Rowley Associates

According to a study by IBM, creativity is the #1 leadership requirement. Based on interviews with over 1,500 CEO’s around the world 60% cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, followed by Integrity (52%) and ‘Global Thinking’ (35%). ‘Fairness’ and ‘Humility’ were rated least desirable. The full results are illustrated below.

What is interesting about these data is that ‘Integrity’ comes second and fairness near last. Given the lack of governance in Wall Street and the general lack of trust in Corporate America I would have hoped ‘Integrity’ would be rated as number one. To be fair the research asked the CEO’s how they would lead their organizations in an increasingly complex world and creativity was defined as ‘deeper business model changes … risk taking and innovation’. What is your take on the data? Is creativity the most important attribute for the CEO in a complex world economy?