Researchers have consistently found feeling powerful boosts individual performance in various ways. While the logical assumption may be that grouping powerful individuals together would enhance performance substantially, the opposite is actually true: Power reduces leaders' ability to work well with other leaders, according to the Harvard Business Review.
Researchers were able to isolate power as a factor that contributes to failed group efforts among leaders after conducting a series of experiments. Researchers brought in more than 1,000 participants — including students and executives — to study their behavior on a variety of tasks in groups.
In one experiment, researchers randomly assigned students to the roles of a leader, worker or control group. In the first phase, each leader had power over a worker; he or she evaluated the worker's performance on a given task and decided how much money the worker should receive. Control participants worked together with equal power. In the next phase of the experiment, participants were arranged into groups of three, with each group consisting of like participants. Independent judges evaluated the creativity of each group and found the groups consisting of all leaders were the least creative. The product ideas they came up with were "the least innovative and the most uninspired," according to the report.
This was a consistent outcome across numerous studies. When more powerful individuals worked independently, they performed better than the other participants, but when they had to coordinate with other group members, those powerful individuals performed worse than others, according to the report.
In another study where real executives were grouped with other executives of the same rank to complete a task, only 46 percent of the groups with the most powerful executives could reach a consensus, compared with 86 percent of the groups comprised of the least powerful executives.
Researchers pinpointed two reasons groups of powerful individuals failed so consistently. First, they found members in groups comprised of the most powerful leaders fought over who should have higher status than others in the group, or who should have more influence over the group's decisions. Second, they found groups of powerful leaders were less focused on the task at hand and coordinated information less effectively than team members in other groups.