In the 1960s there was a series of studies that tried to find the traits that created effective leaders — things like height, hair, sex, etc. What they realized was that these traits were correlated with ALL leaders, because we had a bias on who we thought made good leaders. We soon realized that it was what leaders did and how they behaved that commanded true leadership.
In the 1980s we went through the same drill with entrepreneurs — they just had to be born that way due to some sort of combination of traits. Again, this line of thinking led nowhere. Success in entrepreneurship is also based on how you act and behave.
USA Today ran a story that suggested that taller CEOs are more powerful.
Le Gourmet Gift Basket CEO Cynthia McKay wears 3-inch heels even though she’s 5-foot-9 in bare feet.
Why? For the same reason that 6-foot-3 Don Peebles, CEO of The Peebles Corporation, the nation’s largest African-American-owned real estate development company, puts his hand on the shoulder of shorter adversaries and crowds into their personal space when negotiating a key deal.
But again, this thinking is flawed. Just because they seem more powerful does not mean that over the long-term they will be any more effective as CEOs. They might be able to be better bullies, but not more effective at leading, inspiring others, and creating positive cultures in their companies.
(Thanks to Tahirah King for passing this along).
There’s an entire section on height and CEOs in Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “Blink.” I suspect that the USA Today story you mention here indicates that a lot of people are reading that book. It’s a good read.
Tim
Gourmet Gifts
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