In a recent article: What Predicts Executive Success?, the author identifies that “conventional thinking holds that a CEO with a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners style will more often positively impact an organization's bottom line than a ‘nice guy’ would, but there's been little hard evidence to support such a theory.”
To finally settle the argument concerning which qualities really do predict executive success, an assistant professor at Cornell University led a research team that examined the assessments of 72 senior executives from 31 companies.
In phase one of the study, an organizational consulting firm conducted four-hour intertiviews with the study participants to probe the executive’s background, family, education, early career and recent career experiences. The assessment output information became individual ‘maps’ identifying leadership styles and technical competence.
Phase two documented information from interviews with each study participant’s boss, including identifying performance metrics and achievements compared to position requirements. “Through statistical analyses, performance was simplified into two separate categories: the ability to drive results and the ability to manage talent.”
Research Study Findings
“The research study results revealed that an executive with strong interpersonal skills will drive more positive business results, while "arrogant, hard-driving, impatient and stubborn" leaders rated low on all performance dimensions of the study.
The research also reinforced the belief that an executive's experiences and leadership
style are directly linked to performance.”
Some management theorists attribute executive success to the soft skills such as understanding ourselves and others (emotional intelligence and self-awareness). Others associate executive success with “those leaders who are driven by an inspiring vision of success, excel at communication of the vision and those who exercise superior judgment.”
Whether you start with emotional intelligence or inspiring vision, these ‘soft’ skills are typically the most underrated and undiscovered of strategic leadership practices. Even though we expect that expert mastery and impeccable execution of a functional area (finance, operations, HR, etc.) is the more traditionally expected predictor of business success, the ‘soft’ skills should be acknowledged and celebrated in that they are the precursors to strategic leadership and business performance success.
To become a truly successful leader, continue to develop your soft skills while you exceed expectations in the performance of your position requirements. Strategic leaders set continuous improvement goals for developing their functional competencies and their soft skills.
Part 2 of this Blog Post, will continue the exploration of the characteristics and competencies that tend to co-exist with executive success. We might even answer the question posed by the Cornell research study: “Do nice guys -- or gals -- finish first when it comes to company performance?”
