What things should you consider if you are in a leadership position or desire to climb the corporate ladder? How about if you could adopt qualities that make CEOs successful?
In the 10-year CEO Genome Project, they tracked 2,600 leaders. In their analysis, they uncovered four qualities driving CEO’s success. Now mind you, the CEOs didn’t necessarily have all four of these qualities to drive success.
It’s quiz time! Take the short assessment at ceogenome.com to see how you stack up to the CEOs on these success metrics:
| CEO QUALITIES | SUCCESS FACTOR |
|---|---|
| * Reliable | 15X |
| * Decisive | 12X |
| * Adaptable | 6.7X |
| * Relatable | 75% |
If you rated yourself high on reliability, you’re capable of being a C-suite powerhouse. The findings indicate that this is the most influential success factor of the four qualities. In fact, the participants who self-rated themselves with this trait were 15 times more likely to succeed. According to the Harvard Business Review, being reliable makes sense since a Board of Directors is looking for a steady hand, and employees seek a stable leader. I think Elon Musk probably doesn’t rank high on this trait.
Next ranked high on the list is being decisive, packing a 12 times success punch. I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked for managers wrapped up in analysis paralysis. When you’re a CEO of a public company, you’re not only answering to customers but your investors and stockholders. It’s required to make financial decisions for corporate success on The Street. Typically, I’ve seen this skill in full force when backed by a well-rounded C-suite and complemented with outside consulting expertise. After all, decision-making is not made in a vacuum.
Next up is being adaptable, yielding a 6.7 times success factor. We only need to look back two years to the start of Covid to see how CEOs fared on this trait. Did you work for a company that dragged its feet on the work from home issue? According to a Glassdoor study of employee reviews, “Since the onset of COVID-19 in the U.S., Mercury Systems CEO Mark Aslett has received strong praise for his leadership over the past five months, according to employee feedback on Glassdoor. Other CEOs in tech, health care, finance and several other industries were also highly rated by their employees for their leadership during COVID-19.”
Last but not least is relating for impact without shying away from conflict. If you think about it, a CEO has four constituents:
- board of directors
- stockholders
- customers, and
- employees
I’m seldom attending business meetings whereby there’s 100% consensus. Imagine magnifying influence over four distinct groups? Now we’re coming full circle back to Elon Musk. According to GlobalData research, based on performance and engagement online, Mr. Musk won the prize for most Twitter followers of a CEO with 89.3 million. Influence, of course, is a double-edged sword; it can be used for positive or negative change.
As for me, when I took the CEO Genome Quiz, I scored 100% related to the questions regarding adapting proactively. I need to optimize my performance in the other skills; I rated only 67% for architecting reliable results, decision-making, and relating for impact.
Now that you know the CEO’s success qualities, it’s time to work on your gaps. Well, if you have any like me.
