Future CEOs: competing for leaders in one age group

Although the age of managers is not openly discussed, recruiters do not hide the fact that most of the competition is for leaders in one age group. Moreover, the emphasis in the coming years will be on bold, globally-minded managers who can make decisions in uncertain environments.

An examination of the annual list of the country’s top 1,000 largest companies compiled by Verslo žinios shows that 88% of the company’s CEOs are men and 12% are women. The largest number of CEOs is in the 41-50 age group. 45.1% are women and 39.7% are men. The second most numerous group of CEOs is the 51-60 age group (25.4%), followed by the 31-40 age group (24.3%).

The largest share of CEOs aged 41-50 is in the industrial (40.2%) and commercial (42%) sectors. 11.5% of leaders aged between 61 and 70 are at the helm of construction companies. According to the VŽ 1000, the youngest CEO is 25 and the oldest is 81.

Required skills

When it comes to the demands on managers in the coming years, experts emphasise globalisation. Shareholders are looking for people who can think and work globally.

“We see the ambition of shareholders to throw down the gauntlet to large multinationals. When hiring a CEO, they are looking for someone who can work globally. Today’s expectation for leaders is courage and ambition,” says Laura Duksaitė-Iškauskienė, Director of the recruitment company Master Class Lietuva.

Romanas Gaidukas, Senior Consultant and Partner at Grand Partners UAB, agrees. According to him, ambitious employees do not have fixed beliefs and stand out for their speed.

“Today they had a discussion and tomorrow they fly to America. They just don’t think it’s impossible to do anything. That’s a quality that the shareholders like. Of course, there is another problem – how to manage such employees. After all, it is not easy for shareholders to keep up with such specialists either,” says Mr Gaidukas.

He identifies the skills needed for future leaders: the ability to make decisions under uncertain circumstances, to understand the value of IT decisions and to initiate them.

Golden Time

Ms Duksaitė-Iškauskienė points out that companies are essentially competing for specialists in the same age group. Managers aged between 35 and 45 are the most sought after.

“These people have been on the labour market for 10-20 years and have experience. They are enthusiastic, results-oriented. For these reasons, shareholders look more favourably on such employees because they believe they will help grow the business,” she says.

However, when looking for a CEO, shareholders often choose a candidate similar to themselves. For example, if the recruiter is in his 40s, it is likely that he will look for a manager of a similar age.

“If a shareholder is between 30 and 40 years old, he or she feels that this age group is the most effective, motivated, experienced and mature. In other words, people in each age bracket are perceived to be the most mature and experienced,” she says.

Anatolijus Faktorovičius, co-founder and partner of the venture capital group Practica Capital UAB, points out that leaders in each age group have their own advantages. The young are distinguished by their drive, the older by their experience.

“There are no strict rules. However, the tendency is that we hope to have a younger manager (in the companies we invest in – VŽ), because he is more driven, tolerates risk differently, and has more modern knowledge. But it would be good to have older people on the board who are a bit more cautious. Besides, they have experience and wisdom that only comes with age,” says Mr Faktorovic. He adds that he considers professionals aged between 28 and 45 as younger managers.

The age limits for managers in Lithuania do not differ significantly from the context of other countries. According to Ms Duksaitė-Iškauskienė, the most popular age bracket for managers abroad is only slightly wider, extending up to 50 years. (In Lithuania, it is up to 45 – VŽ).

She adds that in Scandinavian countries, managers tend to be slightly older. This trend is based on cultural beliefs. It is believed that a manager should have a wealth of life experience as well as professional experience.

Job challenges

Not only the accelerating pace, market changes, digitalisation, but also the changing needs of the workforce are daily challenges that the modern manager must face.

“A manager doesn’t necessarily work with people his own age. There are people ten or twenty years younger or older. Good managers are able to adapt and find a common language with people of a different generation”, says Ms Duksaitė-Iškauskienė.

Mr Gaidukas points out that workers are now saying loudly that they no longer want to be just a resource, but want to be seen as individuals. So managers also need to learn how to interact with their staff differently, to change their attitude towards them, to interact with them as individuals.

“Older generations of managers don’t always understand this expectation of their employees, and it often clashes with the values of the leader. In this case, you need younger managers to lead the young staff,” says Mr Gaidukas.

Read the article about the CEO of the future in Verslo žinios