The Dangers of Charismatic Leaders

2010 November 26 By

In a post called, “Lend Me Your Wallets:” Research on the Link Between Charismatic CEOs and Stock Price, Featuring Steve Jobs, Professor Robert Sutton asked his readers about the virtues and dangers of charismatic leaders.

Because my response would have been too lengthy to fit in the comment section of his Work Matters blog, I decided instead to post about charismatic leadership here on my WorkplacePsychology.Net blog and then link it as a comment to Dr. Sutton’s post.

According to Professor Gary Yukl (2010), charismatic leaders are self-confident and possess a strong conviction in his/her own beliefs and ideals. Charismatic leaders are able to influence their followers by (i.e., their virtues):

  1. Articulating a vision, one that’s appealing and optimistic,
  2. Using strong, expressive forms of communication when talking about the vision,
  3. Taking personal risks and making self-sacrifices to attain the vision,
  4. Communicating high expectations,
  5. Expressing optimism and confidence in followers,
  6. Modeling behaviors consistent with the vision,
  7. Managing follower impressions of the leader,
  8. Building identification with the group or organization, and
  9. Empowering followers.

On the flip side, Dr. Yukl (2010) also listed some negative consequences of charismatic leaders (i.e., the dangers/downsides):

(1) Excessive confidence and optimism blind the leader to real dangers.

For instance, as a charismatic leader, I don’t think Steve Jobs (Apple’s founder and current CEO, but was one time fired from Apple) ever saw himself being forced out of the company he founded. But that’s exactly what happened on September 16, 1985 when he left Apple. His feud with John Sculley, the co-CEO who Jobs himself had lured away from Pepsi (with the now famous line, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”) resulted in the Apple board’s decision that he was just too volatile to lead as CEO and so Jobs quit.

(2) Dependence on the leader inhibits development of competent successors.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, during the period surrounding Steve Jobs’ health scare (which started in mid-2004 and lasted until his successful liver transplant in 2009), Apple stocks dropped. “One reason for the market’s anxiety — Apple shares shed more than 56% in 2008 — is that the company has been silent about its succession plan” (Hiltzik, Jan 2009).

“Selecting Jobs’s successor will be challenging, given the degree to which he is tied to Apple’s identity.” (Knowledge@Wharton)

(3) Failure to develop successor creates an eventual leadership crisis.

“No American CEO is more intimately identified with his company’s success. Jobs is deeply involved in every facet of Apple development and design, and he’s justly admired for his instinct for the human-factor engineering of Apple products” (Hiltzik, Jan 2009).

“What remains to be seen is whether a post-Jobs Apple will retain the corporate traits that made the company successful with its iconic leader at the helm.” (Knowledge@Wharton)

“Ultimately, some leaders are so irreplaceable that no amount of succession planning will ensure a seamless power transition. ‘In some sense, with the charismatic person, it’s difficult to prepare a successor, because they are bigger than life,’ says John Larrere, general manager at the management consultant Hay Group.” (Ante & McGregor, 2009)

(4) Denial of problems and failures reduces organizational learning.

One of the biggest drawbacks for charismatic leaders is their failure to sometimes learn. Perhaps, they too, fall prey to their own charms and charisma.

This lesson can be illustrated with Apple’s handling of the iPhone 4’s infamous antenna issue (which, when gripped a certain way near the antenna, would often drop calls). Apple has not admitted any mistakes on its part and instead said that other phones (by competing carriers) also drop calls when gripped a certain way near the antenna. Rather than redesigning or offering a permanently solution, Apple decided to offer free cases which would cover the sensitive area to lessen the dropped calls. Consumer Reports, an independent, non-profit organization that test products, has refused to recommend the iPhone 4 contending that “putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us. We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone’s reception issues.”

Interestingly, an Apple senior antenna engineer, told Jobs his concern in 2009, that the iPhone 4′s external antenna could cause reception problems. Even though Apple engineers knew there could be problems with the iPhone 4′s antenna design, their concerns were dismissed because Jobs liked the design. In addition, a Wall Street Journal article stated, “For at least two years, multiple iPhone carriers lodged complaints with the company that its phone doesn’t work well in making calls and doesn’t hold a wireless signal for a voice call as well as other devices.”

Despite all these warnings, Apple (under Steve Jobs’ charismatic leadership) launched the iPhone 4, flaws included.

