Loud Thinking

Posts Tagged ‘My Views’

Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?
by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | 9:00 AM August 22, 2013
Comments (226)

There are three popular explanations for the clear under-representation of women in management, namely: (1) they are not capable; (2) they are not interested; (3) they are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes, that prevents women from accessing the ranks of power. Conservatives and chauvinists tend to endorse the first; liberals and feminists prefer the third; and those somewhere in the middle are usually drawn to the second. But what if they all missed the big picture?

In my view, the main reason for the uneven management sex ratio is our inability to discern between confidence and competence. That is, because we (people in general) commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as a sign of competence, we are fooled into believing that men are better leaders than women. In other words, when it comes to leadership, the only advantage that men have over women (e.g., from Argentina to Norway and the USA to Japan) is the fact that manifestations of hubris — often masked as charisma or charm — are commonly mistaken for leadership potential, and that these occur much more frequently in men than in women.

This is consistent with the finding that leaderless groups have a natural tendency to elect self-centered, overconfident and narcissistic individuals as leaders, and that these personality characteristics are not equally common in men and women. In line, Freud argued that the psychological process of leadership occurs because a group of people — the followers — have replaced their own narcissistic tendencies with those of the leader, such that their love for the leader is a disguised form of self-love, or a substitute for their inability to love themselves. “Another person’s narcissism”, he said, “has a great attraction for those who have renounced part of their own… as if we envied them for maintaining a blissful state of mind.”

The truth of the matter is that pretty much anywhere in the world men tend to think that they that are much smarter than women. Yet arrogance and overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent — the ability to build and maintain high-performing teams, and to inspire followers to set aside their selfish agendas in order to work for the common interest of the group. Indeed, whether in sports, politics or business, the best leaders are usually humble — and whether through nature or nurture, humility is a much more common feature in women than men. For example, women outperform men on emotional intelligence, which is a strong driver of modest behaviors. Furthermore, a quantitative review of gender differences in personality involving more than 23,000 participants in 26 cultures indicated that women are more sensitive, considerate, and humble than men, which is arguably one of the least counter-intuitive findings in the social sciences. An even clearer picture emerges when one examines the dark side of personality: for instance, our normative data, which includes thousands of managers from across all industry sectors and 40 countries, shows that men are consistently more arrogant, manipulative and risk-prone than women.

The paradoxical implication is that the same psychological characteristics that enable male managers to rise to the top of the corporate or political ladder are actually responsible for their downfall. In other words, what it takes to get the job is not just different from, but also the reverse of, what it takes to do the job well. As a result, too many incompetent people are promoted to management jobs, and promoted over more competent people.

Unsurprisingly, the mythical image of a “leader” embodies many of the characteristics commonly found in personality disorders, such as narcissism (Steve Jobs or Vladimir Putin), psychopathy (fill in the name of your favorite despot here), histrionic (Richard Branson or Steve Ballmer) or Machiavellian (nearly any federal-level politician) personalities. The sad thing is not that these mythical figures are unrepresentative of the average manager, but that the average manager will fail precisely for having these characteristics.

In fact, most leaders — whether in politics or business — fail. That has always been the case: the majority of nations, companies, societies and organizations are poorly managed, as indicated by their longevity, revenues, and approval ratings, or by the effects they have on their citizens, employees, subordinates or members. Good leadership has always been the exception, not the norm.

So it struck me as a little odd that so much of the recent debate over getting women to “lean in” has focused on getting them to adopt more of these dysfunctional leadership traits. Yes, these are the people we often choose as our leaders — but should they be?

Most of the character traits that are truly advantageous for effective leadership are predominantly found in those who fail to impress others about their talent for management. This is especially true for women. There is now compelling scientific evidence for the notion that women are more likely to adopt more effective leadership strategies than do men. Most notably, in a comprehensive review of studies, Alice Eagly and colleagues showed that female managers are more likely to elicit respect and pride from their followers, communicate their vision effectively, empower and mentor subordinates, and approach problem-solving in a more flexible and creative way (all characteristics of “transformational leadership”), as well as fairly reward direct reports. In contrast, male managers are statistically less likely to bond or connect with their subordinates, and they are relatively more inept at rewarding them for their actual performance. Although these findings may reflect a sampling bias that requires women to be more qualified and competent than men in order to be chosen as leaders, there is no way of really knowing until this bias is eliminated.

In sum, there is no denying that women’s path to leadership positions is paved with many barriers including a very thick glass ceiling. But a much bigger problem is the lack of career obstacles for incompetent men, and the fact that we tend to equate leadership with the very psychological features that make the average man a more inept leader than the average woman. The result is a pathological system that rewards men for their incompetence while punishing women for their competence, to everybody’s detriment.

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“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.”

— Denis Waitley

Irony of Life – Hopes & Wishes !!!!!!

Irony of life…

The lawyer hopes you get into trouble..

The doctor hopes you fall ill..

The police hopes you become a criminal..

The teacher hopes you are born stupid..

The coffin maker wants you dead..

Only a thief wishes you prosperity in life.

Appreciation is to value highly.

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918);
poet, playwright, art critic

7 Questions for Mr. Ishaq Dar Finance Minister Pakistan

Posted at www.snayyar.com by Syed Nayyar Uddin on August 26, 2013 in Action Plan to Revive Pak Economy, My Views, Pakistan | Edit

Daily The News reports today that “Conditions of IMF met for $7.3 billion bailout package”.
Link:- http://images.thenews.com.pk/26-08-2013/ethenews/t-25004.htm

Mr. Ishaq Dar kindly clarify the following 7 questions relating to the facts regarding the Pakistan’s economy..!

