Assignment:
The idea that leaders have special characteristics, traits, or qualities is still popular. The CEO Genome Project, a ten year study of 17,000 US executives, including 2000 CEO's, is another attempt to identify these qualities. The leadership stereotype is of a visionary, charismatic, confident, extravert, six-foot tall white man with a university degree, who makes perfect decisions under pressure.
However, Botelho and colleagues (2017; 2018), found that very few successful leaders fit this profile. One of their interesting conclusions, for example, was that most successful CEOs are introverts. It seems that the qualities that appeal to interviewers are not actually related to the performance of CEOs in the job. They found that, to be successful, CEOs need to be: Decisive, making decisions quickly and with conviction; Engaging, understanding stakeholders, including employees and getting their backing; Flexible, adapting to change by dealing with the unpredictable; and Reliable, predictable and consistent, rather than occasionally brilliant.
Consider that 100 per cent of low-performing CEOs in the sample scored high in integrity, and 97 per cent scored high on work ethic (Botelho et al., 2017, p.77). However, while there is no one 'perfect mix', this study suggests that focusing on these four behaviours will increase the chances of appointing a successful CEO (Adapted from Buchanan and Huczynski, 2019 ).
Case Questions:
2. Outline the findings of the University of Michigan's Leadership study with respect to effective leadership behavior.
3. How is this finding from the University of Michigan's leadership study similar to that of the CEO Genome Project with respect to effective leadership behavior?
4. Given the reported findings from the CEO Genome Project, briefly state the new or contrasting insight that you have gained, based on your knowledge of leadership.