[jonbischke]

One measure of a high-quality C-level performer is the quality of their teams. The best C-level people can bring in very high-quality managers and individual contributors underneath them. Below average C-level people really struggle on this front.

Also, for some C-level roles there are good and objective ways to measure performance. For example, for a Chief Revenue Officer you have (obviously) revenue. There are a ton of confounding variables of course but in general CROs who consistently out-perform plan are better than those who consistently under-perform plan.

[rxhernandez]

I've definitely seen CEOs with enormous amounts of success (in the companies they led previously) bring in dogshit teams to their current company. I've also seen dogshit CEOs bring in amazing people.