Some meta-commentary about executive leadership: the skills required to gain such a position are orthogonal to the skills required to exceed at such a position.
Clarifying Questions:<p>1) What type of person gets hired as CEO?<p>2) What type of person excels as CEO?<p>3) What type of person seems most suited to being a CEO while actually being least suited?<p>Possible Answers:<p>1) the salesmen, the connected, the take-crediting, the attractive, the eloquent, the politically savvy, the ambitious, the tactical<p>2) the decisive, the persevering, the give-crediting, the communicative, the empathetic, the trustworthy, the humble, the strategic<p>3) When confidence is unwarranted<p>Both types of people have high confidence, but only one type has a good reason to be confident. Both types are effective in making plans and executing upon them, but where the first type’s plan’s focus on personal success, the second type’s plans focus on mutual success.<p>Is there a good way to distinguish between the two? Yes, but subtly — have their former direct reports gone on to success outside of the candidate’s current sphere of influence? The first type will drag along the people they can trust to support their personal ambitions, elevating them in the process. The second type will elevate their direct reports without grasping on to them as life preservers in choppy political seas.<p>Being a good CEO is a very difficult job, and should be rewarded. It is the most important job anyone can have at a company. It is also the hardest to fill with the right person, given the hordes of ill-suited confidence men seeking their own stardom.