Transformational leaders are the exception, not the rule.

A consistent picture emerges from lists of top CEOs. In Harvard Business Review’s Best-Performing CEOs ranking, Pablo Isla of Inditex, the parent company of Zara; Ajay Banga of Mastercard; and Bernard Arnault of LVMH stand out for both performance and longevity. Between the three of them, these CEOs have served for 50 years marked by strong performance.

Although the average tenure of HBR’s global top 100 CEOs is 17 years, the average tenure of S&P 500 CEOs is now about five years, a drop of 20 percent since 2013. Most of these leaders tend to fail or get pushed out of the job long before the likes of the global top 100 even start to wobble. Long-lasting iconic leaders are the exception rather than the rule.

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