05/20/2019

The Trouble With Extroverted Leaders

Sometimes, extroversion can be too much of a good thing

A good leader needs some kind of presence around the office—how else do you communicate that there’s an authority around? But it seems that while a little attitude can go a long way, too much of it can be counterproductive.

That’s the finding of a recent study from the Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business. Jia (Jasmine) Hu, an associate professor at the school, led research that involved two surveys. One was based on a group of undergraduate business students, the other on employees in a large retail firm in China. In both cases, the groups were broken up into small teams that managed themselves on a variety of tasks.

At the start, participants were asked to rate their own leadership abilities in terms of two traits that are associated with extroverts: “assertiveness” and “warmth” (friendliness, outgoingness, etc.)  At the end of the study a few months later, all participants were asked to rate their fellow team members. The researchers then determined who was best appreciated as a leader.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.