The Dark and Light Side of

Leadership

Dr. Marilyn Buckner

copyright Hogan Assessments

The UCF Leadership Edge

Learning Community
- 3rd in a Series –

Friday, February 13th, 2004

Repeated on March 9 th, 2004

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 Key Ideas:
• Positive Leadership Traits Predict
Organizational Effectiveness
• Negative Leadership Traits can be measured
• People leave organizations because of Jerk
Behavior
• Positive Leadership Traits can be measured
• Most positive Traits can be developed
*Based on the Research of Dr. Robert Hogan

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 Personality and Leadership
• The leadership literature is huge. Can be
separated into two traditions.

o The Troubadour Tradition: Opinions of

gurus and former CEOs.
o The Academic Tradition: Empirical
research from Academia.

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Evaluating the Two Traditions
• The Troubadour Tradition is entertaining
but unscientific.

• The Academic Tradition is scientific but

often trivial.

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 How to Define and Evaluate
Leadership
• Leadership should be defined in terms of
the ability to build and maintain a high
performing team.

• Leadership should be evaluated in terms of

the performance of the team relative to the
other teams with which it competes.

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 What Do We Actually Know
About Leadership?
OUTLINE:
• Competency models (Leadership Domain Model)
• Implicit leadership themes
• Good to great themes
• Personality predicts leadership
• Bad managers alienate workers
• Base rate of incompetent managers

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WARREN BENNIS, LEADERSHIP GURU

The ruling quality of leaders, adaptive capacity, is

what allows true leaders to make nimble decisions
that bring success. Adaptive capacity is also what
allows some people to transcend the setbacks and
losses that come with age and to reinvent themselves
again and again.

(Inside the Mind of the Leader, January 2004.

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 The Leader Domain
Model:Competencies

• Intrapersonal skills: self-control (employability)

• Interpersonal skills: social skill (team work)
• Business skills: job fit
• Leadership skills: persuading, delegating,
inspiring
• Increasing levels of trainability

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 Implicit Leadership Themes
• Integrity: keep one’s word, don’t play favorites (Kouzes
& Posner)
• Decisiveness: make good decisions quickly
• Competence: be good at the business
• Vision: explain why it matters
Warren Bennis, “Leaders are individuals who create shared
meaning have a distinct voice, have the capacity to adapt,
and have integrity.”

Bennis - “Founding chairman, University of Southern

California Leadership Institute - Author - On Becoming a
Leader”

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 Good to Great Themes
• CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies with 15
years sustained performance:

– Amazingly persistent
– Humble (Level 5 Leader, Jim Collins)

Example: Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP

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 Personality and Leadership
• Research shows overwhelmingly that personality
(reputation) can be defined in terms of five broad
dimensions called:
• Adjustment (Emotional IQ), *
• Ascendance (Extrovert/Introvert),
• Likeability (Interpersonal Sensitivity), *
• Prudence (Planful),
• and Intellect/Openness (Innovativeness). *
• This is called the Five- Factor Model.
• (Common names in parentheses)
• Global Factors from CCL Research --see *

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 Predicting Leader Success

A recent and definitive meta-analysis (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002

shows that 4 of the 5 dimensions of the Five-Factor Model predict ratings

of leadership independent of the organization or occupational specialty.

The best predictor is Adjustment (Emotional IQ) and

the weakest is Likeability (Interpersonal Sensitivity).

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 Leadership and Employee
Satisfaction
• A recent and definitive meta-analysis
(Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002) shows
three important things:
1. The personalities of managers directly
influence employee satisfaction.
2. When employee satisfaction is high, positive
business outcomes result.
3. When employee satisfaction is low, negative
business outcomes result.

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 The Base Rate of Incompetent
Management
• Bad* managers alienate employees and create negative
business outcomes.
• What is the base rate of bad managers in today’s business?
• Depending on specifics, we estimate 50% to 75%
• They are hired based on technical skill and business
knowledge, not on leadership skill. And they interview well.
*A new definition of Bad - Lack of Integrity
Example: Ken Lay, former CEO Enron
Michael Blumenthal, former CEO Unisys “When did I make my greatest
hiring mistake? When I put intelligence and energy ahead of morality.”

