Melbourne, Nov 7 : Bosses who surround themselves with people who are like them are LINOs i.e. Leaders In Name Only, states a new book.

The tome has been penned by J. Frank Brown, the Dean of INSEAD, world’s largest business graduate school, who says that a lot of CEOs are little more than LINOs.

Brown claims that he has met a lot of CEOs in his two and a half decades in business and with that experience he has come to this conclusion.

"A lot of people talk about leadership and not that many actually do it," theage.com.au quoted Brown, as saying in an interview.

Brown said that LINOs, often act as though listening to customers and rank and file employees is a burden.

"By investing the time to listen and learn you've created a much higher probability that the actions you undertake together are going to be successful and are going to be accepted,” he said.

In his book, "The Global Business Leader: Practical Advice for Success in a Transcultural Marketplace," Brown lists the hallmarks of leadership: openness, integrity, humility, a view of the present and the future, an optimistic outlook, the proper use of authority and an understanding of personal and organizational objectives.

LINOs aren't very curious and they tend to surround themselves with people who look and think like them.

They don't really want to engage, learn and listen. "In my view LINOs don't really want your opinion, they don't really want your input, they don't really want you on their team. They'd like you to go away and do your job," he says.

But this is a recipe for failure for an organization.

"There is a failing of CEOs that surround themselves with people who aren't as smart as they are and therefore they think they're ensuring they're going to stay in the top spot, but in reality they're setting themselves and their teams up for failure," Brown says.

Success requires diverse teams and Brown says real leaders hire teams with differing skills and backgrounds, give them clear responsibilities, and stay in close touch with the team at all levels.

"Diversity is an absolute necessity for a team, and when I say diversity, I mean it in every sense of the word: gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, culture, personality type (and) area of expertise," he said. (ANI)