Would you like to know what really goes on inside the heads of astoundingly successful leaders? Here is your chance. Part of the research for my book Absolutely Fabulous Organizational ChangeAcaEURzc involved highly successful executives filling-out my Abilities & Behavior ForecasterAcaEURzc pre-employment test.

Each of the executives I tested had planned and implemented organizational change resulting in $10-million - $1-billion in profit improvement. They hail from AmericaAca,!a,,cs best-run companies, including IBM, VF Corporation, Intuit, Ritz-Carlton, Outback Steakhouse, Campbell Soup, Excell Global Services, Robert Mondavi Corporation, and more. In other words, you will discover what the best-of-the-best leaders at top-notch companies really are like.

Optimism Fuels the LeaderAca,!a,,cs Success

Pessimism never won any battle.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

My research revealed the fact that absolutely fabulous leaders are incredibly optimistic people. These leaders consistently scored high on the ForecasterAcaEURzc testAca,!a,,cs Optimism scale.

This prompts the question: What is an optimist? In a book and audio-book I co-authored, Aca,!A"Spontaneous OptimismA,(R): Proven Strategies for Health, Prosperity & HappinessAca,!?, my co-author and I defined an optimist as someone who overwhelmingly

AfA" focuses on solutions, not problems

AfA" possesses a compelling vision for an exciting life

AfA" spends most of his or her time working on goals to achieve the vision

AfA" persists

AfA" takes total self-responsibility for personal successes and failures

For example, Leonardo Inghilleri, senior vice president at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, emphatically told me,

Optimism is absolutely significant. IAca,!a,,cm an optimist in life -- both my professional and personal life. You have to be positive. Nothing positive is created through negative thinking.

Starting when I was a teenager, I always have had a personal mission statement to help me in my life. It helps me know where IAca,!a,,cm going even when I am challenged.

Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Highly Creative

In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.

-- Coco Chanel

Results on my Abilities & Behavior ForecasterAcaEURzc tests show that absolutely fabulous leaders are extremely creative. On the ForecasterAcaEURzc tests, the leadersAca,!a,,c scores show a classic pattern for creative people: Specifically, they typically score both

u low on the Following Rules scale

u high on the Creativity Motivation scale

If you think about this, it makes perfect sense. After all, what is creativity? It is not always following all the rules, as shown in the leadersAca,!a,,c low score on the ForecasterAcaEURzc testAca,!a,,cs Following Rules scale.

But, that is not enough. On top of that, these leaders also feel strongly motivated or enthused to do creative work. This is evidenced in their high score on Creativity Motivation. When you combine creative thinking with motivation to actually do innovative work, you wind up with the