1. Firstly, you stated on the floor of the house that we are taking fresh loan from the IMF to repay the old IMF loan.

2. You also stated on the same floor of the house that the loan amount from the IMF will be $5.5billion at an interest rate of 3%, which was exorbitantly high interest rate considering that IMF had already decided in December, 2012 to give loan on ZERO interest rate to poor countries. Kimdly inform which country can be poorer than Pakistan, who was unable to even repay its loans?
Your kind attention is invited towards the following news item titled “IMF extends zero interest rates on poorer country loans” published by the daily “Pakistan Today” on 23 December, 2012 detailed news available at the link :- http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/12/23/news/profit/imf-extends-zero-interest-rates-on-poorer-country-loans-2/

3. Secondly, you pledged on the floor of the house that loan terms will not be against the interests of Pakistan.

4. Then you increased the electricity tariff for the Pakistani industrial users by a whopping 70% to fulfil the IMF conditions for the loan.

5. Don’t you think that this power tariff increase will destroy our economy and create unemployment, as the increased cost of production of each and every item, under the use of the poorest of the poor, will make the goods highly expensive and the poor will become even more poorer? In fact, your this step will ever be remembered in the history of Pakistan, as the one and only top most action which murdered the economy of the country and pushed additional millions of people below the poverty line.
I am also afraid that your this single step may not forever seal, the fate of PMLN’s chances in coming to the power again, as and when the negative impact is gradually filtered down the line.
If I were the PM Pakistan, would never have approved this fatal decision of increasing power rates of the already limping industry of Pakistan.

5. Why you earlier mislead the nation that $5.5billion is being taken for the repayment of the old loan and now the cat is out of the bag and the loan amount is actually $7.3billion?

6. The above fact at #5 also proves that you also wrongly said that this loan was being taken to repay the old loan.

7. Hope you remember the maiden speech of the PM in the Parliament house wherein, the PM promised with the nation on the floor of the house, that nothing will be hidden from the nation. Then why you hid the fact that this loan is being taken NOT just for the repayment of the loan; and why you hid the fact that this loan amount was actually $7.3billion and not $5.5billion?

An early reply shall be highly appreciated.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

– See more at: https://www.snayyar.com/#sthash.UdiYFZ0u.dpuf

Indian Propaganda Exposed by the Indian army FIR:

A solid proof of Pakistan Army’s innocence is the fact that on 6 August, the First Information Report (FIR) No.113/2013 registered in Poonch Police Station by Indian Army’s 21 Bihar Regiment complained in writing that unidentified terrorists had killed five soldiers. These facts are a sufficient testimony to the fact that the Indian Army was making Pakistan Army an escape goat for their own lapse of security.

Daily The News reports today that “Conditions of IMF met for $7.3 billion bailout package”.

Mr. Ishaq Dar kindly clarify what is going on with the economy of Pakistan?

7 questions to the Finance Minister of Pakistan..!

1. First you stated on the floor of the house that we are taking loan from the IMF to repay the old loan.

2. You also stated on the floor of the house that the loan amount from the IMF will be $5.5billion at an interest rate of 3%.

3. You also stated on the floor of the house that loan terms will not be against the interests of Pakistan.

4. Then you increased the electricity tariff for the Pakistani industrial users by a whopping 70% to fulfil the IMF conditions for the loan.

5. Don’t you think this power tariff increase will destroy our economy and create unemployment as the cost of production will make the goods even costlier and the poor will become even more poorer?

5. Why you earlier misleadingly said that $5.5billion is being taken for loan repayment and now the cat is out of the bag and the loan amount is actually $7.3billion?

6. The above fact at #5 also proves that you also wrongly said that this loan was being taken to repay the old loan.

7. Hope you remember the maiden speech of the PM in the Parliament House wherein, he promised with the nation on the floor of the house that nothing will be hidden from the nation. Then why you hid the fact that this loan is being taken NOT just for the repayment of the loan and why you hid the fact this loan amount was actually $7.3billion.?

JAAG PAKISTAN JAAG

WAKE UP PAKISTAN

According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2012-13, in the last fiscal year alone, the country provided Rs239.5 billion worth of tax breaks, mainly to influential people.

The FBR gave Rs82.3 billion worth of income tax exemptions. The sales tax exemptions stood at Rs37.5 billion which were mainly given to sugar and tractor industries. The customs duties exemptions grew to Rs119.7 billion.

But not all the exemptions can be withdrawn as many are given under international treaties, particularly on account of customs duties that are waived off or reduced under preferential and free trade agreements.

The independent power producers are enjoying income tax exemption and the country waived off Rs50 billion in the last one year alone, according to the government report.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2013.

Is it a contempt of court or not?

I am at a loss to understand if the financial situation of the PCB was so poor why it allowed 2 SUV’s for its COO and DG, worth over PKR 13 million.

Secondly, on which authority the care taker chairman violated the orders of the IHC judge’s decision wherein, he was only allowed to perform day to day affairs of the PCB and gave very hefty Eid bonuses to the players and the officials of the team which toured WI and won the ODI series against a lowely rated West Indians.

Isn’t it a case of contempt of court? Did the PCB in this case consult the attorney general of Pakistan and the ministry of IPC, as has been done in the case of approval of the budget?

We also apprehend that the PCB may not dish out further bonuses to the officials & the players after they come back victorious against the Zimbabwe team.