Have you ever wondered what makes great leaders great? Exactly which qualities do winning CEOs have that others don’t? Since 2013, Glassdoor has published our annual Highest Rated CEOs Employee’s Choice Awards, and we’ve collected a wealth of data on CEO ratings along with all the other ratings on Glassdoor.
Recently our Chief Economist, Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D, sat down with Ruoyan Huang, Ph.D to dig into the data and see if they could find correlations between CEO ratings and other measures like employee satisfaction, career opportunities, and compensation. We summarized the findings from the research study in a new eBook, Glassdoor’s Guide to Great Leadership: Why Leadership is the Key to Employee Satisfaction.
For all of you aspiring leaders out there, we’ve identified some key traits that all great leaders share:
1. Focus on company culture.
Our study found that one-star increase in overall employee satisfaction predicts a 36.9 percent improvement in CEO approval. In other words, when workers are more satisfied with their jobs they’re more likely to approve of the CEO. Conversely, this finding suggests that any efforts to improve employee satisfaction will be an uphill battle without involvement of the CEO.
2. Put a strong leadership team in place.
The effect of a CEO trickles down through the organization because of the people they hire. The decisions of leaders in sales, operations, finance, engineering, product and marketing can have a profound effect on the employees in their respective departments. CEOs who put a great team in place are more likely to win favor with staff: the study found that a 1-star improvement in senior leadership rating predicts a 37.7 percent improvement in CEO approval. Top CEOs know that their vision for the company is only as good as the people they hire to execute it.
3. Offer career development opportunities.
For most people, part of being satisfied as an employee is having opportunities to grow. Top CEOs know that they didn’t get to where they are without promotions, learning opportunities, and mentorship. Because of this, they’re willing to ensure those opportunities for their staff. And the data proves it: a 1-star improvement in satisfaction with career opportunities predicts a 3.1 percent improvement in CEO approval.
4. Focus on company performance.
Our economist took the study a step beyond our own data and examined company profitability against CEO approval. We found that a one-unit increase in company profitability predicts a statistically significant 10.2 percent rise in CEO approval ratings on average.
Working for a profitable company is simply more satisfying than working for a company that’s losing money. Decreasing profits tend to invoke fears of job loss, so when the CEO keeps a laser sharp focus on business along with company culture, employees can feel more secure in their jobs.
5. Think like a founder.
Founders are often charismatic leaders whose vision has propelled the company to success. Are CEO founders more likely to win approval? Our study found that being a founder predicts a statistically significant 3.2 percent higher CEO approval rating on Glassdoor than being an externally hired or internally promoted CEO.
Since having a founder CEO is not possible for the majority of companies, CEOs who were externally hired or internally promoted can emulate key qualities of founders. Mission-driven passion is contagious, and the continuous drive to innovate that defines many founders can still exist in companies many decades old.
For additional insights on the effect of other factors that contribute to CEO approval, including compensation packages and personal characteristics, download the complete eBook today! You can also check out all of our research studies on the Glassdoor Economic Research Site.
