I think there's no question that we are still
promoting at least as many incompetent men
as we were when I wrote the original article,
"Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?"
I am very grateful to incompetent men
who keep succeeding.
Because every time that somebody that
is perceived as incompetent or not very competent gets
elected or wins an executive position in a company,
the article then goes back to number one.
If you seem aggressive, very assertive, bold, abrasive,
overconfident, there's a strong probability
that people attribute competence to you,
especially if you're a man.
I think there is clearly a disconnect
between the attributes that seduce us in a leader--
things like confidence, charisma, even narcissism
and greed--
and those that are needed to be an effective leader.
So the data are pretty consistent here.
Women outperform men in measures of leadership-- self-awareness,
humility, emotional intelligence,
agreeableness, coachability, connecting
with others, mentoring others, managing others, and KPIs
like revenues and profits.
That's not to say that there aren't
any men who may display more empathy and coachability
than women.
Sure.
Some women are taller than some men.
But on average, men are taller than women.
And on average, men lead in a more absentee way
are more hands off and more centered on themselves.
And women tend to be more centered on their teams
and subordinates.
So
So on average, women display these better leadership traits
more often.
Women ought not to change their behaviors in order
to become leaders.
The world has no shortage of people
who lean in when they don't have the talents to back it up.
In fact, if you're really busy doing your work,
managing your team, and delivering results,
you probably don't have time to blow your own trumpet
and lean in.
Having said that, women do face a kind of double-blind dilemma.
We complain about them when they don't lean in
because they don't behave like overconfident men.
And when they do, we also complain,
because they seem pathologically ambitious
and we're scared of them.
This is the fundamental paradox in which women are trapped.
The solution to improving the quality of our leaders
is not to make it easier for incompetent women
to become leaders, but to make it harder for incompetent men,
so that we actually reward people for the potential
and talent they have, as opposed to teaching them to emulate
some pseudo-Machiavellian manipulative strategies
that won't elevate the quality of leadership.
If you're a manager and you want to combat this problem,
there are some simple basic rules that everybody can apply.
Fundamentally, you need to have the humility
to distrust your instincts.
Develop an individual direct connection with others.
Pay attention to what they're doing.
Use others as a validation point to evaluate
people's performance.
And use data, assessments, evidence
to make decisions, as opposed to just follow your gut feeling.
So if anything, I'm proactively asking people
to discriminate more against incompetent men
who want to be leaders.