Great Leadership in a World of Ongoing Duress: The Three Must-Have Capabilities of Twenty-First-Century CEOs

By: Justin Menkes

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Synopsis: What qualities make great leaders able to navigate the turbulent and ever-changing business environment that is the new normal, performing at their best and also bringing out the best in those they lead? Justin Menkes, a psychologist and executive assessment expert who works with the world's top CEOs, has made an in-depth study of the differences between leaders who fail and those who have shown remarkable success and staying power. In this chapter, Menkes redefines leadership in today's context and introduces the three attributes you must develop in yourself if you aspire to the top position in any organization: realistic optimism, subservience to purpose, and finding order in chaos. Inspiring testimonials from CEOs Larry Bossidy (Honeywell), Dave Dillon (Kroger supermarkets), Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines), and others demonstrate how today's great leaders create organizations that harness the utmost effort and resiliency from workers of every rank, creating the only kind of organization that can survive amid ever-escalating competition. This chapter was originally published as the Introduction to "Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others."