I Did It My Way... and Got Fired

The trait that made you CEO is the trait most likely to get you fired as CEO

I talk to a lot of CEOs. Ask a hundred CEOs what got them to the top, and you will hear a hundred different stories.

But one trait does show up again and again: an unshakeable belief in their own judgment.

Call it confidence, ego, self-reliance, or even vision, but it’s the single most common characteristic in people who reach the CEO seat. Every time I teach a CEO Masterclass, I chuckle when we place them on the DISC Wheel, because they’re all clustered in the D quadrant. That’s D for Dominance, and despite the fact that D-type people make up only around 9% of the population, they make up somewhere north of 70% of CEOs in my experience. That relates closely to the classic self-assurance of the CEO.