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Technology & Innovation — April 22, 2011

What You Need To Get To The Top

Passionate curiosity, battle-hardened confidence, team smarts, a simple mindset, and fearlessness. These are the qualities most common in top executives. Do you have them?

What is the Latest Development?

A New York Times survey of more than 70 chief executives and leaders helped identify the X factors for reaching the top of an organization: Passionate curiosity, battle-hardened confidence, team smarts, a simple mindset, and fearlessness. And the good news is that they can be developed, according to NYT columnist Adam Bryant, and “will lift the trajectory of your career and speed your progress.”

What is the Big Idea?

These are the things that top CEOs do. They remain relentlessly questioning and infectiously fascinated with everything around them. They overcome and even relish adversity. (Job candidates can expect to be asked how they’ve dealt with failure in the past.) And more than just being a team player, they understand how teams work and how to get the most from players. As communicators they’re clear, concise, and keep it simple. And they aren’t freaked out by uncertainty. Instead, they see opportunity in the unknown and take calculated, informed risks.

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