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What Sets Successful CEOs Apart
- olivermarks 9y agotldr "In the end, our research shows, leadership success is not a function of unalterable traits or unattainable pedigree. Nor is there anything exotic about the key ingredients: decisiveness, the ability to engage stakeholders, adaptability, reliability. While there is certainly no “one size fits all” approach, focusing on these essential behaviors will improve both a board’s likelihood of choosing the right CEO—and an individual leader’s chances of succeeding in the role." Somewhat self serving for the authors research/advisory company IMO and surprisingly non specific based on the confidence of the headline
- clock_tower 9y agoWhat I'm most surprised by is their straw-man alternative: "unalterable traits or unattainable pedigree," _in 2017_. "I say, Langley, HBR is pure bosh. They've no respect at all for proper breeding, and their attitude towards Mr. Spencer's impeccable theories is shocking, really." You'd think they'd disparage education, money, and connections, instead of inborn character and aristocratic bloodline... (Unless, of course, you _do_ need education, money, and connections, and they want some safer strawman to knock down.)
- tlogan 9y agoTypical HBR article. Sure. Decisiveness, adaptability, reliability, etc. are great. But the biggest problem is when the CEO is decisive, the CEO is engaging the team, the CEO is adopting to environment and the CEO is reliable - but the CEO is doing it all wrong. I.e., the CEO just doesn't have a clue. As Napoleon said (and many others): whoever is industrious and stupid should be shot on the spot. The best CEOs are the one who are lazy and very smart. Lazy? Because they will delegate their vision to other people. Smart? The CEO will have the right vision and delegate to the right people.
- vacri 9y agoI've worked in a small startup with a lazy CEO. That's not the descriptor you're looking for. A good CEO lives and breathes the company, and also delegates. A lazy CEO does things like not supply payslip information because he couldn't be bothered, or spends the afternoons watching sportsball next to his colleagues who are working.
- foobarian 9y agoMaybe the intended attribute was the opposite of micromanager.
- Gustomaximus 9y agoThat's incompetent as well as lazy. The saying refers to someone who is intelligent yet lazy. An intelligent CEO would have delegated payslips to someone who would get the job done. Also an intelligent CEO wouldn't let you know he was bunking off all day for moral.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deepsun 9y agoDisagree about lazy CEO. I worked in a startup with lazy CEO, and it was a disaster. I also worked in a startup with hard-working CEO, who knew every single knob of our product, and it was much better. > Because they will delegate their vision to other people. Other people means you, even if it's totally outside your area of competence, but rather CEO's.
- CalRobert 9y agoConfirmation bias, mostly.
- Jerry2 9y agoDon't forget selection bias. HBR is infamous for these types of articles and studies. They select a bunch of successful CEOs or business persons, they figure out what they have in common and then they release a list of traits or practices that make them successful.
- ec109685 9y agoHow so?
- mck- 9y ago> Only 7% of the high-performing CEOs we studied had an undergraduate Ivy League education, and 8% of them didn’t graduate from college at all. If you confuse correlation with causation, you could say that it's better to be a drop out than graduate from Ivy League
- grandalf 9y agoThe ideal skill set for a CEO varies dramatically at different stages of company growth. There are likely some universals, but those are the least useful areas to consider and the most hand wavy.
- 11thEarlOfMar 9y agoUm... Don't they need a control group of randomly selected persons? 'Decisive' Ok, but are they more decisive than a baseball coach? 'Engaging for Impact' More or less than a car salesperson? 'Adapting Proactively' Homeless persons adapt, and can be surprisingly resourceful, too. 'Delivering Reliably' Most manufacturing managers have this trait, too. If they don't, they aren't manufacturing managers for long. From the results of the study, one would infer that if they adopt these 4 traits, they will become CEOs. But that's laughable. These 4 traits are supplemental and supportive to getting there, but not causal. In my opinion, a CEO needs to be driven. They need to be going somewhere that they can convince a lot of other different types of people to follow them to. They have to have a sense of agency that leads them to want to be in charge. Only then do those 4 behaviors make a difference. This article is like taking a bunch of measurements from professional athletes to determine what made them athletes, ignoring that all the physical abilities and training could not get them there without the drive to achieve. That has to come first.
- nickthemagicman 9y agoI love your response. I hate vague sentimentalities like this.
