S8-Ep12: Power, Charisma, Hormones: Science Studies Leadership

Guest: John Antonakis

Power does tend to corrupt.  Especially the more testosterone is added to the mix.

That’s just one finding that the scientific study of leadership has revealed.  Yet, despite the legions of leadership consultants plying their theories, very little research in the field has been conducted with scientific rigor.  Even science basics, such as control groups and identifying variables, are missing.  That punches big holes in many leading leadership philosophies and best-selling books; they look at what top-performing companies have in common…but don’t check to see if the worst performing companies have those same things in common, too!

Enter John Antonakis.  A professor of organizational behavior, and the editor-in-chief of The Leadership Quarterly, John applies the scientific model to studies of leadership qualities, with a particular interest in charisma.  He’ll talk about power, hormones, and his AI charismometer in this episode.

 

Here's what John and Maureen cover:

• Why the lack of truly scientific studies of leadership makes it difficult to tease out what really forges a good (even great) leader;
• How testosterone in a leader increases their likelihood of corruption; and
• That most traits of truly great leaders can be learned – you don’t have to be born with them!

 

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

• Getting Lost in the Language of Leadership – with Jonathan Reams
• The Bonobo Sisterhood: Ape Society’s Lessons for Leadership – with Diane Rosenfeld
• The Science of Dream Teams – with Mike Zani

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn . We're on Mastodon, Facebook, and Twitter, too!  

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RESOURCES:  

Learn more about John’s research at http://www.hec.unil.ch/people/jantonakis .

We have a short (1:21) excerpt from this interview on YouTube at https://youtu.be/CaALP3jTo4s .

Information on John’s book, The Nature of Leadership, is at https://amzn.to/3Xdm7UH . He also contributed to Being There Even When You Are Not (Vol. 4), available at https://amzn.to/3ik8Rir

Host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can follow her there at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenmetcalf/ .

She’s also written several award-winning books on leadership development. You can peruse and purchase them here: https://amzn.to/3C4eSX0 .

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OUR PODCAST TEAM:  

Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf

Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko

Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko

Our Scientifically-Studied Podbean Gurus: Luigi Morelli & Connor Carson

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YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership

Twitter: @IL_Institute

Mastodon: @InnoLeader

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Website: InnovativeLeadership.com

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About Our Guest:  

John Antonakis is Professor of Organizational Behavior and editor-in-chief of The Leadership Quarterly, a high-impact journal in management and applied psychology. John’s research focuses on estimating the causal effect of leadership on outcomes. He is a highly-cited scientist, and has published groundbreaking research in journals such as Science. His work has been covered by media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Guardian, NEWSWEEK, the Daily Mail, BBC News, Forbes, The New Yorker, Business Insider, Fast Company and hundreds of other news sources.