Many love to talk and write about CEOs, but what do they say about themselves? The leadingeffectively.com website agrees that this is an interesting question. To find out, they asked almost 100 CEOs who took part in the Leadership at the peak development program run by the Center for Creative Leadership to label themselves. The results of the survey suggest that the following qualities are their most common traits – according to the CEOs themselves. Does it match what you notice about your own senior managers?
Strongest personality traits
Leaders answering in the survey think that their strongest traits are humor (16 %), honesty (14 %) and loyalty (13 %). So here we have a picture of a leader who knows how to make you laugh, never lies to you and who you can count on. Why do they think humor is their strongest asset? When your boss has a sense of humor, you are more excited about coming to work. The bond created through laughter makes their employees willing to work better. It is quite rare to meet a boss like this. CEOs who lack witty charm must make up for it with other abilities. Honesty and loyalty suggest that what they value most about themselves are high ethical standards. These qualities often pave the way to an ethical organization overall.
Weakest personality traits
They think they are too impatient (34 %), they have gaps in their listening skills (10 %) and they are too judgmental and critical (10 %). Imagine a boss who doesn’t give you a chance to defend yourself, assesses your mistakes too quickly and tells you why your last project failed. That is an exaggeration, of course, but you get the idea. Getting better at recognizing these behaviors when they are about to occur is crucial for better self-regulation.
And how do CEOs describe themselves?
They describe themselves as being very passionate, always focused and driven. So to become a CEO, you must never lose your passion and always be focused on your work and people you work with. They are still striving for improvement, even at the highest level.
-jk-