Degrees or working long hours unnecessary to be a CEO or president

What's the secret to training someone to become chief executive of a large company or president of a country? Do they have to be inclined to work around the clock? Is it necessary to have a degree from a top flight university such as one of the Ivy League institutions in the US?

The short answer is "No", according to a nine-year study by Michael Lindsay, a noted sociologist and president of Gordon College, a Christian college north of Boston.

Between 2003 to 2011, Lindsay - a former assistant professor at Rice University in Texas - interviewed 550 heads of global companies, mostly in the US, and public leaders, including 250 chief executives of large companies and two US presidents. He has compiled 9,000 pages of data about their families and educational background, individual work styles as well as their respective leadership skill sets.

Only 14 per cent of the global leaders held degrees from Ivy League universities, while 47 per cent came from other private universities and 37 per cent graduated from a public university. One per cent of those included in the study have no college degree.

Many people believe leaders are usually workaholics. But Lindsay's research showed only 10 per cent worked more than 90 hours a week, with a combined 66 per cent of them working between 60 and 79 hours a week. By comparison, a typical work week is considered to be 40 hours.

Lindsay is turning his study into a book to be published next year. On a visit to Hong Kong, Lindsay shared with the South China Morning Post his insights into what it takes to make a leader and how to hire one in Asia.