For a great many years debates have raged about whether the best leaders are born or made, what the differences are between leaders and managers, and indeed what even makes an effective leader.

During the Covid-19 epidemic, however, the challenges facing leaders have never been greater, nor the importance of effective leadership been more pressing.  The CEO Test by Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer aims to help guide leaders by identifying the key ingredients they believe help to forge the best leadership.

Their formula is based on conversations with over 600 CEOs, as well as decades spent leading large, multinational firms.  They boil the essence of great leadership down to the following qualities:

• Can you develop a simple plan for your strategy? Simplifying complexity is a key skill for leaders in these incredibly complex times.
• Can you make the culture real (and matter)? It’s especially important to be able to walk the talk and live the culture you espouse.
• Can you build teams that are true teams? This is crucial as teams will be the bedrock of any significant transformation.
• Can you lead transformation? We’re living in extremely volatile times so a state of constant transformation is the norm rather than prolonged periods of calm.
• Can you really listen? Psychological safety has been well documented elsewhere, and the authors highlight the importance of creating an environment where people can speak up and you can detect warning signs early.
• Can you handle a crisis? It’s alarmingly common for leaders to bungle their response to crises, so being able to manage disasters successfully is, the authors believe, a key aspect of effective leadership.
• Can you master the inner game of leadership? The authors highlight the conflicting demands and challenges that must be managed to lead effectively.

Leadership is getting harder as the speed of disruption across all industries accelerates.  The authors aim to simplify the complex field of leadership to identify what really matters for leaders at all levels.

“The best leadership advice helps slow the game, so that you can better anticipate, understand, and label the nuanced dynamics of different situations in the moment and guide them to better outcomes,” the authors say.  “We believe that our approach of sharing stories, lessons, insights, and tips from veteran CEOs is the best way to impart that wisdom.”

It’s an unquestionably America-centric view of leadership and the lack of cultural diversity does somewhat undermine the message, but if you want to understand some of what makes leadership so important it can provide a reasonable start point.  Just don’t expect to find much in the book that hasn’t been covered elsewhere in more depth.