How To Become A Better Leader

How to Become

a Better Leader

SPRING 2012 VOL.53 NO.3

REPRINT NUMBER 53312

Ginka Toegel and Jean-Louis Barsoux

Please note that gray areas reflect artwork that has been

intentionally removed. The substantive content of the ar-

ticle appears as originally published.

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When executives identify a leader they admire, they often underestimate how much

that individual may have struggled to curb certain patterns of behavior or certain dominant facets

of his or her personality. Great leaders make it look easy. But in truth, the majority of effective lead-

ers that we have observed — even so-called

naturals like virgin Group’s Richard Branson —

have worked hard on themselves.

the traits that serve an executive well in one

leadership position often do not work well in an–

other. Moving up the hierarchy into new roles or

environments, executives may find they need to

play up or rein in different facets of their personal-

ity. What were strengths can become weaknesses.

fortunately, advances in personality research

can provide executives with a much richer picture

of their personality. Psychologists have identified

countless traits that distinguish individuals from

one another. Research in recent decades has con–

verged toward five broad dimensions, each

comprising a cluster of traits. these dimensions

appear so robust that they have been dubbed the

Big five. now widely accepted, the same five fac–

tors are found consistently with different research

methods, as well as across time, contexts and cul–

tures. (see “the Making of the Big five,” p. 53.)

in contrast with other models of personality,

the Big five were derived from the everyday lan–

guage that people use to describe one another.

starting with a master list of nearly 18,000 person-

ality descriptors, the list was eventually boiled

down to five fundamental factors: need for stabil–

ity,1 extraversion, openness, agreeableness and

conscientiousness.

Virgin Group’s

Richard Branson

has said that he

was “shy and

retiring” before

starting the airline.

How to Become

a Better Leader

Good leaders make their work look easy. But the reality is that most

have had to work hard on themselves — by managing or compen–

sating for potentially career-limiting traits. to grow as an executive,

you need to recognize and manage your strongest tendencies.

By Ginka ToeGel and Jean-louis BaRsoux

The leading

quesTion

How can

leaders

recognize and

manage their

psychological

preferences?

Findings

executives need

to understand their

natural inclinations

in order to modify

them or compen–

sate for them.

Most successful

executives have

had to work hard

on themselves.

leaders need to

recognize their

outlier tendencies

and learn how

others perceive

those tendencies.

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Leadership

Of course, personality scores are not performance

scores; no personality traits lead directly to positive or

negative performance. however, those scores can

alert executives to areas that require attention. A trait

that is effective in one context may become redun–

dant or counterproductive when the situation

changes.2 (see “the curse of your Qualities,” p. 54.)

Common leadership Pitfalls

Leaders at all levels are under intense pressure to push

harder and go faster. under these conditions, execu–

tives sometimes have difficulty controlling their

inherent psychological preferences. And the higher

they go in an organization, the more their behaviors

come under scrutiny and influence others.

drawing on our extensive coaching work with se–

nior executives, we identify some of the most

common leadership pitfalls associated with high and

low scores on each of the Big five personality dimen–

sions. (see “About the Research.”) We offer a mix of

testimony from high-profile executives and anony-

mous quotes from executives we have coached to

illustrate those potential hazards and how to deal

with them. (see “Risks and Remedies, p. 55.”)

1. need for stability:

How Much stress is Too Much?

emotional stability can be a valuable quality for ex-

ecutives, helping them cope with stress, setbacks

and uncertainty. But it has its drawbacks, too.

You can be too composed. Poise under pressure

helps executives project a reassuring image when

others may be inclined to panic. Many executives we

coach pride themselves on their ability to remain

calm. the risk of this trait is that they can appear

uninspiring or lacking in urgency. they may have

difficulty understanding why others are worried.

Moreover, such executives may come across as

unduly confident. One strategy to counter overop–

timism is to create mental lists. Alongside three

hopeful reasons for why something will work out,

an executive prone to overoptimism should come

up with three gloomy reasons why it may not.

Or you can be too impatient — and overreact.

sometimes successful executives have a pronounced

tendency to be impatient. Robert iger, ceO of Walt

disney, has acknowledged in an article in the New

York Times that this is an area he’s worked on: “i’ve

learned, in general, to be more patient. … i’ve learned

to listen better and manage reaction time better. What

i mean by that is not overreacting to things that are

said to me, because sometimes it’s easy to do that.”3

certain executives we coach are less resilient to

stress and struggle to stay calm, reflecting a high need

for stability. too often, they deal with their anger by

suppressing it. the problem is that the anger can ac–

cumulate unseen and unexpressed until it spills over

on an unsuspecting victim. to avoid overreacting, ex–

ecutives need to find ways of emptying their anger

container before it reaches the brim. the simplest

method is to verbalize those negative emotions: “i feel

disappointed/frustrated/upset/irritated because … .”

