Business Week has a feature on their site about the CEOs of Tomorrow where they profile 25 people who are likely to achieve CEO-hood in the next couple years. (It is also in the May 11, 2009 print edition.) What is interesting is not really who they are, or what their current roles are, but instead the attributes that got them to that spot. Interspersed with those are quotes about their leadership styles and philosophies as a result of those attributes. Here are the ones I found most useful.

  • She had to constantly evolve it to stay relevant
  • His ability to walk in from the outside and turn around a difficult situation is remarkable
  • Analysts laud his willingness to experiment with innovative ideas while acting decisively when projects fail
  • It’s important to have fun as a team
  • All three of them encouraged me to take calculated risks
  • You have to take some chances to grow faster than everyone else
  • Keep a list of leadership principles and look at it regularly
  • Act with urgency
  • Keep things simple
  • It’s all about the execution
  • I’m never satisfied
  • Our job is to add the secret sauce
  • He gets the right things done
  • It’s about simplifying what appears complex
  • Analysts applaud his humility, smart cost-cutting, and operational chops
  • She is a champion of innovation and research
  • She is thoughtful and incisive and not afraid to make the tough call
  • Having a sense of humor helped
  • Revenue is important, but customer satisfaction is even more crucial
  • It’s not just what you do, but how you do it that is important
  • …all with a special focus on the customer
  • Personalities, consumers, workforces, and cultures differ dramatically from market to market
  • If you believe what you are doing is right, it’s important to persevere
  • …embodies the more collaborative approach to management

Having all those attributes and approaches to leadership would likely make you a grade-A jerk, but some of them I can see being useful if adopted.