Millionaire Mystique by Jude Burke

Author:Jude Burke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2014-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

The Personality of a Leader

Naively, many people believe you become a “leader” when someone gives you a supervisory title and a group of people to manage. Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, notes that “titles are simultaneously the most difficult and the easiest symbols of authority to acquire. To earn a title takes years of work and achievement. Yet, it is possible for somebody who has put in none of this effort to adopt the mere label and receive a kind of automatic deference.” He describes this as a “click whirr” automatic response to authority. Studies have shown that the use of a title changes the tenor of the interaction immediately: People become more respectful, accepting, and even attribute to the leader a couple of inches in height.11

The experience of Millionaire Mystique participants, though, argues that attaining the title is actually the least important aspect of leadership. All it does is make the people you manage wary: Who is this new boss and how is she going to affect my life? Some of them fear the worst. So, in order to get off on the right foot, it is important to go in with a smile on your face, care about their well-being, and be optimistic that everything your team does is going to achieve a high standard of excellence.

As we saw in Chapter 3, Millionaire Mystique women (and men) are higher than the average person on four of the Big Five personality characteristics: conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to new experiences. They are also low in neuroticism. Of course, they bring those personality traits to leadership, as well. For that reason, I believe you will be a much stronger leader if you are able to develop these personality traits in yourself, even if they aren’t present in you at a high level now. But watch out for the pitfalls inherent in these traits as well. Let’s take a closer look at how four of the Big Five characteristics can make you a better leader.

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