26 Jan Results-Focused CEOs Outperform High EI CEOs

Brad Smart, co-author of the book Topgrading, has written a fascinating blog post that references two new studies which seem to somewhat contradict what the HR community has been saying with respect to results-focused CEOs and high emotional intelligence CEOs and the connection to company performance: “University of Chicago researchers studied 225 CEOs assessed with Topgrading methods, and found that CEOs who were extremely results-oriented delivered much better financial results than CEOs high in Emotional Intelligence.”

Apparently the results point to a “disproportionate emphasis” on EI vs results orientation in the hiring process.

The CEOs we’ve worked with over the past 10 years at ViRTUS who have the highest performance and the lowest senior rank turnover consistently show a blend of results focus and strong emotional intelligence (which they are consciously developing).

What has your experience been with your CEO?