I attended a book party, supported by the executive search consultancy Spencer Stuart at Blackstone headquarters, to celebrate The Life Cycle of a CEO by Bob Stark and Claudius Hildebrand this past week. The duo studied the career paths of every S&P 500 CEO this century to divine the skills required to navigate shifts in the business landscape. For example, most CEOs outperform during their first-year “launch” cycle, they found. That alone is hardly actionable, though some might modestly propose that companies therefore get a new CEO every year. (Here’s Geoff Colvin’s take on when it’s time to leave.)

CEO panelists at the event included Piyush Gupta of DBS Bank, Booking Holdings’ Glenn Fogel, Jennifer Morgan of UKG, and S&P Global’s outgoing chief Doug Peterson. I was struck by the common themes they raised: curiosity, creativity, an unconventional career path and prioritizing personal health. Successful leaders seem to have less linear career paths these days. 

That was reinforced by a conversation I had with Egon Zehnder CEO Ed Camara and executive chair Michael Ensser, about their latest global CEO study. They say that CEOs increasingly need to understand the complexities of geopolitical change and incorporate it into their strategies. That requires a curiosity well beyond one’s industry and an ability to connect the dots beyond business into the realm of politics and society.  “I call it strategic empathy,” said Ensser. “What most executives are missing is an understanding of how politics work.”   

Added Camara: “Adaptability, self-awareness and the ability to have empathy to situations you have not lived yourself; those were not common in the traditional way of defining who has potential, that command-and-control leadership.” 

Fortune has long promoted the importance of having a global mindset and understanding of issues impacting all businesses, not just your own. It’s at the heart of the Fortune Global Forum, which will take place this year in New York on November 11 and 12. Along with my fellow co-chairs Matt Heimer and Clay Chandler, I’m excited to welcome CEOs like AT&T’s John Stankey, Brian Cornell of Target, Tapestry’s Joanne Crevoiserat, Chris Hyams of Indeed and many more. We also have former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the IMF’s Gita Gopinath, Jing Ulrich of JPMorgan Chase, Tom Brady (no relation – that I know of!) and many more. Click here for the agenda and here to request an invite.  

More news below. 

Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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