Steven Kaplan has been blogging about research he co-authored suggesting that a chief executive’s success depends more on execution-related abilities - aggression, speed, persistence, etc - than interpersonal, team-related skills.

The main findings have been widely disseminated. Yet I found something intriguing in the detailed assessments of 316 very senior executives that underpinned the research.

The stats suggested that the biggest weakness of these managers was a tendency to hang on to underperforming employees. And this was in spite of the execs ranking highly on other macho measures.

Did this stem from a squeamishness about jettisoning a predecessor’s dud hires? Or did it reflect a stubborn loyalty to one’s own flops? I asked Professor Kaplan. He said: “Probably a little of both, but more the latter than the former.”

Elsewhere:

1. McKinsey says some Asian companies are giving a masterclass in managing big capital projects.
2. A nifty interactive guide to common forms of accounting fraud (while this was published a little while ago, I thought it would be a handy follow-up to my recent post on accountancy’s invisible ink).

August 1st, 2008 in Business schools, Ethics, Leadership, Strategy | Permalink