解读身高与成功的关系

    经常会有人提到，《财富》500强企业的CEO身高都在平均线以上。我们从未亲自调查过相关数据，但是非官方研究表明这一说法并非空穴来风。身高超过1.9米（6英尺3英寸）的埃尔瑞娜•科恩（Arianne Cohen）是《高个子之书：至高点的生命礼赞》(The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High)一书的作者，认为身高和成功的确相关，并且提供了一系列理论说明为什么高个子的人更容易在商界和其他领域取得成功。《财富》最近采访了科恩，她就身高在职场中的影响发表了自己的意见。

    身高和成功真的有关吗？

    关系很大。高个子的人每高出平均身高1英寸（2.54厘米）每年就多赚789美元。过去50年中这个数字在对英国和美国所做的四项大型薪酬调查研究中都反复出现。

    大量研究表明，当面对两个称职的求职者递来的有真有假的简历时，70%的情况下老板都会选择个子高的那一个。在后续调查中，每当经理被问及如何评价即将上任的员工，他们总会对高个子流露溢美之词。这点实在是很滑稽，因为这些员工还什么都没有做。从这不难看出人们先入为主地认为个子高的人能力也卓尔不群。

    为何会如此？

    个子高的人取得成功的一个原因是他们让人印象深刻，这点是在人类进化的过程中形成的看法。每当一个大个子进屋时，他会引起每一个人的关注，因为几百万年以前，块头最大的人要么是保护者要么是威胁者。给人留下深刻的第一印象是一把双刃剑：如果你表现出色，那会锦上添花；但如果你表现糟糕，那么也尽人皆知，因为人们都没有把你忘记。

    身材高大者善于保护自己的私人空间，这使得他们在职场中容易获胜。两个朋友交谈时，大概相距0.45米；两个同事交谈时，相距大概0.9米左右；当老板和雇员交谈时，至少相距1.2米。和个子高的人交谈时，人们往往会保持1.2米左右的距离。根据放在办公室地板上的摄像机跟踪到的肢体语言记录，在和高个子同事交谈时，所有的人都与其保持着相当于和老板保持的距离，然而在和矮个子同事交谈时，则侵占了对方大量的个人空间。

    如何解释像杰克•韦尔奇(Jack Welch)和罗斯•佩罗(Ross Perot)这样身材相对矮小的CEO？

    有大量的数据表明许多身材矮小的人也取得了非凡的成就。但凡是那些获得了成功的人，无论身高几许，都会表现出和成功相关的行为特征。杰克•韦尔奇的夫人告诉我，事实上杰克自认为很高大。成功人士无论高矮，其一举一动都容易引起公众注意。你知道巴瑞•迪勒(Barry Diller)什么时候进屋，而杰克•韦尔奇能控制自己的活动空间。换言之，大权在握的矮个子往往会表现出许多和高个子一样的行为。

    还有很多身材低矮的CEO通过自己开公司取得成功，而不是通过在公司内部一个阶梯一个阶梯往上爬。罗斯•佩罗就是一个典型的白手起家的亿万富翁。罗恩•佩雷曼(Ron Perelman)和巴瑞•迪勒也都是这样打出了自己的天下。

    It's often been suggested that the CEOs of the Fortune 500 are of above-average height. We've never done the number-crunching ourselves, but unofficial studies suggest the assertion has merit. Arianne Cohen, the 6'3'' author of The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High, maintains there is a tangible correlation between height and success -- and offers up a variety of theories on why tall people tend to thrive in business and elsewhere. Fortune recently sat down with Cohen to talk about the role height plays in the workplace.

    So there's really a connection between height and success?

    It's huge. Tall people make an average of $789 per inch per year (for every inch above a person of average height) and this has been shown repeatedly in a set of four large-scale salary survey studies over 50 years in both the U.K. and the U.S.

    Numerous studies show that when bosses are given real and fictitious resumes of two competent employees, there's about a 70% chance that bosses will pick the taller person for the job. In follow-up studies where the managers were asked to rate the employees coming in to the job, they gave flying color reviews to the tall people, which is hilarious because none of the employees had even done anything yet. The clear implication of this is that tall people are perceived as very competent before they ever display proof that they are.

    Why is that the case?

    One reason tall people are successful is that they are very memorable. We are evolutionarily primed so that whenever somebody sizable walks in the room, everyone in the room glances, because millions of years ago the biggest person was either going to be a protection or a threat. Being memorable is a major boon if you're doing great work, but it's a double-edged sword: If your work is awful, everyone is going to know it; they won't forget.

    Tall people are also very good at guarding their personal space, and this pays off in spades in the workplace. When two friends are talking they tend to be 18 inches apart, when two coworkers are talking they tend to be about three feet apart. When a boss and an employee are talking they tend to be at least four feet apart. People always give tall people that full four feet. So when they do studies where they put a video camera in an office floor and track the body language, tall people are related to by everyone in the room with that "boss-space," whereas with short people, coworkers crowd their personal space.

    So how do you explain shorter CEOs like Jack Welch and Ross Perot?

    These are broad statistics, and there are many short people who do succeed. But people of any height who are successful tend to display certain behaviors that correlate with success. Jack Welch's wife actually told me that Jack thinks he's really tall. And there are behaviors that correlate with success. Successful people, whether short or tall, are known and seen. You know when Barry Diller walks into a room, and Jack Welch commands his physical space. So shorter people who are powerful often display many of the same behaviors as tall people.

    There are also a number of short CEOs who have succeeded by avoiding the corporate ladder and starting their own companies. This is definitely the case for Ross Perot, who is a self-made billionaire. Ron Perelman and Barry Diller also started their own companies instead of trying to move up from inside a company.