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Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

daftandbarmy

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Grenade!! :)

Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

There is a pathological mismatch between the qualities that seduce us in a leader and those that are needed to be an effective leader. Based on research on the psychology of leadership, Chamorro-Premuzic shows that if leaders were selected on competence rather than confidence, humility rather than charisma, and integrity rather than narcissism, we would not just end up with more competent leaders, but also more women leaders. In fact, he argues, the main obstacle preventing competent women from becoming leaders is the lack of career obstacles for incompetent men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeAEFEXvcBg
 
See also an excerpt from the book at: https://hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men
 
a natural tendency to elect self-centered, overconfident and narcissistic individuals as leaders

Same reason that most startups I have encountered are started by people that don't know what they are doing.  If they knew what they were up against they wouldn't do it.  Those that do know, don't do it.

And on a related note people tend to hire architects before they hire process engineers and spend money on gold plated toilet paper holders before the spend on equipment that will actually make them money.  It is all about the monument.  The income merely justifies building the monument (the legacy, the beautiful ship whose real purpose is to punch holes in the water).
 
daftandbarmy said:
Grenade!! :)

Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeAEFEXvcBg

What is it they say?  You only have one opportunity to make a first impression.  And probably much the same could be said about overcoming leader stereotypes.  If the person taking charge doesn't fit the pre-conceived notions of the "led", then it takes that much more effort to lead.  As for "pre-conceived notions", when I actually looked at the youtube video, my prejudices kicked in.  I dislike hipsters and (from physical characteristics alone - yes, I can be that shallow) "Dr. Tomas" falls into that category.  I didn't watch the whole presentation so I can't comment on the competency of Chamorro-Premuzic.  However, among the things I recall from JLC several decades ago is that leaders have to want to be leaders and self-confidence is an important characteristic if one assumes a leadership role.  Well, Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic sure seems to have those two characteristics in spades, much like the majority of "incompetent men leaders" that he seems to have made a major focus of his professional dissertations.

And, as is my wont, I did a search for threads that included "leadership" in the title to see what other discussions we've had that ended up similarly.  Quite a few of those threads also seem to have been generated by D&B - one could get the impression that he does that shit for a living.

As for language abilities for leaders - I group that with the same competencies as knowing how to organize a patrol, pre-flight an aircraft, write a service paper, conduct a summary trial, etc, etc . . . it's not a "leadership attribute", it's a knowledge based skill that may be required, especially for service members who aspire to higher rank and responsibility.
 
Do no incompetent women become leaders? Asking for shiggles.
 
Blackadder1916 said:
And, as is my wont, I did a search for threads that included "leadership" in the title to see what other discussions we've had that ended up similarly.  Quite a few of those threads also seem to have been generated by D&B - one could get the impression that he does that crap for a living.

Shouldn't everyone? ;)
 
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