Power as an inherited trait.

[istaros]

We've all heard that with the right education, anybody can accomplish whatever it is they set their minds to. Not always has this belief been so embedded into the human mind - we once allowed war to be the enterprise of warrior families, left it to the generational lines of mystics to unravel the skeins woven between consciousness and existence, and trusted royal blood to make sense of the disparity between the two so that we had banners behind which to rally. Now we (almost instinctively) find it idiotic to believe anything but the propaganda of individuality - the idea that someone can rightfully earn power or wealth by being born into it sounds ludicrous to us. How UNFAIR! But as will eventually happen with every modern myth, this one is nearing its death throes:

...when 877 members of USA TODAY's CEO panel took an online personality color test, they were three times more likely to favor magenta than the public at large, three times less likely to select red, and 3½ times less likely to choose yellow.

This, it turns out, is more than a curiosity. Psychiatry professor Rense Lange, an expert on tests for everyone from students to job hunters to those with early signs of Alzheimer's disease, has been looking hard at color tests and he has reached the conclusion that the results all but prove that CEOs are wired differently.

The test, like any other, is not perfect. But those who made it seem to have been aware of its faults and took steps to counteract them. There's a link if you'd like to try it, I got Creator as primary and Persuader as secondary - and the various buzzwords in the descriptions of the two were between 80 and 90% accurate. Not bad for 60 seconds. The following tidbit is also interesting, for other/additional reasons. Not the least of which is, dispelling the subconsciously-held modern notion that power is inherently "evil," and therefore the powerful are to be denigrated and under constant suspicion.

They are often wired in counterintuitive ways. For example, the color test shows that the typical CEO is more sensitive and private than the typical person and is less likely to be a perfectionist or to be dominant and more likely to be emotionally unstable. CEOs, it turns out, are not as self-assured as the public at large, and they are more cooperative and less forceful than the typical person...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-02-08-ceocolors08_ST_N.htm?se=yahoorefer

Those who achieve, prevail. Those who are trusted, lead. I think we've largely forgotten that.

[Libido_Itch]

I always wondered how the fuck someone becomes a CEO in the first place! I don't know how someone can be so great as to become head of any large corporation and get paid bonuses that an average person could only dream of.  Maybe if they invented some breakthrough new technology or science, maybe, but they just rule over their peasant work force.

[Ratatosk]

I took the test twice, once purposefully, one randomly, and got the same results as you. The only possible error in my procedure was that the second time I quickly and randomly clicked the tiles before they loaded, so perhaps there was overlap.

[scourge]

Sometimes they are recruited from outside, sometimes they are rotated in from having held other officer exec positions in the organization. Up, up the ladder.

[Dead_Soul]

My results were 'Creator' and 'Organizer'.

[Skullduggery]

I always wondered how the fuck someone becomes a CEO in the first place! I don't know how someone can be so great as to become head of any large corporation and get paid bonuses that an average person could only dream of.  Maybe if they invented some breakthrough new technology or science, maybe, but they just rule over their peasant work force.

Ruling peasants, modern 'peasants', isn't easy (May I suggest they're no longer 'peasents' but more like...Plebeians?). I don't think ruling anyone is easy. But, intrinsically, some are just more compatible.

I believe the very 'maintenance' work at which one might excel is for itself, perhaps, a reason for promotion. Maximization of potential or organizing and manning your labor properly and efficiently is not an easy task. I suppose one of the most important traits found in 'managerial positions' that any good 'leader' or 'navigator of forces' probably has is his skilles in distinguishing between 'the gist' of motion and action and subordinated objects / ideas / things. I suppose it is usually most needed whilst dealing with problems of necessity in relation to miss-integrated workers and logistics.That's {part of} the wisdom of the CEO (haven't read the book that goes by this name), anyway.

I always wondered, though, whether the CEO is someone who usually sees the 'bigger picture' or who's more concentrated with the little details? I suppose both are necessary, but it really depends on the resolution or 'horizon' of work the CEO involves with.