Leadership

Which CEO Skills Are Vital to Lead a Digital Transformation?

When hiring a CEO, discover which skills indicate they can lead through technological advances—and how boards can assess for these leadership abilities during a CEO search.

January 23, 2025

5 Crucial CEO Skills to Drive Digital Transformation

Hiring a CEO to spearhead a digital transformation could be among the most important recruitment decisions your board of directors will make.

“A strong CEO champions technological advancement and acts as the catalyst for sustained progress,” says Korn Ferry’s Jane Edison Stevenson. “They're often the deciding factor in whether a company can adapt to change and thrive.”

What vital leadership skills does your future CEO need to help grow your organization through the implementation of AI and other tech innovations? If you’re starting succession planning, the good news is that the right leader doesn’t need to be a tech expert. They can lead a business through digital changes without understanding coding or having a background in IT.

A Korn Ferry study of 59 chief executives identified five specific CEO skills leaders need to drive growth through digital transformation:

Strategic thinking
Network building
Effective communication
Courage
Resilience

In the study, CEOs who possessed these traits led their companies to leverage technology investments more effectively than those who didn’t.

But does digital transformation matter for a company’s bottom line? Today, it absolutely does. The CEOs with the ability to lead through tech advances achieved 5.5% greater annual revenue growth over four years compared to those who lacked these skills.

When boards are looking for a CEO, here’s how to assess for each of these five crucial skills.

CEO Skill: Strategic Thinking

Digital transformation can take years and will require your future CEO to balance short-term performance with long-term growth. The leaders best positioned to do so are strong strategic thinkers, capable of seeing several moves ahead on the corporate chessboard.

They’re proactive in making plans to guide their organization through tech innovations, such as AI, which can add value and help the business rise above the competition. But they also know how to assess the value and potential of digital advances, rather than jumping on the bandwagon of the latest tech trend.

“Our analysis shows that new CEOs strong in strategic thinking achieve better digital transformation outcomes compared to those weaker in this competency,” says Korn Ferry’s Guangrong Dai.

Assessing for Strategic Thinking

Does your CEO candidate have the strategic thinking skills needed to lead a tech transformation? Look for evidence of their ability to:

Integrate innovative technologies
Foster cross-functional collaboration
Drive sustainable growth initiatives

CEO Skill: Network Building

Bringing together the right team for digital transformation is vital. The best CEOs know how to find and identify the best people, both internal and external, to spearhead tech changes.

“Technological transformation is a collaborative effort,” says Evelyn Orr, who leads CEO and executive assessment in North America at Korn Ferry. “While CEOs lead the charge, they cannot succeed alone.”

A CEO who can drive this type of change needs to:

Be able to identify the right stakeholders
Involve other important leaders within the company
Listen, assess, and action the stakeholders’ input
Guide stakeholders and other leaders towards a unified goal
Empower stakeholders and other leaders to make changes in their respective areas

The effects of technological change often reach beyond the organization and tend to require the support of external business partners. The ability to engage and influence these partners is essential for organizational transformation.

It may even drive revenue. A 2018 academic study found that organizations run by CEOs with smaller, less connected networks tended to have far less revenue growth than those run by CEOs with large, diverse networks.

Ultimately, a new CEO's success depends on their ability to create a cohesive team effort in driving change.

Assessing for Network Building

Your ideal CEO candidate will be a people person without being a people pleaser. The job of the chief executive officer is not to be everyone’s friend but to build strong networks that benefit the organization.

A CEO candidate who is strong in network-building skills will have a history of:

Engaging key leaders, including tech leaders
Fostering collaborative relationships
Influencing business partners to drive organizational transformation

CEO Skill: Effective Communication

Being an effective communicator builds trust and confidence in a CEO’s leadership—essential when navigating complex technological changes.

“Transformation takes extraordinary energy, and people go the extra mile for causes they believe in,” says Korn Ferry’s Tierney Remick. “A compelling narrative can ignite and reinforce this commitment.”

For CEOs, effective communication is equal parts charisma and clarity. Do people take notice when your CEO candidate starts talking, or are they counting down the minutes until they’re finished? Does your CEO share a clear message and actionable instructions, or are people left scratching their heads?

Organization-wide changes like a digital transformation are more likely to succeed when there’s a leader at the helm who can communicate with laser focus, radiate purpose, and inspire with emotion. We call this radically human communication, and it can be a critical factor in getting people on board.

Assessing for Communication Skills

Ask your CEO candidates to articulate their vision for your organization and its journey through digital transformation. A strong leader will be able to communicate a clear, compelling vision with a workable road map to success.

Look for a history of:

Inspiring commitment through compelling narratives
Nurturing a culture of trust and openness
Encouraging learning and risk-taking among employees

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CEO Skill: Courage

Just like a ship’s captain must navigate through storms and rough seas, CEOs must steer their organization through the challenges that come from change.

That means having the strength of their convictions. “Digital CEOs need to have the courage to make tough choices,” says Edison Stevenson. High-performing digital leaders need to be brave enough to experiment and focus on excellence at the core and speed at the edge.

Chief executives embarking on a transformation also must be willing to challenge the status quo and be able to defend their ideas against resistance. “Failing to address pushback could stall the entire transformation effort,” says Edison Stevenson.

A courageous CEO will be the first to embrace disruptive new ideas, step outside their comfort zone, and explore new solutions to established problems—crucial leadership skills for anyone wishing to drive digital transformation.

What’s more, according to the Korn Ferry Institute’s The Neuroscience of Courage report, courage may just be the key mindset that enables leaders to unleash the full resources of their organization in service of its highest purpose.

Assessing for Courage

Whether it’s embarking on a tech transformation or addressing other critical changes, a courageous CEO will be willing to make tough decisions that may not always be popular.

Look for a history of:

Challenging the status quo
Taking bold actions to drive change

CEO Skill: Resilience

A CEO is likely to have as many bad days as good days. They will have to stomach the organization’s losses as well as celebrate its wins.

Look for a CEO with the personal resilience to bounce back from adversity, and the leadership ability to instill that same resilience across the organization.

“Our research findings show that effective CEOs nurture a resilient, adaptable organizational culture that can continuously evolve and respond to unforeseen challenges,” says Dai. “Technological transformation, with its inherent vulnerabilities, requires a robust backbone.”

But resilience isn’t just about taking the hits when they come your way. Think of a boxer—they’ll guard against a few blows and take a few hits, but they’ll duck and weave to dodge just as many. Your ideal CEO should be like that—leading with agility to create a robust, adaptable culture that bends in the face of change brought about through digital transformation.

Assessing for Resilience

Resilience in the context of CEO skills is all about how your candidates respond to adversity. When faced with a tough situation, did they feel sorry for themselves? Were they quick to anger, and did they look to apportion blame? Or did they take the new challenge as a learning experience and use it to inform how the organization responded next time?

A CEO candidate who demonstrates resilience will have a history of:

Nurturing an adaptable organizational culture
Navigating through challenges
Maintaining long-term commitment to continuous technological evolution

Prepare Now for Your Next CEO

If your organization is anticipating a period of digital transformation, then you’d be wise to assess the leaders you have—and the leaders you need—against these criteria.

But knowing what skills to look for is one thing. Accurately spotting them is another.

Applying rigorous, scientific assessments increases your chances of hiring a highly competent CEO. Plan proactively for a CEO succession by reading our eBook, How to Choose a Leadership Assessment Strategy.