Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Are CEOs dull and boring or charismatic and visionary?

In today's New York Times David Brooks quotes research to show that the most successful CEOs are not visionaries, but dull, detail-oriented and process-driven. Yet in today's Wall Street Journal, Gary Hamel perpetuates the idea that successful CEOs are charismatic visionaries.

In my experience the CEOs who are most charismatic tend to become insulated from the world and long term David Brooks is more right than Gary Hamel. Perhaps we would each like to believe that CEOs are all "big thinkers," but we may be fooling ourselves.

No comments: