to win over Independents. Or perhaps Donald Trump's message of bringing back jobs and repealing Obamacare (due to its escalating costs to subscribers) was demonstrative of Social Responsibility.
The next biggest difference was in Empathy, with Democrats rating Empathy as a more important trait in a president compared to how Republicans rated it. Independents fell right between the two. Democrats want a president who can read the thoughts and feelings of others. This seems less important to Republicans. This is a skill that Bill Clinton is widely regarded as excelling in. A turning point here may have been Hillary Clinton's declaring Trump supporters as “deplorable” and “irredeemable.” Many Independents may have found it unacceptable to write off nearly 50 percent of the electorate.
Finally, the groups differed on Impulse Control. Democrats wanted a president higher in Impulse Control; that is, more able to manage what they say and their behavior. They prefer a president who is more thoughtful and doesn't shoot from the hip. Independents fall somewhere between the two, but slightly closer to Democrats. This factor is less important for Republicans, which may explain why many Republicans are not bothered by Trump's penchant for impulsive use of Twitter.
We then surveyed a new group of about 1,000 voters, once again almost equally divided among party affiliation. They were sampled with one of two alternate surveys, with 500 voters completing each survey. In one survey, Clinton's emotional intelligence was rated first; in the other survey, Trump's was rated.
As seen in Figure 2.2, neither candidate reaches the ideal president in terms of their emotional intelligence scores. They each have their peaks and valleys, though both Clinton and Trump score highest in Independence and Assertiveness.
Figure 2.2 Emotional Intelligence Ratings of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Compared to Ideal President
The biggest differences between the two are Clinton scoring higher in Impulse Control, Stress Tolerance, and Emotional Self-Awareness, while Trump scores higher in Emotional Expression and Assertiveness, and slightly higher in Independence. It could be that, contrary to what voters say they want, emotional expression and assertiveness are more attractive characteristics of political leaders. While I don't have the evidence here to support it, I would venture to speculate, based on my experience in screening hundreds of candidates for reality TV shows and following up on characteristics of successful contestants, that the combination of high emotional expression and assertiveness, and low impulse control may have been a contributing factor to Trump's victory. Just as Bill Clinton is a natural when it comes to demonstrating empathy, Donald Trump uses his well-honed skills to his advantage. His emotional expression (at times including mocking opponents), assertiveness (clearly expressing his likes and dislikes), and low impulse control (often drifting away from carefully scripted speeches) were a sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton's more often than not standard stump speeches. It helps explain, as one radio interviewer pointed out to me, how Trump filled stadiums with more than 20,000 people. In our president's study, we used other peoples' ratings to look at leadership, something that is becoming more common in leadership research and in organizations.
How Researchers Have Looked at Leadership
Kaiser and his colleagues further extended Lord's work on leadership into four different ways that researchers have looked at leaders. They have examined: (1) what causes leaders to stand out, (2) how the approval of leaders is determined, (3) what constitutes an effective leader, and (4) the performance/outcomes of teams.
The first, sometimes referred to as emergent leadership, has to do with standing out. The focus here has been on people who stand out in one way or another, that is, they are seen by others to be leader like. That can include everything from being tall, having a deep voice, being extraverted, having charisma, or any of a number of characteristics that “stand out.” If you ever worked on a team that was put together to work on a project without a designated leader, you have some understanding of this. Eventually, someone will be seen as the group leader, even if informally. Without a leader, any team will have a difficult time functioning.
If there is one place that “standing out” is seen as important, it has been in the corporate world. Unfortunately, selecting leaders who stand out may be a contributing factor to our problems in corporate leadership, as well as staff engagement, today. In an entertaining book Leonard Sayles,26 almost like a fly on the wall, has documented the steps one takes in climbing the corporate ladder in today's organizations. The sad truth is that it almost reads like the book used in the old Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Based on Sayles's observations in a number of organizations, starting from an entry position and getting promoted generally requires following a few rules. First, you want to avoid confrontation. People seen as argumentative or challenging the status quo are not seen as management material. Second, withholding suggestions for improvement in the organization will make you seem more agreeable. By favoring the status quo and resisting change, you are seen as supporting what management has put in place. Third, do not ask your boss to champion “unpopular” positions. Even if these positions could save the company thousands of dollars, you're better off keeping your head down. Fourth, and very importantly, always agree with your boss. If your boss sees you as disagreeable you are unlikely to get promoted. Fifth, spend your time on presentation skills and looking good. Dressing right, being well spoken, and wowing an audience – either in a boardroom or staff meeting – will get you noticed. And, of course, getting noticed as a smooth talker is what this type of leadership is about. Sixth, you have to be seen as having a strong desire to advance your career and look better than your peers. So it's important to drop hints to people with power that you could add a lot to the organization once you have the right position in the organization. Of course it helps to let them know how some of your coworkers may be slacking off, or just not up to snuff, in your humble opinion. And finally, always be working on your next advancement. Spend most of your time and energy, not on the tasks assigned to you per se, but on the activities and behaviors that are important to get that next promotion.
Unfortunately, as you can probably guess, being overly career focused does not lead to team or organizational success. One of the best examples of being overly focused on career has been documented by the former army officer and psychologist Norman Dixon.27 He researched the British military during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. What he found was astounding. Basically, the British officers' preoccupation with status and promotion caused the death of tens of thousands of soldiers and the loss of dozens of strategic positions. It was all about “looking good” instead of “doing good.” His observations from the military can easily be applied to many organizational settings even today.
The skills one uses in career success are usually unrelated to, and sometimes the opposite of, the skills a leader needs to achieve team success. For example, to manage your career you should focus on socializing or networking with others, politicking (paying attention to who is important and who isn't and how to get closer to those with power), and networking with outsiders. Basically, you should be building your reputation both inside and outside the organization so when it comes time for a promotion, or when someone you've networked with outside the organization hears of a new opportunity, you immediately come to mind as a likely candidate.
On the other hand, in order to be an effective team leader and get things done, a different set of skills come into play. These include communicating clearly and delivering the right messages to subordinates or team members. Getting things done means that everyone on your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them. You also need to know how to motivate others to work for a common cause. As
N. Dixon,
