A just released paper looking at CEOs of Swedish firms has looked at the question of whether CEOs are born leaders.
One of the authors, Renee Adams from the UNSW Business School notes that the CEO’s of big companies typically have traits similar to doctors, lawyers and engineers. They are also generally smarter than the general population, but without being absolute standouts.
Commenting on these findings, leading demographer and a partner at KPMG, Bernard Salt believes that leadership is something that is within people that can be nurtured, mentored and developed. However, typically leaders who are CEOs tend to be generalists rather than stars. This is because “You might be brilliant at this and insightful at that, but if you can’t manage people or hang on to your PA, if people don’t like working with you, if you can’t string two words together, then you’re not going to make it.”
Typically one cannot be too different to the system, otherwise you get ejected while in your 20s and 30s.
Adams also found that CEOs are typically taller than the general population, but puts their success down to the confidence associated with being taller rather than the physical size of a person.
When pushed, Adams is swayed that people tend to be born leaders.
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– See more at: https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/Pages/Tall-order-Are-CEOs-born-with-leadership-traits.aspx#sthash.uFGw1YYj.dpuf