Personal qualities are central to successful leadership
Text: Ari Rytsy, Translation: Peter Herring, Pictures: Jakke Nikkarinen
A specialist in business and organisational psychology, Adrian Furnham has studied the personal qualities and capabilities central to success at work from a wide variety of perspectives. As a leading academic in the field and the author of numerous books and articles on the subject, he is very familiar with the challenges associated with leadership. Thanks to his experience as a consultant, he also has a realistic understanding of the actual demands placed on people in terms of success in the workplace.
In addition to the importance of an effective selection process in choosing the right leader for a business or organisation, Furnham highlights the significance of personal charisma and confidence. Many personal traits that make for a good leader can also have their potential downsides, however, he says. This has been particularly evident in the issue of leadership derailment, which Furnham describes as one of the most interesting areas of management research at the moment.
- This is a new area of study and one that has been almost taboo up until now. This is probably because companies can appear to be performing excellently from the outside, while internally a lot of rather questionable, even illegal, things can be going on, he says.
Furnham points to the example of the massive accounting fraud at Enron in the US that came to light in 2001 and led to the country’s largestever bankruptcy and the loss of 4,000 jobs. The leading American psychologist Robert Hogan is among those who have studied leadership derailment. One of the biggest problems in studying the phenomenon, says Furnham, is the difficulty in collecting the data needed.
- Few companies are willing to give out negative information on their operations. Companies’ concerns about the possible negative PR impact of any information they provide are a major issue here.
Academic research is valuable
Business failure can sometimes appear to be simply the result of changing market forces. Furnham stresses, however, that a company’s leaders and their personal traits and qualities also always play a part.
- Recent debate has often focused on emotional intelligence as the most important aspect of what makes a leader successful, but no one has really been able to confirm this assertion on the basis of reliable research data.
As an academic, Furnham underlines the value of scientific research in understanding what really makes for true leadership and success. Too many companies rely on the ‘just add water and stir’ management recipes marketed by marketing gurus, which he describes as junk food. While they can meet an organisation’s temporary need for change, they rarely, if ever, promote positive, structured longterm development.
- It’s a question of supply and demand. Some organisations simply do not want to be bothered with finding out what achieving real change involves. Smarter companies, in contrast, are willing to approach things from a much wider perspective, he says.
In today’s world of ‘isms’, some isms clearly succeed better in the marketplace than others. Furnham sees cultural factors as playing their own part here. In Europe, for example, people tend to value more down-to-earth, rational approaches, while more emotional ones, even verging on the evangelical, are likely to win hearts in the US.
- Organisations need to remember that there are no quick fixes to these kinds of problems. It’s also critically important to choose the right people for the right positions. Too often, however, companies recruit people they simply like, rather than the people their organisations actually need.
Furnham also highlights the importance of knowing the business concerned when it comes to successful leadership and individual success. People in finance and marketing departments, for example, generally have a better overall understanding of a business than those in specialised IT positions. His list of key personal qualities includes a proactive willingness to learn new things, motivation, intelligence, and honesty.
Furnham divides intelligence into speed at solving problems and a more philosophical understanding of the issues involved in a particular problem or challenge; the latter is a quality that tends to grow with experience and age.
- Intelligence here means, above all, the ability to adapt to different situations and see the fundamentals that drive them. As such, it is the best single indicator of likely future performance. Individuals rarely have an accurate view of their own intelligence, and either over- or underestimate their capabilities in this area. 360 degree feedback has proved useful in helping people clarify their own views of themselves.
Furnham has studied the qualities in leaders that can, in worst-case scenarios, endanger the effectiveness of an entire workplace. The negative impact these qualities can have are often reinforced when an organisation lacks a clear role model of what makes a good manager and leader. In extreme cases, rewarding bad management practice, by default or accident, can also contribute to the problem.
- An individual’s personality and capabilities typically shape their interests and lead them into particular types of positions. People in sales, for example, are often very outgoing and energetic personalities. The downside here, however, is that these types of people are often poor at following instructions and do not work well in teams.
Good team players, however, often lack the ability to take risks and the decisiveness needed when faced with difficult decisions. Unless these factors are taken into account or compensated for, they can be very counter- productive. Over-confidence is often linked to narcissistic traits. Paradoxically, these traits can often provide the springboard for someone starting out on their career and contribute to them being seen as decisive and persuasive.
- Careful choices when making appointments and regular 360 degree feedback surveys can help identify the right people at the right time. And having the right people in the right positions at the right time is very important to an organisation’s success. Outside consultants can provide a valuable additional perspective here to supplement and extend an organisation’s own understanding, says Furnham.