White male CEOs get a boost for saying they were lucky, while women and minorities have to claim pure merit just to be taken seriously.
March 30, 2026
Original Paper
Who Can Admit Luck? CEO Success Narratives, Legitimacy, and Diversity in Executive Leadership
SSRN · 6487598
The Takeaway
It reveals a 'diversity learning paradox' where the leaders most capable of explaining the structural barriers to success (marginalized groups) are the least free to talk about them. Meanwhile, privileged leaders are rewarded for humility when they acknowledge advantages that others are forced to hide to maintain their professional legitimacy.
From the abstract
Executive leaders are routinely asked to narrate "how they made it", and these success narratives play a central role in how organisations learn about leadership and diversity. Yet not all CEOs can tell the same kinds of stories. Building on a qualitative analysis of eleven book-length biographies of prominent CEOs sampled across race, gender, and class origin, this study examines how structural position shapes whether executives can publicly attribute success to luck or to merit.We identify a s