Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.

A lot has changed in the business world in the last few years. But there are some fundamentals that still ring true, and it’s good to be reminded of them. Like the ingredients that make a good leader. As we end one year and begin a new one, we wanted to reshare this episode that looks at the characteristics of the most effective CEOs out there. Whether you already are a chief executive or aspire to run an organization one day, the good news is: these behaviors can be learned.

In fact, the stereotype we might have of a leader or CEO – might be all wrong. That’s according to a research analysis from the consulting firm ghSMART, where Elena Botelho coleads the CEO Genome Project. She’s also a coauthor of the HBR article: “What Sets Successful CEOs Apart.” Back in 2017, she told IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael about the four behaviors that really make CEOs successful. Here’s their conversation with the takeaways that still apply today.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: One of the things I found really interesting and surprising about the research, was that introverts are slightly more likely to be the most effective CEOs than extroverts. Why is that? What’s that finding?

ELENA BOTELHO: When we did our analysis, we basically bucketed CEOs in three buckets. Did they meet the expectations? Did they exceed expectations? Or did they underperform? And we did find that in the group of the CEOs who exceeded expectations, there was a slight higher percentage of introverts.

So for me, the main takeaway is yes, it’s tempting to say, gosh, introverts are better CEOs. What the data told us is that it’s actually not. It gets back to it’s really not about what you’re born with, so no more excuses for any of us. It’s really it’s really how you behave and how you act, which you can change.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Yeah. And also, if you’re an introvert, don’t give up.

ELENA BOTELHO: Exactly. And me being an introvert, I’m excited about that finding.