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Which do you think gives you more of an edge in the area
of leadership?
Hair?
Or height?
A survey of CEO’s conducted by USA Today found that
being tall was far more important for projecting
leadership than having hair.
To read the article click here.
“CEOs say being bald doesn't impede success and, given
a choice, it's better to be bald than short,” according
to the story. “So widely held is this conventional
wisdom among top executives that when asked to choose,
most CEOs say they'd take two more inches of height over a
full head of Robert Redford hair.”
Steve Carley is 6-foot-1 and is the CEO of El Pollo
Loco. He told the newspaper that being bald hasn’t hurt
his career. If anything it has helped. “"I don't
believe it ever (affected) my career. But as I
progressed, it became less and less of an issue until it
is now a point of pride and a personal branding
advantage. . . . It encourages approachability."
Meanwhile, being tall has long been correlated with
leadership. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell writes
about how US Presidents and CEOs are taller than the
average male. Gladwell says that 30 percent of Fortune
500 CEOs are 6-foot-2 and taller while only 4 percent of
all men are that tall.
So where does this leave the person who is short and
still has all his hair?
At Speechworks, we would recommend that you learn how to
carry yourself with leadership presence. That means
walking “tall” with your shoulders back and chin up.
You can also make yourself look bigger by making bigger
gestures.
After that, you might try shaving your head.
At
Speechworks we help our clients learn how to communicate
in a way that connects and persuades. If you’re
interested in becoming a great communicator give us a
call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net. |
