We can all think of examples of Messianic Leaders – that is, leaders who think they are infallible and all knowing. But we also know that they are fallible, the trouble is, they usually don’t know that. Instead, they push on with their huge self-belief, and drive their agenda onto their teams. Finally, there is some solid research that challenges this. The research is reported in the May 3 2021 online edition of Insight from the Kellogg school of business at Northwestern University (read it here).
A key finding of the research is that “a leader’s high status among their peers doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome for the projects they lead. Indeed, it can often be a liability. It seems that high status leaders tend to either have huge success or massive failure. The leader with moderate status tends to have the highest average level or project performance.
This fascinates me and the two reasons for this as reported are very interesting. The first is that the high-status leader is typically overburdened and has many people all demanding some of their time. Simply put, they are just too busy to give the project the quality time it deserves.
The second reason is that there is less scrutiny of them. That is, the people around them may not offer honest feedback.” Instead, their egos grow and those around them stop telling them the truth and are getting feedback they are always right because those around them are not prepared to offer alternative perspectives.
In contrast, the moderate status leader has not yet attained the position where they are surrounded by yes men and have just enough runs on the board to be trusted to be given more responsibility.
The article concludes with a quote from the research paper that is a challenge for leaders, “People only give us the feedback they perceive we’re comfortable taking, and if we’re not open to being told ‘no’, when we’re in a high-status position, people probable won’t tell us ‘No’ enough.” As a leader, are your people prepared to give you the honest feedback you need?