I believe there are 8 defining qualities for a good CEO. Here they are, in no particular order:
Confidence in the vision and in themselves leading the vision
You can’t convince people to invest or work with you if you don’t have confidence in the vision. In order to convince people to invest or work with you, instead of for someone else with a similar vision, you need confidence in yourself. This factor determines how well you’ll be able to hire people smarter than you.
Ability to lead, and good people management skills
There’s an art to leadership. Leading as a CEO is significantly different than leading as a CTO or CFO or CMO. The CEO role requires you to be good at managing people. Your awareness and understanding of what makes people tick, their fears and aspirations, their strengths and weaknesses — all this is fundamental. Leadership ability is also a measure of knowing when to delegate and knowing how to sell.
Absence of fear of disagreeing with lots of smart people
A CEO is almost never the smartest person in the room at a company, for a good reason. A good CEO can’t be a “yes man”. There is one direction that the company should go in and a good CEO should be able to decide that, even if that means disagreeing with the viewpoints of the smartest people in the room.
Habit or attitude of winning
Success comes from winning. People who win a lot are prone to more wins. Good CEOs win, a lot.
Ability to make quick, well-thought out decisions
Good CEOs don’t sit on decisions for ages. They make quick but well-thought out decisions, even if it entails being wrong later. Good CEOs adjust on the fly.
A deep understanding of economics of the market the company is in
A deep understanding of how their particular market works is essential. Not academic, PhD-level deep, but knowledge deep enough of all things that really matter in a particular market. This quality often comes out of the box if the CEO is also the founder and is already passionate about the market the company’s in.
Ability to see through BS
A good bullshit filter. Gullible people don’t make good CEOs. Good CEOs can tell when competitors, customers or employees are intentionally or unintentionally BS-ing them.
Resilience at the time of loss and ability to fight back
This is in my opinion the most important attribute. Resilience is a very difficult thing to achieve and often it’s a by-product of the experiences you’ve had in life and how you’ve conditioned yourself to handle them. Super young CEOs often don’t come in with this quality and have to learn on the fly while being under public scrutiny. All companies go through incredible lows, truly testing what the company’s leader is made of. This is probably why people who make those Best CEOs lists are often highly experienced leaders with decades of built up resilience.
How do you tell any particular CEO is good?
Good CEO’s company would be growing, usually fast. Good CEO’s employees would feel like they’re really an important part of the company. Good CEO’s investors would respect him or her. Good CEO would be respected and hated by competitor CEOs. All of the above probably need to be true, to prevent getting a false positive.