Survey of characteristics of innovative leaders

1. The 5 most important traits of innovative leaders
Research conducted by
Anton Garibundiak, Dean of the Faculty of
Psychology, University of Ljubljana
Stefanie Saunders, Post-doctoral Research Fellow,
University of Sussex Business School
Yelena Supritskova, Deputy Director, Centre for
Leadership Research, Geneva
Evdokimos Petrou, Managing Partner, EUSurvey
1st April 2016

2. This presentation summarizes the findings of a survey of 81
successful CEOs/Senior Managers/Directors and 752 Junior
Managers or Employees of companies with over 2000
employees based in the European Union.
All companies surveyed were consistently profitable over the decade 1994-2013
and ranked in the upper quartile of international indicators of “innovativeness”.
Fieldwork was conducted June 2015 – February 2016.
The authors are grateful to the European Office of Business Research, to the
research assistants who carried out interviews and to the 833 persons who
agreed to be interviewed for this study.
Detailed results, definitions and references can be found at the Archives of
EUSurvey. In concordance with pledges to interviewees, individuals and
companies surveyed will remain anonymous.

3. Trait # 1 Focus
Innovative leaders make fast decisions.
They act intensely on one priority at a time.

4. Trait # 2 Ego
Innovative leaders are egocentric with minimal sensitivity to others.
They take great pains to project a positive image of themselves.
They personally select areas of Corporate Social Responsibility
and are themselves the major beneficiaries of related publicity.

5. Trait # 3 Duplicity
Innovative leaders rank “ethical standards” low among business values.
People who work for them report frequent disregard of the truth and
liberal interpretations of laws and regulations.

6. Trait # 4 Physical attractiveness
Junior managers and employees score their own leaders very high on
criteria such as “well-dressed”, “handsome” and “sexy”.
On the same criteria, the same people give significantly lower scores
to leaders other than their own.

7. Trait # 5 Confrontational
Innovative leaders relish a fight.
Their aggression manifests itself in behaviour towards their own colleagues.
They use sarcasm and put-downs as a matter of course and they often raise
their voices or have a tantrum.

8. This is all BS. These researchers don’t exist and the study never happened.
(but isn’t it uncomfortable when your leaders have mostly negative traits?)
* in some countries lies and pranks are tolerated once a year, on April 1st.
Surprised?

9. Alas, much writing on leadership is rubbish
Good research should involve large samples. It must be duplicated and
verified independently before its claims can be generalized.
Good research on leadership does exist of course. It is useful because it can
help develop better leaders.

10. Expert tips can be useful too
Advice coming from people’s experiences
should be taken for what it is: at best a snippet of wisdom
or a fresh perspective, at worst confusing rubbish.

11. My own 2 cents on innovative leadership
Be yourself. You can’t be a good leader by being someone else.
Embrace creativity. Develop your own creative self and create
conditions for your people to be creative.
Perhaps one day good research will prove the value
of authenticity and creativity in leadership.

12. Thank you!
• For the sinister side of leadership see books and articles by Manfred Kets de
Vries, professor of leadership development and organizational change at INSEAD.
• For the humorous side see Dilbert by Scott Adams.
• For a project, workshop or keynote on leadership, creativity or innovation, or
for a simple conversation, contact dimis@dimis.org