and behavioral tendencies that are hard to gauge in an interview setting.

These CEO evaluation tools are especially valuable for evaluating emotional intelligence factors like empathy, collaboration, and independence—traits that research shows strongly predict CEO tenure.

Well-designed assessments can surface important patterns. Does the candidate have the resilience to handle sustained pressure? Do they demonstrate the empathy needed to build stakeholder trust? Are they collaborative enough to work effectively with boards and executive teams?

Making the Final Call on Your Next CEO

You've completed the leadership evaluation process and gathered data from multiple sources. Now comes the critical moment—making sense of it all and reaching a decision.

Here’s how to move from evidence to action.

Turn Assessment Data into Actionable Insights

Map each candidate's results against your success profile, looking for consistent themes across interviews, scenario evaluations, and references.

AI-powered analytics can help identify these themes more objectively, highlighting both alignment and discrepancies for closer review.

Keep your focus on the competencies most critical to your organization’s challenges rather than chasing perfection across every area.

Build Board Consensus Around the Right Choice

Present results through the lens of your success profile so the conversation stays anchored in evidence, not impressions.

When disagreements arise, redirect the discussion back to data and criteria. Make sure every board member sees how the final recommendation ties directly to the organization’s priorities and leadership needs.  

A Data-Driven Approach to CEO Assessments

Most boards will oversee at least one CEO transition during their tenure. And obviously, the stakes are high. Get it right and you’re likely to see strong financial performance and company growth. Get it wrong and it could cost you money, morale, and opportunity.

Boards are more likely to get it right when they use proven, data-driven methods to assess the leadership capabilities that truly predict success.

You now have the framework. Put it into practice so you’ll be ready for your next succession decision.