Why People Believe in Their Leaders - or Not

The Fall 2018 MITSloan Management Review, first presented Why People Believe in Their Leaders - or Not on August 17, 2018.

With over three years of research, Daniel Han Ming Chng, Tae-Yeol Kim, Brad Gilbreath, and Lynne Andersson surveyed 145 respondents from the US service industry and evening MBA students from varying work experiences to try and understand the greater foundation belief in leadership competence and trustworthiness.

This short article describes some of the identified characteristics associated with building and eroding credibility. Moreover, the author’s charted the top traits as identified by the 145 respondents through the surveys nine point scale.

The three author provided insights, while not new to the study of leadership or organizational management, are worth noting down and reflecting upon.

  1. The behaviors that assist in the gaining or loss of credibility are not mirror images of one another and do not carry the same wighted impact.

  2. Depending on the situation, positive information will carry more weight and vise versa.

  3. Overcoming a loss in credibility is difficult - not impossible.

Fact or fiction, you be the judge of this lightly referenced explanation. In todays environment, where is the separation between honest mistake and credibility elimination. Follow on research might look to see what effect the zero defect mentality with regard to profit, social commentary or professional misstep has upon the decision making formulations of senior leaders and CEOs. When failure is no longer an option, what path must leadership take?

 

Social Media Is Revolutionizing Warfare

This article first appeared in The Atlantic on October 2, 2018

This article provides some interesting perspectives with regard to technology, privacy, social media usage vs access and the implications all these tools have within the context of today’s environment and raises more questions with regard to what tomorrow might bring. It matters not what social or economic sector one identify with, nor what professional position one holds, the ability to find information, spread information and cause harm with information is increasing at exponential speeds. These capabilities are blind to color, race, gender, or socioeconomic identification. Moreover, social media currently remains a double sided blade that can wound both the target and the user, as described throughout The Atlantic’s article. Lessons on how and where to wield such technologies seem almost valueless if the boundaries and possibilities of social media application are truly as far reaching as they appear. What say you?

Photo by MILITARIST / SHUTTERSTOCK / THE ATLANTIC

Photo by MILITARIST / SHUTTERSTOCK / THE ATLANTIC

 

The Lie That Perfectionists Tell Themselves

Written by Matt Plummer and Jo Wilson. Published May 4, 2018. Discovered in the digital edition of the The Harvard Business Review.

This Article was recently shared with the GATCT monthly email group. Productivity and perfectionism, two topics that seem to plague many professions and professionals. The stereotypical belief that more hours equates to a better product is coming under increased scrutiny and the results are not positive. Studies are beginning to see decreases in emotional intelligence, reasoning and problem solving as connected to increased work hours.

While this article is not intended as a tool to leverage if ones required hours are extensive, it is a at the very least a point of reflection if those long work hours are self-imposed. See the article Army Guilt: Nearly 100% Contagious if you are unsure what might be truly driving your extended work hours.

More time does not necessarily equate to better quality. I encourage you to read the article and determine for yourself. As the authors Matt and Jo wrote:

We may not be able to shift our company cultures from quality-first to impact-first right away, but we all can invest in our own productivity and stop thinking this focus will hurt the quality of our work.

Now as a friend put it, let em get back to version 34 of my PowerPoint presentation, I think the font might be off on slide 3!

 

In Praise of Annoying Majors

This article first appeared in the US Army War College War Room blog, May 2, 2018 by author Andrew A. Hill.

While the opening two paragraphs are nothing but a blunt approach sales pitch to build greater readership of the War Room blog, the deeper discussion brought forth by Andrew Hill later in the article regarding unique perspectives of the most junior field grades officers in service is worth ones time.

Andrew and his nameless colleague offer four explanations as to why officers in the grade of Major may have something of interest to say. However, reasons for interesting thoughts and ideas are only as valuable as the time and effort given to listening and or reading what those individuals have to say. All too often, a perception of inability is attached to ones date of rank as opposed to the ideas that they bring forth. Andrew’s closing sentence carries the most power. “I hope that we keep listening.”

 

The Threat of Tribalism

This article, written by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, can be found in the October 2018 print edition of the The Atlantic as part of a larger series titled, Is Democracy Dying.

The opening sentence of this article is profound. “The U.S. Constitution was and is imperfect.” No other written description of this foundational document summarizes and neutralizes the partisan and polarizing comments and attacks from both the right and the left.

This article explores how the increasing tribal nature of politics and social agendas is eroding the foundational understanding of this nations guiding principles. Both the right and the left have grown or choose to remain deaf to the U.S. Constitution’s siren call for political and social freedom, defined by the peoples support of an idea greater than their tribes ethnic background, religious proclivity, or social uniqueness.

Read, Think, Speak and Write. Let us know where this journey takes you.