Research in brain imaging suggests that putting our

feelings into words dampens those feelings.

Whether stating an emotion or writing it in a

journal, the simple act of expressing it activates a

region of the brain involved in forms of self-control

and self-regulation.4 it is a bit like drilling a hole in

the side of the anger container. executives some–

times worry that verbalizing emotion will make

them look weak. in fact, it conveys confidence. it

expels negative energy while providing others with

a better understanding of how the executive ticks.

2. extraversion:

How Much Company is Too Much?

extraversion reflects our desire to be with other

people and to draw energy from them. Leadership is

abouT The ReseaRch

the research for this article is based on findings from more than 2,000 in-depth con–

versations with international executives regarding their personality scores. these

interviews were conducted by us separately, while the executives were attending

leadership programs at Duke University, London Business school and imD.

We used the NeO Pi-R five-factor instrument, which has become the dominant

framework for researching personality and a staple ingredient in many leadership

development programs. (executives who have not been exposed to it can assess

themselves free on a noncommercial version of the test, iPiP, available at http://

www.personalitytest.net/ipip/ipipneo1.htm.)

the personality inventory comprises 30 facets, but not all of these are equally rel–

evant to the work environment. Based on our experience, particularly ginka toegel’s

previous work as a practicing psychotherapist, we spent 80% of the time in our one-

to-one sessions talking about 15 of those dimensions, which we believe represent

the top challenges for most executives.

the confidential nature of these sessions prevent us from naming the executives,

so we cite them anonymously. We also draw on publicly available interviews with

high-profile business figures. although we did not conduct Big Five personality inven–

tories with these leaders, their comments reflect key insights about personality traits

that they learned to manage as they moved into positions of leadership.

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about influencing people, so it can be an advantage

to be outgoing, assertive and energetic. there is

strong evidence that these characteristics help exec–

utives to be perceived as leaderlike.5 the association

with effective leadership is much weaker.6

You can be too assertive — or too energetic. high

scores on the extraversion dimension can trigger per–

ceptions that the executive is too talkative or

domineering — with the added implication that he or

and adapt their energy levels accordingly.

in particular, leaders with high energy levels need

to be aware that this disposition can create tension

with slower-paced people, especially those whom the

leaders regard as slow-minded or uncommitted.

Worse, these slower-paced individuals may then

underperform, living down to the executive’s dimin–

ished expectations.7 As a senior executive from the

finance sector told us: “Whenever i had to meet with

The Making oF The big Five

Psychologists have identified countless

personality traits and dimensions that dis-

tinguish us from one another. But research

in recent years has converged toward five

broad dimensions, each comprising a clus-

ter of traits that account for the majority of

the differences among individual personali-

ties. these dimensions have been dubbed

the Big Five.

although researchers did not set out to

find five dimensions, that is what emerged

from their analyses of the data. the line of

research began with gordon allport and Har–

old Odbert, who scoured dictionaries to

identify 17,953 words in everyday language

that people use to describe one another and

published their results in 1936. that master

list was reduced, in several stages, until it

was eventually boiled down to just five di–

mensions in 1961 by two U.s. air Force

researchers, who had rare access to main–

frame computers. Unfortunately, their

findings failed to reach an academic audi–

ence until the 1980s. at that point, the

introduction of the personal computer and

the availability of specialized software en–

abled other research teams to factor analyze

the data and confirm the existence of five

overarching domains. the first inventory

based on the Big Five factors was launched

by Paul t. Costa, Jr. and Robert R. mcCrae in

1985.i these five factors have since proved

a rich conceptual framework for integrating

diverse research findings and theory in per–

sonality psychology.

the stronger the trait, the more likely it is

that the person in question will display trait-

related behaviors in terms of how he or she

relates to people, solves problems, plans

work and expresses himself or herself. in–

vestigations into where those traits actually

come from suggest that around half of the

variance is inherited and the other half is ac–

quired through experience, especially in

early childhood.ii though major life crises

occasionally produce shifts on some person–

ality dimensions, most changes in adulthood

tend to be gradual and limited.iii

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