The Mental Strategies of Top Traders: The Psychological Determinants of Trading Success

7.3. EXPLORING POTENTIAL LEADERS

As I mentioned earlier, successful leaders have a few things in common. They are goal directed, purpose driven, committed to results, and willing to do what it takes to produce the results they are seeking; they are objective and not emotional, resilient and able to recover from failure and disaster, always willing to think through what steps to take to right the ship, and willing to examine what they are doing, to review "game films," and to adapt to changing market conditions and changing staffing conditions. In other words, they are very pragmatic and focused on producing the results.

If you are evaluating a potential candidate for your firm in terms of his leadership potential, you can size up the personality of the candidate and how he handles himself in terms of his level of candor, his genuineness, and his level of conviction about his process, but you can also garner a lot about a person by taking a look at his past experiences.

7.3.1. Case Studies on Finding Potential Leaders

In this interview with Colin, we talk about the importance of such issues in assessing a candidate's leadership potential and in gaining additional perspective on what is needed to develop the trader's edge in terms of leadership issues.

Kiev:

What three or four things do you evaluate closely when you hire somebody?

Colin:

Just basic fundamental ability or skills. If you are going to start with a basketball team, you want to be good. You have to have some people ...