What is a CEO Personality and Does Larry Page Have It?

On Monday, Larry Page took the helm at Google (again). Now that it’s been a decade since he was last in the chief executive seat, is he ready to head the internet giant? There has been significant criticism of Page’s leadership style. Yahoo! Finance chronicled the complaints. Rumor has it that as a CEO Larry:

1. Was aloof and rebellious

2. Pursued distracting and bizarre ideas (like building an ink jet printer out of legos)

3. Lacked management skills

4. Tuned out conversations that he did not find stimulating

These traits are all largely outside the box of a typical CEO personality. Luckily for Page (and Google) it appears as though the new CEO has grown into more of a tactful businessman thanks to Eric Schmidt. And who knows, it may be possible that some of these qualities will come in handy as Page tries to move Google away from bureaucracy and erase complacency. Will he be able to innovate (that’s kind of like rebelling, right?) and lead the company forward?

Just when are traditional CEO skills necessary and when do you step outside of the box?

Read: What Larry Page Must Do to Improve Google

Related: Where Larry Page must manage risk, and invest time, as Google’s new CEO and Larry Page sets himself up for failure at Google


ceo briefing - april 7 2011

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ceo briefing - april 7 2011

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