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The relationship between executive excellence and punk rock

The tortured genius is an archetype we will never escape: whether it be the image of deaf Beethoven writing his celebrated music or the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as a toxic egoist in "The Social Network," myth can speak louder than fact, for better or for worse.

So, when it comes to your prospective new boss's future CEO tenure, what kind of brilliance are you looking for? It's true that talent can bring with it all sorts of unfortunate personality traits, but in real life, that "genius with a dark side" with no means of interacting with the establishment might be more curse than blessing if not approached correctly.

At least that's what Ruth Blatt says in a recent piece for Forbes, identifying the influence of the recently deceased rocker Lou Reed. With a lengthy career that spanned the rise and fall of movements like punk and grunge, Blatt argues that Reed was a major departure from previous styles—and that he paid the price for it, ultimately remaining less successful than the others he inspired.

"Some of the same things that undermined Lou Reed's success make it hard for other disruptive innovation to break through," Blatt writes. "Being a new enterprise is difficult enough. But being new and different makes it almost impossible to succeed."

While this may seem to be a pretty bleak statement, it only means that the image of what an "innovator" truly does needs to be properly evaluated, especially in an age where it seems every cultural item is constantly being analyzed as a potential model for businesses.

It's not easy to be original, but perhaps tempering a fiery spirit with basic corporate know-how isn't a bad thing. Global executive search firms might aid in finding someone who falls right in the comfortable area of space that your company hopes to find.

Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people – for all company functions, across many industries and globally.

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