“We have created unspoken stereotypes of leaders as people – usually men – who seem oblivious to their weaknesses. And we have great tolerance for people – again, usually men – who are not as talented as they think.
Paradoxically, then the same psychological characteristics that enable men to emerge as leaders may actually be responsible for their downfall. What it takes to get the job is not just different from, but also sometimes the reverse of what it takes to do the job.
How odd, then that so much of the recent debate over getting women into leadership positions has focused on encouraging them to mimic the maladaptive behaviors of ambitions men.”¹
Confidence vs. Competence
This week I went to Flying Tee with a group of friends. Basically you hit golf balls as far as you can or in certain areas as games are created based on accuracy. They’re all tracked by a little kiosk to the side of your table. While, I’m not a golfer, there are real lessons in this game. One of the most obvious were that no matter how confident you were as to where you were aiming the ball, it rarely went exactly where you wanted it to go. My confidence was high. My competence was low. As Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic states in his book, “It may not surprise you that most of us overrate our skills and talents. Decades of research suggest that on virtually any dimension of ability, we tend to assume that we are better than we actually are.”³ And yet, confidence continues to get confused with competence. I was absolutely sure that I could get that golf ball to the predestined flag. Instead each time it veered to the right. In my mind I was great at my long distance game, in reality, not so much.
Carly Fiorina, author of Find Your Way and past CEO of Hewlett Packard, actually lists humility as an important quality in leadership. “Either we can choose humility, or humility will one day choose us. Far better to intentionally assume the posture of a learner, to ask questions, to admit what you do not know.”³ Over confidence can get in the way of humility in a leader. So basically some men are confident when they shouldn’t be and it’s misconstrued as competence. This in no way means that women should act like men, both genders have their own innate strengths. But, leadership is by no means gender specific. In fact according to a study by Alice Eagly, a professor at Northwestern University, “…women elicit more respect and pride from their followers, communicate their vision more effectively, better empower and mentor their subordinates, approach problem solving in a more flexible and creative way, and are fairer and more objective in their evaluation of direct reports.”4
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Sarah Jackson
Vigilant Poster Girl
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References:
- Why Do so Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? pg 14
- Why Do so Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? pg 22
- Find Your Way by Carly Fiorina pg 143
- Why Do so Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? pg 9
Influenced by songwriters like Lucinda Williams, Roseanne Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and Dar Williams, Sarah Popejoy’s songs blend storytelling with an Americana leaning groove. After living in Nashville for 10 years, Sarah moved back home to Tulsa, what Rolling Stone calls the next Austin, where she is producing her 3rd studio album called “The Oklahoma Storyteller”. Most of the album has been recorded at the newly renovated, world-class studio, The Church Studio, in Tulsa, Oklahoma which was previously owned by Leon Russell. All songs on the new album are written by Mrs. Popejoy, a previous award winner of the American Songwriter Magazine Lyric Contest and The Billboard Song Contest.
The intersections of I-40, The King of Trails (Highway 75), and the largest stretch of Route 66, Oklahoma figuratively and literally is the crossroads of the American Story. It was the end of the trail for many indigenous people during America's dark history of forced removal, birthplace of one of the biggest heroes of America's pastime, home to the struggles of those who lived and breathed the Dust Bowl, home of some of the biggest trendsetting influencers in modern American music, and the site of the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history. This is why the first album in The Oklahoma Storyteller series, is called, "The Oklahoma Storyteller: Crossroads of the American Story", set to be released Summer of 2024.