The Online Investing AI Blog

I wish it were true for me! After reading many books about leadership and finance, I have come to the conclusion that most of them repeat the common wisdom that permeates business culture in America. I suppose they are better than nothing, but hardly outstanding.

But it is true for Stephen Gillette, the CIO and General Manager of Digital Ventures at Starbucks. Not too shabby for a gamer! Perhaps there is more to leadership than parroting the trite phrases that circulate throughout corporate America. Maybe to become a great leader, we need a good amount of (not so) real world experience.

How did he leverage his online game play into a powerful position of leadership at Starbucks?

Read more…

Business Strategy, Internet, Success cio, fun, games, Internet, leadership, learning, Starbucks, Success, wow

No, really.

A recent study indicates there are three times as many psychopaths in corporate leadership positions than there are in real life.

According to an article in the Investors Business Daily, psychologists Paul Babiak and Robert Hare report that many of the same traits of psychopaths are common among chief executives. Those traits include a lack of empathy and an absence of guilt.

Does it sound like someone you know? Someone that signs your checks, maybe?

Babiak said, “In our group, 3.5 percent had sufficient psychopathic personality traits that they reached the cut-off for psychopathy.”

In the total population, that number is 1 percent.

There are several reasons that these personality types are attracted to positions of power.

• They gravitate toward positions of power.
• They will not let ethics hinder performance, which tends to produce short-term gains and long-term messes. (See Bernie Maddoff and AIG.)
• They lie. This ability to fabricate makes it easier for them to move up the corporate ladder, rather than pay their dues like the rest of their co-workers.

Another trait of CE-psych-Os is they hide behind a group of enablers and sycophants, further cluttering up the organization.

This study inadvertently points out something else. If you work for yourself, or build residual streams of income so you are no longer dependent on the corporate world, you increases your odds of avoiding psychopaths.

And decrease your odds of working with idiots, too.

Business Strategy, Money, Online Investing AI, Success CEO, corporate, corporation, job, jobs, leader, leadership, self-employment