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The person running your company will always have an impact on the fortunes of the business. But in a recession, the personality of your chief executive could determine the very survival of the firm. So what makes one boss a saviour and another a disaster? And has yours got what it takes to get your firm through the gruelling times ahead?

Your boss鈥� ability to steer you through the downturn is all down to their personal characteristics, says psychologist Adrian Atkinson. 鈥淩ight now you need a chief executive who can see the big picture, a visionary,鈥� he says. This not the time for bosses who are focused on process and procedure, people Atkinson calls 鈥渁dministrators鈥�, although these personality types are needed on the next management tier down.

The bad news from Atkinson, who has worked with construction companies, is that 鈥渂ig picture鈥� types are a relatively rare breed in the building industry. 鈥淰isionary chief executives in this sector are in a minority. Construction bosses tend to lurch from one reactive decision to another.鈥�

He contrasts construction with IT, where he says chief executives have tended to anticipate rather than react. In IT, most bosses froze recruitment last year and allowed their staff to decrease through people leaving the company of their own accord. In construction, on the other hand, 鈥渨e are seeing companies start to downsize six months after the market first looked like it wasn鈥檛 doing well鈥�.

Atkinson says the problem in construction is that someone who is brilliant at project management gets promoted because they are good at detail. 鈥淏ut they tend to be very project-focused, rather than visionaries, and these types of people don鈥檛 tend to make great chief executives.鈥�

But before we get too down on ourselves, Atkinson adds that there are some construction bosses who have what it takes to weather a recession. 鈥淐onstruction does have some great chief executives, some people with vision and charisma,鈥� he says, citing Kier鈥檚 John Dodds as an example. And anyone with a job like Balfour Beatty鈥檚 Ian Tyler 鈥� described by one analyst as a 鈥済reat diplomat鈥� for the way he schmoozes clients ranging from the US military to Arab sheikhs 鈥� can鈥檛 be without his share of personal charm.

The trouble is, as the example of the two leaders pictured opposite teaches us, these people aren鈥檛 always easy to spot. Winston Churchill was well into his fifties when he got his chance to shine, and had a fair few blots on his CV prior to that. Of course, this works the other way, too. The construction industry has its share of Neville Chamberlains 鈥� once-lauded bosses who have been exposed in a crisis situation for missing the 鈥漛ig picture鈥� (albeit for spending their firms鈥� cash rashly in the good times, rather than appeasing a genocidal maniac鈥檚 plans to take over the world).

So how do you spot whether your boss is one of the good ones? Atkinson claims psychology can tell us, so take his test to find out.

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