The book ‘CEO Next Door’ written by Elena L. Botelho, Kim R. Powell, and Tahl Raz is based on in-depth analysis of several thousand leaders, with the surprising conclusion that successful CEOs rarely play it safe, according to Knowledge@Wharton.

The book lists four behaviors that define great leaders, but it also goes much deeper into the subject.

“With the book, we sought to apply 21st century analytics to this holy grail of leadership, which is who gets to the top, and what does it take to be successful,” said Botelho in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton.

The authors analyzed a database of 17,000 leaders, and took a sample of 2,600 leaders for further research. Finally, they did follow up interviews with around 100 CEOs to find out what it took to get to the top and succeed there.

“One surprise is that 70% of the CEOs didn’t intend to become CEOs when they set out on their career paths, or even mid-tenure in their career,” said Botelho. “It was only when that role became within striking zone for them that it became a relevant career aspiration.”

Read the entire interview at Knowledge@Wharton here.