7 Things the Best CEOs Have in Common
What are the 7 specific attributes that differentiate high-performing CEOs?
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Click through the slideshow to learn 7 traits the best CEOs have in common.
Top-performing CEOs are more likely to be introverts, not extroverts, though the latter made CEOs more attractive to the board. The reality is, according to CEO Genome Project co-founder Elena Lytkina Botelho, that while extroverted people are “charismatic, polished presenters”, they simply “do better in interviews.” Particularly confident CEOs were no more likely to show better performance on the job.
How important is pedigree when it comes to picking a CEO? It may not be as important as we think. In fact, there is “zero correlation between pedigree and ultimate performance,” the researcher said. Only 7 percent of best-performing CEOs had an Ivy League degree.
This one may seem weird, but hear us out. Nearly all of the executives in the sample who were candidates for a CEO job had some kind of major mistake; nearly half of them also had what the researchers called a ‘career blowup’ which cost them their job or lost their company a huge amount of money.
Researchers found that strong performers “balance keen insight into their stakeholders’ priorities with an unrelenting focus on delivering business results.” CEOs who engage stakeholders were 75 percent more successful.
Adaptable CEOs spend as much as 50 percent of their time thinking about the long-term which helps them pick up on early signals and are able to make strategic moves to take advantage of it, the researchers said.
Read more: A Short-Term View is Hurting Your Business, and There's Growing Proof
Ninety-four percent of the strong CEO candidates that researchers analyzed scored high on consistently following through on their commitments, researchers said. These reliable CEOs also rank high on organization and planning skills, and surround themselves with strong teams.
The highest performing CEOs don’t drag their feet when making decisions. According to researchers, “high-performing CEOs understand that a wrong decision is often better than no decision at all.”
The highest performing CEOs don’t drag their feet when making decisions. According to researchers, “high-performing CEOs understand that a wrong decision is often better than no decision at all.”
When you think of the most successful CEOs you know, who comes to mind, and what traits do they have? Maybe they went to an Ivy League school. Or perhaps they are pragmatic decision-makers. New research suggests that our perception of what makes the best CEO may be too cookie-cutter and does not actually reflect the reality of the most successful business leaders.
Called the CEO Genome Project, the research and subsequent book deconstructs the top behaviors of CEOs and the best practices that can help turn anyone into a leader. Researchers embarked on the 10-year study “to identify the specific attributes that differentiate high-performing CEOs (whom we define as executives meeting or exceeding expectations in the role, according to interviews with board members and majority investors deeply familiar with the CEOs’ performance).”
Click through the slideshow to learn 7 traits the best CEOs have in common.
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