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If Humble People Make the Best Leaders, Why Do We Fall for Charismatic Narcissists? (hbr.org)
Numerous studies and real-life examples show humble, unassuming people as leaders improve the performance of a company in the long run. The humity, exuded by these leaders, can be contagious. Yet, instead of following the lead of these unsung heroes, an article on Harvard Business Review argues, we appear hardwired to search for people who exude charisma. The article looks into why such is the case: One study suggests that despite being perceived as arrogant, narcissistic individuals radiate "an image of a prototypically effective leader." Narcissistic leaders know how to draw attention toward themselves. They enjoy the visibility. It takes time for people to see that these early signals of competence are not later realized, and that a leader's narcissism reduces the exchange of information among team members and often negatively affects group performance. It's not that charismatic and narcissistic people can't ever make good leaders. In some circumstances, they can. For example, one study found that narcissistic CEOs "favor bold actions that attract attention, resulting in big wins or big losses." A narcissistic leader thus can represent a high-risk, high-reward proposition.
Because we're idiots.
As this is something that I've thought about for some time. I believe the big reason here is not that people are stupid, or uninformed, I think it's more a matter of where they fall for the fuzzy decisions in life, either on the more logical side of things or emotional. Generally humble, quiet, non abrasive types tend to not evoke the same kinds of emotional response that you would see with charismatic narcissists. A fantastic example of this was the 2012 presidential election, emotions ruled.
"We" didn't fall for the narcissist. "We" didn't fall for the fake news. "We" weren't all oblivious to the Russia connections. Some of us recognize Hannity, Limbaugh and the like as the entertainers they are, appealing to people's basest instincts, responding to daily requests of the GOP, and accepting advertising dollars from companies linked to Russia.
Who knew. All I see is an orange baboon slinging his own figurative feces at onlookers.
NEWSFLASH: People are fucking stupid.
Many analyses fall short because they assume that we think these things through logically. On the contrary, this is an area in which hardwired instincts in the lower, more primitive parts of our brains take over almost completely. And one of the most fascinating things about human beings is how very clever people can be completely sure they are doing something for logical reasons, when in fact they are being driven by blind instinct. (Dr Freud was onto that fact with regard, mostly, to sex; and Dr Adler with regard to power).
Homo sapiens evolved over at least two million years as a hunter-gatherer, living in groups ranging probably from family-sized to a maximum of perhaps 200 - possibly depending on the density of food sources. Such small groups would be critically dependent on effective and experienced command. Just like other land animals that live in herds, packs or prides, human beings instinctively recognize the vital necessity of social structure in the form of a well-defined pecking order and a universally accepted leader (alpha male or female). It's far better to have a relatively poor but generally accepted leader than no leader, when the group may break up or even start fighting each other. In that case they probably all die, and all their genes are lost.
So one of history's observations - that people are often very willing to greet and cheer a "man on a white horse" - shouldn't be so surprising at all. And the converse of accepting and supporting the leader is usually hating and fearing outsiders. Unfortunately, this is one of many respects in which our ancient instincts, which served us well as hunter-gatherers, are now extremely counter-survival. (Although it's not at all clear that there is any good solution to the problem of governing human societies larger than a few thousand).
Here is a good essay on a related topic: http://fredoneverything.org/th...
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
The appearance of competence is not the same as actual competence.
Actual competence is difficult to assess when the outcome measures are subjective.
Incompetent yet successful people are more likely to be proficient at masking their incompetence through lying and psychopathic manipulation.
They tell us what we want to hear, not what is right. Public speaking, leadership, campaigning are skills like any other fortunately.
To put it another way, we evolved from chimp-like apes and are still merely apes. Just because we can talk and use symbols to communicate doesn't make us non-ape-like. We still collectively follow the shiny red ball at the expense of logic (or a shiny orange ball of fur).
I see at work almost half of what's done is waste due to lack of planning and office politics. The "leaders" are posturing buffoons who are mostly clueless about the subject matter and easily steered by bullshit-artists. None of the yes-men/yes-women dare offend the leader's fragile ego by introducing reality into the conversation. If and when another alpha-male wannabe comes along to challenge them, it turns into a nasty king-of-the-hill war that drags everything into it.
I now try to think of work as a jungle safari instead of a place of economic productivity. The first is more fitting and less stressful: you are then not surprised when a poo-flinging fight breaks out, because after all, humans are nothing but animals. I've never seen anybody yell at a chimp, "Why don't you just be rational!?"
Table-ized A.I.
You feel like that because you have been completely manipulated by charismatic sociopaths to believe that anyone who disagrees with them (and by extension, you) is literally worse than Adolf Hitler.
Subtle lesson you will never learn: humility isn't about how loud you speak in front of a cheering crowd, it's about whether you value other people and their opinions. You clearly despise your parents, believing that what you read on Daily Kos makes you more aware of reality than their 20-30 years of additional first-hand experience, which shows you have no humility.
I'm having a hard time imagining the last US president who could be considered "humble". I think Truman probably was, to some extent (or at least he was a reasonably miserable fellow, a sort of an American version of Clement Attlee), as was Hoover. Washington is portrayed as humble, but I can't imagine a military commander of his ability actually being humble; generals are just not known for their humility, but generals who are bred in war have to be both charismatic and able.
The problem with democracy is that any would-be political leader has to have those hubristic "alpha" qualities that people, often wrongly, associate with great leaders. The advantage of democracy is that you can get rid of them, although a really bad political leader still will usually have at least one term to screw things up.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The humity, exuded by these leaders, can be contagious.
That's exactly the problem! Nobody wants to catch humity; it will lead to poor editing skills that will spread to the entire organization!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Follow me, God has shown the way!
It's not that we fall for the narcissistic types, rather the humble among us typically do not seek positions of power.
( They wouldn't be very humble if they did now would they ? )
Our elections are akin to being asked to hammer in a nail, but only given a choice between a screwdriver, a corkscrew or a hacksaw to get it done :|
They're certainly all tools, but none one of them are really suitable for the task at hand. ( Don't you dare ask for the proper tool. )
Then, when we're forced to finally make a choice, it's always the same bullshit from both sides of the fence for years.
" You chose to go with X ! See how poorly it's doing ? It was obviously a poor choice. You should have chosen Y or Z ! "
The best tools for the job are out there, we're simply not given the option to select one based on how our system is setup.
Humble people may make better business leaders, but that doesn't mean it is true for political leaders, where charisma can help to build political capital and accomplish things. Not all political leaders are charismatic. Some that were not: GHWB, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover. None of these guys were very successful.