2/29/2012 02:25:00 PM
Zeshan Aladdin Mumtaz
Having a huge ego, craving attention and being an overall narcissist doesn’t sound like a trio of compliments but studies show that these qualities can make you a great leader, found the study.
A group of professors from IMD business school, Penn State, and Erlangen-Nuremberg University found that the above mentioned qualities tend to lead to innovation and aggressive decision-making.
The professors doing the research examined how 78 CEOs and 33 major American pharmaceutical companies did in the biotech boom from 1980 to 2008. They accounted for narcissism by measuring how often the CEOs’ photos were found in annual reports, how frequently they were mentioned in press releases and their overall compensation compared to the person second in command.
Then the professors evaluated how fast and intensely the CEO's had adapted to the rise of biotechnology.
The result showed that narcissistic bosses are better leaders than the average humble guy. That’s because they tend to see a shot a glory where others might see excessive risk, and that aggression to make a move is where the narcissists are more rewarding to their companies. But being a great leader is not enough these days. We need a super arsenal of skills to rise among the pact.
We all want to be great at something? Usain Bolt didn’t end up making cocky gestures at the finish line because he was pretty good at lots of sports, Stephen Hawking hasn’t inspired legions of astrophysicists by working on his haikus and David Copperfield isn’t famous for being a great all-rounder.
So, logically, in the professional world, it makes sense to get really, really good at what you do. Right?
Wrong. Those in the know (business leaders, recruitment professionals, career coaches) are pushing a new buzzword: cross-train.
Cross-training has been around in the world of athletics for some time, but the phrase can generally be used to express how the combination of two activities produces an improvement an interaction effect substantially greater than either one can produce on its own. We’re talking complementary activities here, like law and accounting, not law and sculpture. Think about how diet and exercise, when combined, are substantially more effective for weight loss than either diet or exercise alone (or diet and Sudoku combined).
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