More than half of employees quit their job because of their managers, according to Gallup survey data cited by the Harvard Business Review. While irreconcilable differences between employees and managers can sometimes be the result of incongruent personalities or poor employee performance, it is commonly the result of bad management by the boss and recruiting mistakes by human resources.
Harvard Business Review applied a scientific perspective to determine who has the most leadership potential, and why some leaders are doomed for failure.
1. What kinds of personality traits are most common among leaders? There are a few predominant personality characteristics among individuals who emerge as leaders. According to a meta-analysis cited by the Harvard Business Review, people who are more social, ambitious and curious are the most likely to become leaders. Additionally, those with higher cognitive ability are most likely to become leaders.
2. What are the primary qualities of effective leaders? The performance of the leader's team or organization is the true measure of his or her effectiveness as a leader, according to the report. In addition to the traits named above that help a leader emerge, integrity and emotional intelligence are some of the most important traits among effective leaders.
3. What will the person's leadership style be? Everyone leads in different ways, and leadership style is typically influenced by personality. Ambitious leaders tend to be more entrepreneurial and focused on growth and innovation, while curious and sociable leaders tend to be more charismatic, according to the report. Studies cited by the Harvard Business Review also suggest gender influences leadership style, with men being more transactional and women more transformational.
4. Are people born leaders or can they be grown? The official scientific answer is both, as any observable pattern of human behavior is the result of genetic and environmental factors. Prior studies suggest leadership is 30 percent to 60 percent heritable, mostly because predominant leadership traits — personality and intelligence — are heritable. However, coaching interventions can enhance leadership competencies by 20 to 30 percent, according to the report.
5. Why do leaders derail from success? It is not the absence of positive qualities that steer leaders off track; rather, it is "their coexistence with dark side tendencies," according to the report. Disgraced leaders such as Sepp Blatter, former president of FIFA, and Bernie Madoff, former stock broker and investment advisor who swindled billions from investors, demonstrate how technical brilliance often coincide with self-destructive and damaging behavior, according to the report.