The Use of a Clinical Psychological Method of Assessment to Predict Management Performance
Working Paper, Pratch, L. (October, 2008)

This paper challenges private equity investors to think through the implicit assumptions they make when choosing operating managers. It suggests questions they might ask to assess how closely their past judgments predicted the performance of executives running portfolio ventures. Readers satisfied with their results will be interested in identifying the assumptions that helped generate beneficial results. Readers who are not fully satisfied should be interested in the alternative approach described in this paper.

Optimal Psychological Autonomy and its Implications for Selecting Portfolio CEOs
Journal of Private Equity, Pratch, L., & Jacobowitz, J. (December, 2007)

This paper examines the relationship between two dimensions of the active coping style – optimal psychological autonomy and instrumental coping – and leadership effectiveness. Conceptually, we focus on the portfolio CEO, for whom psychological autonomy is crucial in resolving potential tensions between the demands of running a company and satisfying investors’ expectations for returns.

Value-Added Investing: A Framework for Early Stage Venture Capital Firms
Journal of Private Equity, Pratch, L. (May, 2005)

How do venture capitalists help their portfolio companies create value besides supplying capital? Do they have expertise that can reduce the risk associated with building a successful business? This article explores how one venture capital firm invests in early stage technology to add value and reduce risk, both for the companies in its portfolio and for the limited partners who supply capital. It focuses on six key value levers.

Successful CEOs of Private Equity Funded Ventures
Journal of Private Equity, Pratch, L., & Jacobowitz, J. (June, 2004)

This article describes research into the personality traits of CEOs who have been regarded as successful by the investors who funded their ventures. The research further refines earlier research done at the University of Chicago. The article also shows private equity investors and venture capitalists how they can reduce their risk of investing in uncertain executive capability.

Understanding the Personality of the Executive
In R. Silzer (Ed.) The 21st Century Executive: Innovative Practices for Building Leadership at the Top. Jossey-Bass. Pratch, L., & Levinson, H. (November, 2001)

This chapter combines cutting edge academic research into personality and business leadership with the insights of a leading clinical psychologist who has spent half a century working with organizations to improve how they select and groom their executives.

Assessing Potential Leaders of Private Equity Funded Ventures
Journal of Private Equity, Pratch, L. (June, 2001)

This general interest article lays out how an executive’s personality affects his or her workplace functioning under conditions of high stress. It provides an overview of the Active Coping assessment framework and gives several case studies of real life executives showing how their ability to manage stress affected their performance in the workplace. This is the recommended introduction to how clinical insights can improve the identification and grooming of senior executives whose functioning has a disproportionately high impact on corporate performance.

Integrative Capacity and the Evaluation of Leadership: A Multimethod Assessment Approach
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 34(2), 180-201, Pratch, L., & Jacobowitz, J. (1998)

This is the first empirical study to examine the effects of active coping on leadership effectiveness in a population of high achieving individuals. It was conducted at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. This article presents a psychological framework for predicting business leadership. The Active Coping assessment framework enables a psychologist to make highly accurate predictions regarding an executive performance in highly stressful or uncertain conditions. The predictive power of our measures is higher than any other approach presently used in Corporate America.

The Psychology of Leadership in Rapidly Changing Conditions
Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 123(2), 169-196, Pratch, L., & Jacobowitz, J. (1997)

This scholarly article provides the conceptual framework for examining how an executive’s ability to tolerate stress will influence his or her leadership effectiveness under stressful business conditions. A less technical treatment of the same issues is found here.

Gender, Motivation, and Coping in the Evaluation of Leadership Effectiveness
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48(4), 203-220, Pratch, L., & Jacobowitz, J. (1996)

This is the first empirical study to explore the interplay between gender, motivation, and coping style in an elite population of high achieving business leaders. It discusses how gender role stereotypes constrain the kind of leadership styles that female executives are able to use in corporate settings. Behaviors and personality traits that are tolerated in male leaders are often not tolerated in female leaders. The findings suggest that female leaders must be more task-focused, more open to complexity, and more self-confident.