Busting the myths of successful CEOs

Bryan Borzykowski's article for the BBC Busting the myths of successful CEOs cited a 10-year study on thousands of CEOs to determine what makes a successful leader, with the following myths busted:

Myth 1: CEOs must be charismatic
Myth 2: CEOs shouldn't admit when they are wrong
Myth 3: CEOs need to be experienced in a particular sector
Myth 4: CEOs must be autocratic
Myth 5: CEOs should have a top-tier education

Borzykowski took 'leaders' to mean 'CEOs'.  Just as there are CEOs who are dynamic visionaries, there also are CEOs who are executing the Board's direction.  Are both leaders?

Charisma is definitely important during interviews, not only for potential CEOs, but for all jobseekers.  However, charisma does not always automatically translate into performance.  Instead of merely being charismatic, a successful leader might need to have authentic empathy for the people he/she leads.  Most people can sense when they are treated with real emotions or only being emoted at superficially.

Admiting or not admiting mistakes could be social conditioning.  If a person's environment when he/she was growing up and worked in encouraged individuals to own up to their mistakes and not cruxify them for their mistakes, they would likely be more open to admiting when they are wrong.

Many vacant positions require prior experience in a particular sector, not only for CEO-hires.  While it certainly helps to have prior experience as the CEO can hit the ground running, hailing from different sectors could bring a fresh pair of eyes and opinions.  Although from a few HBR articles I read, it seems that when new CEOs come on board, whether or not they have prior experience, they would look to have their new team aligned behind them in their new strategic outlook.  

Some CEOs are/were famous or rather infamous for being autocratic, where only their way goes. While this might work well in some companies, especially big-names if employees want to burnish their resumes with stints in big-names, it may not necessarily work well for all companies.  Realistically, how long can an average person work under an autocratic boss?  As Victor Lipman declared in a Forbes article in 2016 that 'People leave managers, not companies', when a wrong person is named manager, 'nothing fixes that bad decision'.


Do CEOs need a top-tier education?  Are MBAs even mandatory?  These are questions that perhaps only Boards have to search deep within themselves to answer.