Chief executives are an intelligent bunch. But they’re not much smarter than peers in other professions, according to a recent working paper by Renee Adams at the University of New South Wales, Matti Keloharju at Harvard Business School, and Samuli Knupfer at BI Norwegian Business School. Looking at data from the Swedish military, the researchers found that the median CEO of large firms in Sweden scored in the top 17% in cognitive ability — higher than the typical small-firm CEO, but not much different from doctors, lawyers, or engineers. They also found that men who did better in their military interview were more likely to become CEO later in life, as were those who were taller, which suggests that smarts aren’t the only predictor of becoming a CEO.
Source: Are Successful CEOs Just Lucky?