- api 9y agoThis is most business writing. Most of it is cargo cultism built from post rationalization of survivorship bias. There are so many factors that go into success or failure that it's very hard to ascribe causality, so superstition and folk wisdom prevails. You find this in lots of other areas with similar characteristics. All "theories of history," etc.
- gordon_freeman 9y ago> "Most of it is cargo cultism built from post rationalization of survivorship bias." Is this written as a sarcasm to the business writing? ;)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- vikascoder 9y agoWhat sets successful CEOs apart? : Luck
- unclebucknasty 9y agoSome truth to that. Then again, you see some who are serially successful. That brings up another factor that is probably more important than luck: other people's belief that the CEO will be successful.
- mathgeek 9y agoI wonder how often this is a result of (or at least heavily influenced by) the luck of being born to a certain set of parents / social circles.
- elchief 9y agoHBR is full of shit - me, MBA
- Steeeve 9y agoI find the skepticism in this discussion interesting. While it may seem obvious that a decisive leader is a better leader, it's not necessarily a trait that floats to the top of the list. The same goes for all of these traits. I have had the opportunity to work under leadership that exhibits all of these traits and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the combination is rare and it is very effective.
- simonswords82 9y agoI agree, I suspect most of the people on HN have never worked with a good CEO, or perhaps in or around a senior management role.
- m3kw9 9y agoHow about the one trait that is always underrated - Luck
- davebryand 9y agoThey forgot the question mark at the end of that title... And the answer is: they don't read hbr.org
- 0xbear 9y agoWhat sets successful CEOs apart is that everyone quickly forgets about unsuccessful ones.
- cbsmith 9y agoOne of these days, I'm going to read an article like this, and it is going to say something like, "the people that work for them" or "the organization".
- Animats 9y agoOne of the more concrete remarks there is that successful CEOs spent about 50% of their time on long-term issues. Less successful CEOs spent much less. One of the traps of management is being driven by incoming problems. That's part of management, but it's not the biggest part, especially as you move up. There's also the fact that if you spend most of your time dealing with problems, you spend too much time talking to the screwups in your organization. Spending time with the people who aren't having problems is important. They're the ones that can move things forward.
- paulpauper 9y ago1. vision (Elon musk , Walt Disney, Steve Jobs) 2. Calculated risk taking (Meg Whitman buying paypal in 2002, Zuckerberg buying Instagram in 2013 when everyone said it was too expensive ) In both instances, although there were risks, they were still relatively small compared to the parent company. 3. the business itself being a success. A good CEO can only do so much if the business is not viable or is struggling due to various macro factors outside of the CEO's control. 4. All-around good execution (Jeff Bezos comes to mind here)
- kwhitefoot 9y agoBefore asking this question we need to to ask what counts as successful. There can be multiple definitions depending on who you ask.
- ThomPete 9y agoA succesful business. That's about it. In most cases. Sure there are anomalies, but in most cases being a CEO for a growing business in a growing industry rather than some unique talent.
- honestoHeminway 9y agoEarn money, reduce risks. Ballmer and not steve jobs did that. So i guess the answer- besides CEO-people manipulation skills is too think ahead of societys development, anticipate future demands, and invest there, while ignoring the crowd yelling insanity.
- thinbeige 9y agoSlightly OT: Would love know how many of those who commented here are or were CEOs.
- throwme_1980 9y agoWow, finally an honest article, why hold on to mediocre employees , no need to buy donuts or pretend this is a 'people focus' company. What matters is your bottom line
- dexterdog 9y agoBuying donuts makes people happy at work. Not buying them means that anybody who wants one will have to go out of his way to get one. I teched for an HR firm years ago. Company lunch every day. People spent half the time on lunch vs going out and talked with their co-workers usually about work or took care of the water cooler talk then. It was just one of the checkboxes on the list of reasons not to leave. It was definitely a profit for the company in the end.
- chrisgd 9y agoMostly luck
- YouTubecomments 9y agoGovernment subsidies
- YouTubecomments 9y agoGovernment subsidies
- HacklesRaised 9y agoAnd if they don't have innate leadership qualities: Example Integrity Respect You have just created a narcissist asshole who blames everyone else for their failure before they move on to their next 'I am a successful CEO venture'.
- anjc 9y agoI love the comments here. This is typical business bullshit....where's the control group....nm the significant amount of data and analysis, it's actually all about luck...typical HBR... Do you dimwits understand the general concept of research at all?
- sunbuntu 9y agoLuck....