Do you have to be blunt, direct, Type A and forceful to be a good leader? Can you be both Nice and Effective in a Leadership Role or do you have to check your “pleasant” persona at the door when you go to work. Great question … and here is some Very Interesting Research on just this topic.
Recent psychological research is showing an interesting inverse relationship in the traits of “Warmth” and “Competence”.
This research involved thousands of adults in two dozen different nations … and it begs the question,
“Can a Nice Person be a good Leader?”
The answer is “Yes … But” and it all has to do with our natural defense mechanisms. In “the wild” our defenses consist of Fight or Flight. However, in the modern world … since we rarely run into lions and tigers and bears these days and other people are our biggest challenge … our radar is tuned to a more socially oriented “lookout” system.
We tend to subconsciously evaluate others humans with regards to the following two questions:
- “What are this person’s intentions toward me?” This is a measurement of “Warmth”. Warmth = being friendly, helpful, sincere, trustworthy, and moral. It is typically seen as more common in women in general and mothers specifically.
- “Is this person capable of acting on those intentions?” This is a measurement of “Competence”. Competence = being intelligent, skillful, and able. The core qualities of Leadership.
These two scales make sense on first glance, however, as summarized recently in the Harvard Business Journal, research by Amy Cuddy, et al has found two additional subconscious tendencies that allow wierdness to enter the picture.
Subconscious Tendency #1:
It is common for most humans to see these two traits as Inversely Related. I.E. if you are a warm person you are incompetent
Here are a couple of examples:
- People commonly see the elderly as warm and incompetent.
- The same perception is common of mothers.
Subconscious Tendency #2:
We all make snap judgements on a person’s Warmth and Competence with just first impressions to go by.
What does this all mean?
Of course you can be both Warm and Competent. They are completely separate traits/processes/skill sets.
AND
People will tend to see them as inversely related … instantly and subconsciously. The warmer you are the more you are likely to be suspected of being incompetent …. OUCH. (especially if you are a woman or older).
In this modern world where relationships are vital … it has never been more important to be “Warm”. Just remember to be on the lookout for the prejudice created by these subconscious tendencies.
Here is a link to a summary of the research.
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jdean 06.04.09 at 3:00 pm
I searched the article for backing for the “inverse link” you talk about and actually saw it contradicted by the article in the case of individuals. In fact individuals get a halo effect. Groups need only be concerned about an inverse effect:
“Although perceptions of individuals and groups operate in similar ways, some subtle differences appear. When we judge an individual person as warm, we tend to judge her or him as competent too (a phenomenon called the “halo effect” in social psychology) (Judd, James-Hawkins, Yzerbyt, & Kashima, 2005; Rosenberg et al., 1968; Zanna & Hamilton, 1972). In contrast, and curiously, when we judge entire social groups as warm or competent, we judge quite differently (Fiske, 1998; Fiske at al. 1999; Yzerbyt, Provost, & Corneille, 2005). When thinking about groups, people tend to create warmth-competence trade-offs or “compensations.” A group may be warm or competent but not both (except our own group, of course). For groups, at least groups not our own (”outgroups”), warmth and competence do not go hand in hand. “