Criteria for Choosing Chief Executives

If you are pondering the choice of a successor or considering the development of a range of candidates for high-level advancement, how can you assure yourself that the person you select will have the characteristics that will make him or her the best person for a given time?

Your next task then is to determine the kinds of competence and the range of behavior a person should have to do what you have already defined.

That requires looking more closely at the subtleties of behavior that differentiates those who have significant leadership potential from those who do not. It requires some way of examining the behavior of the prospective candidates.

As per Levinson (1980), a good executive is multifaceted like a diamond. The larger the number of facets, the more brilliantly it shines. Some facets are larger, some smaller. And not all diamonds have the same number. But all facets are part of a whole diamond, which ultimately focuses the light passing thought facets to a single integrating point. Further, few diamonds are without flaws.

Levinson identified three major groups for dimensions of leaders’ personality. Those are:

thinking,
feelings and interrelationships, and
outward behavior.

The first group (thinking) deals with capacity to abstract, to conceptualize, to organize, and to integrate different data into coherent frame of reference; tolerance for ambiguity; intelligence, capacity not only to abstract but also to be practical; judgment, knows when to act.

The second group (feelings and interrelationships) deals with authority, the feeling that he or she belongs in boss’s role; activity, takes a vigorous orientation to problems and needs of the organization; achievement, oriented toward organization’s success rather than personal aggrandizement; sensitivity, able to perceive subtleties of others’ feelings; involvement, sees oneself as a participating member of an organization; maturity, good relationships with authority figures; interdependence, needs of others as well as of him or herself; articulateness, makes a good impression; stamina, physical and mental energy; adaptability, managing stress; sense of humor, not too serious.

Source:

Levinson, H. (1980). Criteria for Choosing Chief Executives. Harvard Business Review , 113-118.

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Criteria for Choosing Chief Executives

Levinson identified three major groups for dimensions of leaders’ personality. Those are:

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