Execute This!

Warm and fuzzy they aren't.

Traits like being a good listener, a good team builder, an enthusiastic colleague, a great communicator do not seem to be very important when it comes to leading successful companies.

David Brooks looks at a study of successful CEOs and finds that people skills, empathy, and other liberal arts values were beside the point. What mattered, oddly enough, was ability to execute. Who 'da thunk it?

What mattered, it turned out, were execution and organizational skills. The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours

OK, so that explains why I am not a CEO - not that my people skills are so hot either. Actually, though, it matches well with my experience with good executives at every level.

Adam Smith, IIRC, referred to non-owner CEOs as "senior clerks." It's still a good description of the job, and unsurprising that those clerical skills still predominate.

Successful entrepreneurs, I suspect, will turn out to be rather different, but they aren't discussed here. The charismatic Steve Jobs type leader is almost certainly a different breed of cat, but that's not the tale here either.

David Brooks being David Brooks, there is a moronic moral attached at the end, but fortunately you don't have to read it until you have read all the good stuff.

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