Are Extroverts Natural Leaders in Organizations?

The general belief is that extroverts are natural leaders in organizations. In contrast, a recent study indicates that some leaders may have excesses of a good thing. In their findings, the researchers revealed that informal leaders were better liked and more sought after for advice when they hit a middle "sweet spot" on levels of assertiveness and warmth which are two facets of extroversion.

Consequently, there is a low reaction from team members to leaders who were high on assertiveness or warmth.

Associate professor of management and human resources at the Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business and the lead author of the study, Jasmine Hu, said that overly extroverted leaders could come across as too pushy or too annoying. Hu said that a moderate amount of assertiveness and warmth might be optimal.

Among the findings of the study was one factor that helped highly extroverted leaders receive better marks from their peers through prosocial motivation, or the desire to look out for the welfare of others. The study appears online in the Journal of Applied Psychology and will be published in a future print edition.

There were two related editions carried out by the researchers. The first edition involved 260 undergraduate business students who were randomly assigned to 78 self-managed teams. The students worked in their teams on a variety of projects through the full semester.

In the commencement of the semester, students rated themselves on two facets of extroversion. One was assertiveness which is the desire to be dominant and forceful. The second was warmth which is how friendly and outgoing they were.

They asked the students how much they agreed with statements like "I care about benefitting others through my work" to measure their prosocial motivation of the students.

Hu said that if someone is too assertive as a team member, people think the person is pushy, and the individual doesn't like that. And when an individual is also warm and friendly, that can be overwhelming for others who feel pressured to respond in the same enthusiastic way. But colleagues of the employees can put up with more extroversion if they think the person is doing it for others.

Hu said that if someone is prosocial motivated, people see more benefits to the person's assertiveness and warmth. They know the person is not doing it to promote their interest, but have a genuine interest in the whole team. And that means a lot.

Even though researchers did this study with informal leaders, Hu believes the results could also apply to formally chosen supervisors. And she noted that even in teams with formal bosses, informal leaders like those in this study often emerge and play a vital role in the success of the group.