The Influence of Personality and Behavior on Leadership

Although different theories around leadership propose that leaders are revealed through certain traits, or created by developing certain skills, or exhibit certain behaviors that evince both inherent traits and developed skills, I propose that, beyond leadership assessments based on nature or nurture questions, leadership is a social construct based on perceptions held by leaders, followers and the respective societies (and cultural constructs) in which they all operate. Before delving into the exploration of leadership as a construct I will address theories relating to born and made leaders from the perspective of one of the most salient traits associated with leadership in management and psychology literature: extroversion. 

Born leaders are believed to be extroverts first and foremost. According to Riggio in Psychology Today, “research suggests that extraversion is consistently associated with leadership.” In general terms, our society’s leadership construct assumes that leaders must be visible and lean forward. Other literature on leadership mentions qualities that are inherently linked to extraversion: Germain’s taxonomy identifies traits like “charismatic, outgoing, driven, self-assured, confident,” which are qualities that are only expressed and understood from the perspective of extroversion. Many leaders who seek to develop key skills are often urged to learn how to be extroverts. Leadership development courses and texts often include strategies that are meant to help people develop greater extroversion in the understanding that this will make them better leaders. Leadership and business publications and websites are rife with instructions and tips advising introverts on how to become more extroverted. The message is clear: introversion is not a desirable trait in business and it is not conducive to leadership. If you are seeking to become a leader, you cannot be an introvert – your leadership development path requires that you adjust your personality and behavior to be more outgoing.

This all seems to be accepted conventional wisdom around leadership, but let us take a step back. Where does this come from? And does extroversion really make you a better leader? The answer is that societies have created a construct that bakes in a bias towards extroverts from early on in life. Whether or not this is a function of the evolution of our species and societies, it seems like a largely superfluous preference today. Extrovert bias in business is clear and it permeates organizations depriving them of the valuable contributions that introverts may have. In my own organization, the bias toward extroversion is multi-layered: my supervisor is expected to make presentations on her staff to build a case for bonuses come annual performance evaluations. She literally has to compete for our bonuses with other managers in a format that clearly favors extroverts. So it’s not just that I have to become an extrovert to be acknowledged for my work and leadership potential, my supervisor also has to be an extrovert to make sure her staff’s performance is acknowledged by the organization. What’s more, none of this is directly related to the performance of our work-related duties or the attainment of our goals. The main weakness of a leadership construct where extroversion is overrated is summed up quite nicely by Charles Bukowski in his memorable quote: Many extroverts are full of confidence without much else to support it. The epitome of this position is the latest US election where a highly incompetent, inarticulate and unintelligent person ran an overconfident campaign that relied mostly on his personality. He is now the leader of the most powerful country in the world, making him the most influential person on Earth. 

Furthermore, introverts possess inherent qualities in their own right that are ideally suited for leadership. Jeff Boss (2017) reminds us that prominent successful leaders like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are introverts – that’s a significant proportion of the world’s richest most successful people, rendering the link between extroversion and success largely moot – and goes on to list a series of qualities that introverts possess that position the as natural leaders: prudence, good listeners, quiet thoughtful nature, humility, at ease with uncertainty, and able to perform autonomously in an effective way. 

Leadership is a social construct determined by perceptions held by leaders, followers and the societies in which they operate. The current construct favors extroversion and deems it a required trait good leader’s share, despite overwhelming evidence of the inherent value of introversion that is exemplified by introverts who are the most successful people on Earth. Most importantly, the factor that determines leadership is not whether leaders are born or made, but whether the prevailing perception in the particular context in which leaders and followers operate points in one direction or the other. From this perspective it’s not so important whether we identify natural leaders or develop potential ones; what matters most is understanding prevailing perceptions on leadership and managing them to ensure that leader and follower perceptions are optimally aligned.