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 Dark Side of Leadership
Dimensions of Managerial/Leadership
Incompetence:Jerk Behaviors
• Excitable: Erratic emotional outbursts (Ted Turner—AOL Time
Warner) EQ can be learned but only by those who have an aptitude-
- John Mayer, Ph.D. (original inventor of EQ)
• Cautious: Risk averse, won’t make decisions (United Nations) (Some
CFO’s)
• Skeptical: Mistrustful and vindictive (argumentative ) Ex:Samuel
Goldwyn, I want you to tell me exactly what’s wrong with me and MGM
even if it means losing your job. ------(People are afraid to confront a
skeptical leader.)
• Reserved: Poor communicator, insensitive to morale issues, aloof (
Examples:Clint Eastwood, Howell Raines deposed executive editor NY
Times (also arrogant)
• Leisurely: Passive-Aggressive, independent (Information technologists)

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 Dark Side of Leadership
Dimensions of Managerial /Leadership
Incompetence:Jerk Behaviors (continued)
• Bold (Arrogant): Narcissistic feelings of entitlement (Bill Clinton),
(some international cultures such as Dutch and Finnish do not like Bold
- like humility)

• Mischievous (Risk Taking): Careless about commitments, constant

lying (Politicians) ex. GE decisions (pocket change to make mistakes)

• Colorful: Manages by crisis (Dennis Kozlowski, CEO Tyco)

• Imaginative: Bad ideas and impulsive decisions (Dell--Flop of

Olympic line desktop computers)

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 Dark Side of Leadership
Dimensions of Managerial/Leadership
Incompetence:Jerk Behaviors (continued)
• Diligent: Over-controlling micro-manager (Control as a leadership style is
more acceptable in certain cultures but delegation is critical) (Ex:Martha
Stewart)
• Dutiful: Too concerned about pleasing superiors (Enron, MCI executives and
Board Members) Andrea Lung, CEO Avon (Chinese decent)
Examples:
“Don’t say yes until I have finished talking”, Movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck
NASA Challenger & Columbia disasters (people don’t feel comfortable
challenging leaders).
GE Joke- If the chairman asks for a cup of coffee, someone is liable to go out and
buy Brazil.

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 Bright Side of Leadership:
Positive Behaviors
• Adjustment:* Leadership composure under stress* Emotional IQ (empathy,
transparent, self awareness, optimism, tolerance, self-confidence)
• Ambition: Goal Achievement (Ernest Shackleton, Polar Explorer, Larry Bossidy
- Allied Signal & Honeywell)
• Inquisitiveness: Innovation, strategic thinking (Michael Dell; Scott McNeeley
(Sun Microsystems); Bill Gates; Steve Jobs (Apple), Gary Hamel; Andy Grove,
(Intel)
• Others: Interpersonal Sensitivity* Roche CEO Franz Humer highly skilled at
detecting subtle interpersonal skills
• Planning and Learning approach traits: Ralph Larsen J & J CEO - 2 years
to learn IT.
• *Kets de Vries (Dir.,Insead Leadership Institute) - “The first thing I look for is
emotional IQ - (self observation, self-reflection, etc). HBR, Jan 2004

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 Components of Organizational
Effectiveness
• Talented team members—found through good
selection procedures
• Motivated team members—developed through
good management
• Good management—developed by good senior
leadership
• An effective strategy—developed by good senior
leadership
• Monitoring systems to keep track of the first four.

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 Last Thoughts
• Leadership matters—the persons in charge of
organizations can make or ruin them.
• Good leadership is a function of personality.
• Bad leadership is a function of personality.
• Every organization has problems with selection
procedures, with poor managers, with ineffective
strategies, and with poorly designed monitoring
systems.
• The best organizations are the ones that make the
fewest mistakes.

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