The Strategy Skills Podcast: Management Consulting | Strategy, Operations & Implementation | Critical Thinking

Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq and co-author of CEO Ready, explained on the Strategy Skills Podcast why many talented executives never make it to the top. " Because you perform well isn't going to automatically get you the job." Boards are looking for more than results. They look for humility, curiosity, and authentic relationships across stakeholders. Byron shared a personal lesson from riding with Ronald Reagan before he was president: "He was genuinely interested in others. And that surprised me. I didn't get the sense that he was a pompous or aristocratic kind of person. He was genuinely interested in identifying what are you interested in? What makes you tick?" He also warned that unchecked ego is one of the biggest risks to leadership: "Ego is a powerful motivator when it's focused properly. But when it becomes dominant in one's personality and drives inappropriate types of responses to the needs of others… Ego can become a significant problem." To counter ego, he recommended buil