References

Ante, S.E., & McGregor, J. (January 2009). Apple Succession Plan: Nobody’s Business? BusinessWeek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2009/tc20090115_863327.htm

Burrows, P., & Guglielmo, C. (July 2010). Apple Engineer Told Jobs IPhone Antenna Might Cut Calls. Bloomberg. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-15/apple-engineer-said-to-have-told-jobs-last-year-about-iphone-antenna-flaw.html

Consumer Reports

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-iphone-4-antenna-issue-iphone4-problems-dropped-calls-lab-test-confirmed-problem-issues-signal-strength-att-network-gsm.html

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/09/apple-iphone4-free-bumper-cases-program-ending-finishing-dropped-calls-antenna-design-issue-problem-iphone-4-cases-giveaway.html

Hiltzik, M. (Jan 2009). Apple’s condition linked to Steve Jobs’ health. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/05/business/fi-hiltzik5

Kahney, L. (October 2010). John Sculley: The Secrets of Steve Jobs’ Success. Cult of Mac. Retrieved from http://www.cultofmac.com/john-sculley-the-secrets-of-steve-jobs-success-exclusive-interview/21572

Kane, Y.I., & Sheth, N. (July 2010). Apple Knew of iPhone Issue. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704682604575369311876558240.html

Knowledge@Wharton. Job-less: Steve Jobs’s Succession Plan Should Be a Top Priority for Apple. Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2134

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.

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Filed Under: Executive Coaching, Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , ,

How Our Nation’s Academic Report Card Impacts the U.S. Workforce

2010 November 20 By

A few days ago, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released its “The Nation’s Report Card: Grade 12 Reading and Mathematics 2009 National and Pilot State Results.” The Nation’s Report Card highlights the academic achievement of students in the United States.

Finding: One in 4 High School Seniors Can’t Read at Basic Level

The good news is that scores did not go down. However, and this is alarming, there is not much to get too excited about. As Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education aptly stated, “Today’s report suggests that high school seniors’ achievement in reading and math isn’t rising fast enough to prepare them to succeed in college and careers.”

Indeed, while the overall reading scores were slightly up, it is still four points lower than what it was in 1992. Likewise, math scores were also up but not by much. As the ABC article (Claiborne, 2010) highlighted, only 38% of 12th graders were proficient in reading and 26 percent were proficient in math.

According to the report, 62% of students plan on attending a four-year college or university after they graduate from high school. What’s troubling is the discrepancy between what students want to do compared to where they’re currently at. “The data indicates many of those students aren’t even performing at the high school level, much less prepared to go to college” (Claiborne, 2010).

What’s more, previous research has found that students typically read less often while in school versus workers on the job, that students are less competent readers, face materials that are easier, and use strategies that may be less effective than employees in the workplace (Mikulecky, 1982).

In “The ILL-Prepared U.S. Workforce,” employers were asked to rate how prepared they believed new workers coming into their organizations were, more than one-third of the 217 employer respondents (33.9%) reported that their newly hired high school graduates are deficiently prepared.

Because employers don’t generally see themselves as being responsible for the newly entrants’ work readiness, they instead depend on the educational system to take on this task. While I don’t have any quick solutions, one thing is clear – students who graduate from high school ill-equipped to enter the workforce will have a negative impact not only on their own futures but also the future of the U.S. economy.

References

Casner-Lotto, J., Rosenblum, E., & Wright, M. (2009). The ILL-Prepared U.S. Workforce: Exploring the challenges of employer-provided workforce readiness training. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Documents/BED-09Workforce_RR.pdf also from http://corporatevoices.org/system/files/Ill_preparedWorkforce_RR.pdf

Claiborne, R. (Nov 2010). ‘Nation’s Report Card’ Shows American Student Struggling With Reading, Math. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/nations-report-card-shows-american-students-struggle-reading/story?id=12186446

Mikulecky, L. (1982). Job Literacy: The Relationship between School Preparation and Workplace Actuality. Reading Research Quarterly, 17(3), 400-419.

National Center for Education Statistics (2010). The Nation’s Report Card: Grade 12 Reading and Mathematics 2009 National and Pilot State Results (NCES 2011–455). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.

