Why Do Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

 

Historically, most of our leaders have been men. Men are generally perceived as better leaders, even by women. But this is not always the case. There are still many leader roles out there played by incompetent men, and the reason is explained by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in his book, Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It).

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The answer to why do so many incompetent men become leaders is similar to why are there so few women leaders. The three popular explanations are: (1) women are not capable; (2) women are not interested; (3) women are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes. Conservatives and chauvinists tend to endorse the first; liberals and feminists prefer the third. But what if they all missed the big picture?

People in general commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as a sign of competence. Hence, we are fooled into believing that men are better leaders than women. In other words, when it comes to leadership, the only advantage that men have over women is the fact that manifestations of hubris – often masked as charisma or charm – are commonly mistaken for leadership potential, and that these occur more frequently in men than in women.

Men often think that they are much smarter than women. Yet arrogance and overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent - the ability to build and maintain high-performing teams, and to inspire followers to set aside their selfish agendas in order to work for the common interest of the group. The best leaders are usually humble.

“Women are better leaders,” says Tomas. “I am not neutral on this. I am sexist in favour of women. Women have better people skills, more altruistic, better able to control their impulses. They outperform men in university at graduate and undergraduate levels.”

Tomas is not biased. The competency of women, in terms of leadership skills, has been proven in research. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman’s research concluded that women in leadership positions are perceived just as – if not more – competent as their male counterparts.

The analysis of thousands of 360-degree reviews shows that women outscored men on 17 of the 19 capabilities that differentiate excellent leaders from average or poor ones.

Capability	Women’s percentile	Men’s percentile
Takes initiative	55.6	48.2
Resilience	54.7	49.3
Practices self-development	54.8	49.6
Drives for results	53.9	48.8
Displays high integrity and honesty	54.0	49.1
Develops others	54.1	49.8
Inspires and motivates others	53.9	49.7
Bold leadership	53.2	49.8
Builds relationships	53.2	49.9
Champions change	53.1	49.8
Establishes stretch goals	52.6	49.7
Collaboration and teamwork	52.6	50.2
Connects to the outside world	51.6	50.3
Communicates powerfully and prolifically	51.8	50.7
Solves problems and analyzes issues	51.5	50.4
Leadership speed	51.5	50.5
Innovates	51.4	51
Technical or professional expertise	50.1	51.1
Develops strategic perspective	50.1	51.4

Note: The t-values of all data are statistically significant.

Source: Zenger Folkman 2019

When comparing confidence ratings for men and women, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman found a large difference in those under 25. As people age their confidence generally increases; surprisingly, over the age of 60 male confidence declines. According to the research, men gain just 8.5 percentile points in confidence from age 25 to their 60+ years. Women, on the other hand, gain 29 percentile points.

If 90% of the employees competing for the same position are male, and you are making the decision about who to promote, and you have a highly qualified female and a highly qualified male, what are you inclined to do? It may seem safer to choose the man.

Women are far more competent than they think they are. What they need are more opportunities to prove themselves and boost their self-confidence!

 

Reference:

1.     Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? 22 August 2013, Harvard Business Review

2.     Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills, 25 June 2019, Harvard Business Review