What are the qualities you need to be a successful chief executive ? Being a visionary? Having a strong personality? Possessing business acumen? Actually, none of the above are judged especially important by the men and women who know best – I interviewed many participants in my training and during senior management retreats out of the 46 chief executives and business leaders i came up with a definitive list of attributes. Instead, they rated strategic thinking as the single most critical skill for a chief executive , followed by customer focus and the ability to communicate clearly. The ability to bring the customer into the boardroom is seen as one of the top leadership skills today, according to the report. Organisations need to work harder to understand customer needs and deliver on brand promise, chief executives said, as “surprisingly” not all companies are customer-centric. “It’s almost as if you need a parrot sitting on your shoulder repeating the ma