The Idea in Brief

The skills needed for top jobs change with the times. The résumés of today’s C-level managers look much different from those of their predecessors from 10 or 20 years ago.

For the senior-most executives, functional and technical expertise has become less important than understanding business fundamentals and strategy.

Top-team members now tend to have more in common with their executive peers than with the people in the functions they lead. Chief human resource officers, for instance, increasingly come from outside HR; IT executives now often benefit from a marketing background.

A recent study on executive recruiting offers insights on the new turns and twists in the road to the top.

We know that different times and different circumstances call for different leadership skills. So when it comes to managing your own career, how do you prepare yourself to move up? What abilities should young would-be executives focus on developing as they choose companies, functions, and jobs? And what skills should working executives hone as they strive to reach the next level?

A version of this article appeared in the March 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.