There are many intangibles in business, particularly once you leave the production department, but nothing quite as intangible as leadership. What is that follow-me-through-fire magic that leads the way and lights up the troops? Consultants and academics would love to isolate it, distil it and sell it in bottles, but no one has done that just yet. It hasn’t stopped them from trying and some believe that leadership is the next big frontier in management studies.
If there is a market in leadership, its price fluctuates. As the 1990s drew to a close the most admired CEOs had achieved rock star status, and their companies’ share prices (and their pay) soared accordingly. The market soared too - these were the runaway 1990s - but a contemporary ten-year study showed that the stock of companies seen to have great leaders rose 12 times faster that those thought to lack them.