Filed Under: Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: ,

Elements of Effective Persuasion

2010 November 12 By

Harvard Business Review’s Answer Exchange shares some elements of effective persuasion:

  • Credibility. The more trust you earn and the more expertise you accumulate, the more credible you and your ideas become.
  • An understanding of the audience. This includes identifying decision makers, key stakeholders, and influencers; analyzing your audience’s likely level of receptivity; and determining how the people you aim to persuade will make the decisions you hope to influence.
  • A solid argument that is logical, consistent, and fact-based. Your argument should favorably address the interests of those you hope to persuade, eliminate or neutralize competing alternatives, and recognize the politics of the situation. Ideally, your argument should also be endorsed by objective and authoritative third parties.
  • Effective communication. You should communicate your position clearly and succinctly in a way that demonstrates your credibility and takes into account your audience and their specific needs.

Reference

Originally posted on HBR Answer Exchange (now defunct); Adapted from the book chapter Persuasion I: The Basics, Harvard Business Press

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , ,

Workplace Incivility Causes Mistakes and Even Kills

2010 November 5 By

Research on workplace incivility (for example, emotional abuse or rudeness in the workplace) revealed that if someone is rude to you at work or if you witness rudeness you are more likely to make mistakes.

In “The No Asshole Rule,” Bob Sutton shared that nurses reported being demeaned at an alarmingly high rate. “A 1997 study of 130 U.S. nurses…found that 90% reported being victims of verbal abuse by physicians during the past year” (p. 21). A 2003 study of 461 nurses revealed that in the past month 91% had experienced verbal abuse, often from physicians (Sutton, 2007).

In a previous post entitled Workplace Incivility Hurts Employees & Businesses, I shared Pearson & Porath (2009) findings that 1 in 5 people in their study claimed to be targets of incivility from a coworker at least once a week. About 2/3 said they witnessed incivility happening among other employees at least once a month. 10% said they saw incivility among their coworkers every day. Workplace incivility (e.g., rudeness) can have a negative effect on the efficiency and productivity of the organization (Pearson, Andersson, & Wegner, 2001).

“[W]hen people feel mistreated and dissatisfied with their jobs, they are unwilling to do extra work to help their organizations, to expend ‘discretionary effort.’” (Sutton, 2007, pp. 40-41).

“A hostile environment erodes cooperation and a sense of commitment to high-quality care…and that increases the risk of medical errors.” -Dr. Peter B. Angood, chief patient safety officer at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

So what?

Porath and Erez (2007) discovered that being the victim of rudeness can impair your cognitive skills. Tarkan (2008), writing in the New York Times, said that rude, bad behaviors on the part of physicians lead to “medical mistakes, preventable complications and even death.” Tarkan added that a “survey by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit organization, found that 40 percent of hospital staff members reported having been so intimidated by a doctor that they did not share their concerns about orders for medication that appeared to be incorrect. As a result, 7 percent said they contributed to a medication error.”

Pearson & Porath (2009) say that a negative by-product of a toxic, uncivil work environment is that employees no longer feel psychologically safe, and as a result are less likely to seek or accept feedback. “They will quit asking for help, talking about errors, and informing one another about potential or actual problems” (pp. 81-82).

In the tragic case of Air Florida Flight 90, analysis of the black-box recordings revealed that the copilot tried several times to warn the captain of possible dangers. Unfortunately, the warnings of the copilot were dismissed as unimportant by the captain. Seventy-two out of seventy-seven people onboard, along with the copilot and pilot, died (Pearson & Porath, 2009).

Sound Bite: “Incivility doesn’t shock people into better focus. It robs concentration, hijacks task orientation, and impedes performance” (Pearson & Porath, 2009, p. 155). What’s really alarming is that incivility can actually put lives at risk or even cause deaths.

References

Pearson, C., Andersson, L., & Wegner, J. (2001). When workers flout convention: A study of workplace incivility. Human Relations, 54(11), 1387-1419.

Pearson, C. & Porath, C. (2009). The cost of bad behavior: How incivility is damaging your business and what to do about it. New York, NY: Portfolio.

Porath, C., & Erez, A. (2007). Does rudeness really matter? The effects of rudeness on task performance and helpfulness. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1181-1197.

Sutton, R.I. (2007). The no asshole rule: Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn’t. New York: Business Plus.

Tarkan, L. (2008). Arrogant, Abusive and Disruptive — and a Doctor. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/02rage.html

Filed Under: Attitudes & Emotions, Coaching, Coaching Psychology, Executive Coaching, Happy & Unhappy, Health & Wellness, Incivility, Leadership, Meaningful Work, Occupational Health Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Stress, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,