1 surprising thing: Maybe leaders aren’t that important
A new study questions the assumption that leaders in politics, business and sports are key to their organizations’ success or failure.
Why it matters: We put a lot of energy and money into picking our presidents, CEOs, and coaches, but their ability to influence events varies.
What’s happening: In a study published in Science Advances today, researchers used a novel statistical method to try to estimate the actual impact of individual leaders in a range of professions on actual outcomes.
- They found that coaches in team sports like basketball and football had the biggest impact on point margins and wins and losses.
- Political leaders at the national level seemed to impact their country’s economic performance, while governors affected fiscal policy and crime, and mayors had little impact on any of these areas.
- The CEOs of major companies did not seem to significantly affect the success or failure of their firms.
Of note: This last bit apparently hasn’t had much effect on CEO compensation, which rose to an average of $21.3 million for the top executives at the largest 350 firms in the U.S. in 2019.
- That’s double from 2009.
The catch: The authors caution that their statistical method — randomized inference for leader effects, or RIFLE — is meant to determine whether leaders in specific professions matter, not gauge the quality of individual leaders.
The bottom line: When it comes to leadership, it’s often better to be lucky than good.
Πηγή: axios.com
