Famous names like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg are not just tech legends—they also have something else in common: they’re left-handed.
While being left-handed only applies to about 10% of the population, a surprising number of highly successful business leaders fall into this group.
That includes Oprah Winfrey, Steve Forbes, and even historical figures like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller.
There’s long been a belief that left-handed people are more creative, possibly because the left hand is controlled by the brain’s right hemisphere, which is linked to creative thinking.
But until recently, there wasn’t much scientific evidence connecting left-handedness to business innovation.
That changed with a new study by professors Long Chen and June Woo Park, along with their colleagues, who took a deep dive into this topic.
They wanted to know whether left-handed CEOs actually lead more innovative companies.
To start, the researchers worked out the dominant hand of over 1,000 CEOs from companies in the S&P 500, using photos, videos, and other clues like which wrist they wore their watch on or how they held a golf club. When needed, they even contacted the companies directly.
After identifying who was left- or right-handed, the team examined each company’s innovation performance by analyzing the number of patents they produced and how often those patents were cited between 1992 and 2015.
They also looked at each CEO’s background, including factors like age, education, and whether they were company founders, to ensure the findings weren’t due to other influences.
The results were clear: companies led by left-handed CEOs created more innovative and original patents—not just variations of existing technology.
These CEOs were also more likely to hire skilled workers through STEM and H-1B visas, particularly immigrant inventors, showing a strong focus on talent and innovation. Interestingly, left-handed CEOs were more likely to be inventors themselves.
Innovation is great, but the big question is whether it actually leads to better business performance. According to the study, it does. Companies with left-handed CEOs had better returns on assets and higher long-term stock performance compared to those led by right-handers.
That doesn’t mean right-handed CEOs aren’t capable of innovation. The researchers stress that leadership success is influenced by many factors, not just handedness. But this study is one of the first to show how a personal trait like being left-handed can shape a CEO’s decisions—and ultimately, a company’s success.
As the researchers continue their work, they plan to explore other personal traits that could impact business leadership, including life experiences, education, and even genetics.
