Bosses start leadership skills in school, says survey

Many of today's captains of industry demonstrated their leadership potential at school, a report in Britain claimed today.

A survey of chief executives and board level directors of top UK firms found that nearly 90% had held at least two roles such as head boy or girl, prefect or sports captain.

The majority of the 105 business leaders questioned by Mori admitted they showed early ambitions to take charge.

Sixty-five percent said they had always wanted to lead, and almost 60% said they had been ambitious from an early age, the Financial Times reported.

About 70% of those surveyed were prefects, 50% were captains of school sport teams, 30% were head or deputy head boy or girl and 29% led youth groups such as Scouts and Guides.

Asked why they were given leadership roles at school, one person said: “Because I was a pushy little brat! I had a certain amount of energy, capacity and enthusiasm.”

The survey was conducted on behalf of human resources consultants Development Dimensions International (DDI).