Why do so many incompetent men become leaders? | Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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.

Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an international authority in psychological profiling, talent management, leadership development, and people analytics. He is the Chief Talent Scientist at Manpower Group, co-founder and CEO of DeeperSignals and Metaprofiling, and Professor of Business Psychology at both University College London, and Columbia University. He has previously held academic positions at New York University and the London School of Economics, and lectured at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, London Business School, Johns Hopkins, IMD, and INSEAD, as well as being the CEO at Hogan Assessment Systems. Dr. Tomas has published 10 books and over 150 scientific papers, making him one of the most prolific social scientists of his generation. His work has received awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, of which he is a Fellow.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Have you ever worked with people
who are not as good as they think?

(Laughter)

I know this will surprise you,
but statistically,

they are more likely
to be male than female.

(Laughter)

That's right.

Men are typically more deceived
about their talents than women are.

They are also more likely
to succeed in their careers.

That's because one of the best ways

to fool other people into thinking
that you're better than you actually are

is to fool yourself first.

(Laughter)

This is why you may not
just have worked with people

who are not as good as they think,
but also for them.

Unfortunately, being unaware
of your limitations

increases your probability
of being a boss.

(Laughter)

I'm an organizational psychologist.

I use science and technology to predict
and understand human behavior at work.

One of the areas that fascinates me

is the relationship between
gender, personality and leadership;

more specifically,
how gender and personality

shape our choices of leaders

and how those leaders
then impact organizations.

Discussions on gender tend to focus

on the under-representation
of women in leadership,

which is more or less universal.

Anywhere in the world -
well, outside Iceland perhaps -

the vast majority of leaders are male.

But a bigger problem is the fact that
most of these leaders are incompetent.

Indeed,

whether in business or politics,

most leaders have very negative effects
on their followers and subordinates,

causing low levels of engagement,
trust and productivity,

and high levels of burnout and stress.

Just google "my boss is"

to see what most people think
of their managers -

(Laughter)

and maybe, just maybe,
feel a bit better about your manager:

(Laughter)

"Crazy," "abusive," "unbearable," "toxic,"

and some other things
that are just too rude to repeat here.

So the main question we should be asking

is not why there aren't
any more women leaders,

but why so many incompetent
men become leaders.

My research suggests
there are three main reasons for this.

The first is our inability to distinguish
between confidence and competence.

Anywhere in the world,

we assume that confident people
have more potential for leadership,

but in any area of talent,
including leadership,

there's just very little overlap
between confidence -

how good people think
they are at something -

and competence - how good
they actually are at something.

I grew up in Argentina

where the gap between confidence
and competence is particularly pronounced.

(Laughter)

In fact, one of the best investments
you can make in your life

is to buy an Argentine for what he's worth

and sell him for what
he thinks he is worth.

(Laughter)

As you can imagine,
I can't crack this joke back home.

(Laughter)

We're just not self-aware
enough to find it funny.

(Laughter)

Unfortunately, though,

most leaders have
something Argentine in them,

in that their self-perceived talents
tend to surpass their actual talents.

The second reason is our love
for charismatic individuals,

particularly since the 1960s
mass media explosion -

but this has been turbocharged
by the recent digital age.

We appear to want leaders
who are charming and entertaining,

but there is a big difference

between an effective leader
and a stand-up comedian.

(Laughter)

In fact, the best leaders are humble
rather than charismatic,

to the point of even being rather boring.

This is why they rarely feature
in the media or blockbuster movies.

For example, imagine a movie
on Angela Merkel.

(Laughter)

She wakes up,

has breakfast with her husband,

goes to meetings well-prepared,

lets other people talk
without interrupting them,

(Laughter)

makes rational decisions,

runs her country well,

there are no scandals about her.

In contrast, there is a surplus
of captivating biopics

on charismatic leaders
with a fascinating dark side,

who end up ruining their countries
and organizations.

The third and final reason
for the rise of incompetent men

is our inability to resist
the allure of narcissistic individuals,

people with grandiose
and megalomaniac visions

that tap into our own narcissism.

We've always admired famous people,

but our admiration for people
who admire themselves

or are famous for, well,
just being famous,

has been rising for decades.

At this rate, future generations
will look back at Kim and Kanye and say,

"Whoa! Weren't they modest?"

(Laughter)

Remember Paris Hilton?

Exactly; she's hardly newsworthy today.

In line, much of the popular advice

that focuses on helping
people become leaders

nurtures and promotes
a narcissistic mindset:

"Love yourself, no matter what!"

"Don't worry about
what people think of you.

If you think you're great, you are!"

Unfortunately, this creates
a surplus of leaders

who are unaware of their limitations
and unjustifiably pleased with themselves.

They see leadership as an entitlement
and lack empathy and self-control,

so they end up acting without integrity
and indulging in reckless risks.

In contrast, the best leaders manage
to keep their narcissism in check.

They care a lot about other people,
including what they think of them,

and spend a great deal of time
worrying about their reputation,

which is why there are
very few scandals about them.

So, how then do we stop
incompetent men from becoming leaders?

The first solution is to follow the signs

and look for the qualities
that make people better leaders,

especially when they don't usually
make people leaders.

There is a pathological mismatch

between the attributes
that seduce us in a leader

and those that are needed
to be an effective leader.

If we want to improve
the performance of our leaders,

we should start by focusing
on the right traits.

Instead of falling for people who are
confident, narcissistic and charismatic,

we should promote people into leadership

because of their competence,
humility and integrity.

Incidentally, this -

(Applause)

this would also lead

to a higher proportion
of female than male leaders -

(Applause) (Cheers)

as large-scale scientific studies show
that women score higher than men

on measures of competence,
humility and integrity.

But the point is

that we would significantly improve
the quality of our leaders.

The second solution
is to distrust our instincts.

Most of us love our intuition,

but most people are
just not as intuitive as they think.

In that sense, intuition
is a bit like sense of humor.

Ninety percent of people think
they have a fantastic sense of humor.

How many people are actually funny?

Ten percent?

One implication is to focus less

on the impressions people make
during job or media interviews,

which are just an invitation
to project our own biases and prejudices.

Note that even when
we have good intentions,

it is not easy to overcome this.

For example, unconscious bias training
will rarely help you ignore

that the person in front of you
is white, female or attractive.

In fact, the more you try to suppress
certain thoughts from your mind,

the more prominent
and present they become.

So, the last thing we should be doing,

if we want to improve
the quality of our leaders

and help more women
get to leadership positions,

is to not lower our standards
when we select women,

but to elevate them
when we select male leaders.

This means not asking women
to behave more like incompetent men.

For example -

For example -

(Cheers) (Applause)

asking them to lean in

even when they don't have
the talents to back it up,

or spend more time on self-promotion
or advancing their own personal interests.

It also means not ruling out men

because they lack
the traditional masculine features

that match our flawed
leadership archetypes.

To the extent that we can do this,
we will end up with better leaders,

but progress starts
with each and every one of us.

If we want to improve
the competence level of our leaders,

we should first improve
our own competence

for judging and selecting leaders,

especially when they're men.

Thank you.

(Cheers) (Applause)