While nine out of ten Irish employees think it’s important for their chief executive to be inspiring, almost three quarters of them don’t think their bosses actually are.

That’s among the results of a survey by Hanover Communications and Censuswide on the traits and values of CEOs, in which employees of companies larger than 50 employees were asked about the importance of various character traits in an ideal chief executive or head of company.

Even where leaders might be clear on intent they aren’t always practicing what they preach, say employees. Of Irish employees, three out of four agree that their own company chief wants to have a positive impact and two-thirds believe their boss acts as a role model , though 13% aren’t sure they practice what they preach.

Clarity matters more than ever, and almost three quarters of respondents agreed a CEO with a clear personality that everyone in the business understands is more likely to run a successful business according to the survey, The Cult of the CEO.

Specifically, they agreed that it’s important for the ideal CEO to be inspiring (87%), motivating (87%), and future-thinking (87%). In comparison, only 40% and 30% would describe their current head as motivating and inspiring respectively – a stark contrast between an ideal leadership figure and the reality.

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Hanover Ireland managing director Lorna Jennings (pictured) commented: “The media has had an enormous impact on our perceptions of CEOs and what makes a good one. The media shares the desire of its consumers to simplify complexity by identifying real people to serve as shorthand for what are, in reality, many-headed organisations.

“Where 20 years ago you might have seen a short clip on RTE of a CEO’s unfortunate slip of the tongue or a stock-tumbling mistake, today you can watch it replayed on social media and hear it cut down into animating broadcast clips with endless talking heads and commentators ascribing ever more significance to what began as a board room comment.

“A more dangerous effect of the way we paint ordinary people as storybook characters is that they start believing it. Having told our chief executives that they are the company, it's not entirely unreasonable of them to allow such delusions of grandeur to go to their heads.”