LSW#19 🧐Implicit Leadership Theory and its implications

Why not knowing your ILT can hurt career prospects

A warm welcome to new subscribers! In case you missed it, you can find the HBR 100 Best Reads spreadsheet here. On to this week’s topic.

Are you aware of your ILT?

Who’s the ideal leader in your mind? Who are the worst? Why do you dislike certain managers, while others get along with them just fine?

More importantly, what implications does this carry?

Consider the below examples of how the exact same phenomena are interpreted differently based on who’s doing the interpretation:

Is being an “emotional” person desirable or undesirable? Synonyms for the word “emotional” in one thesaurus include “effusive,” “fervid,” “maudlin,” and “mawkish.” These words imply that being an emotional person is undesirable.

But the synonyms in another thesaurus (Microsoft Word, 2000) include “moving,” “touching,” “poignant,” “exciting,” and “arousing.” These words imply that being an emotional person may be desirable. Together they suggest that different thesaurus writers have differing implicit theories about emotionality.

A similar difference can be seen across cultures in beliefs about child rearing. Puritan parents in 17th-century America were advised that their children should fear them and that due distance should be maintained, because lavish displays of affection bred contempt and irreverence. But the present-day Beng of West Africa “advise parents to teach their children to dish out ribald insults to their grandparents to help the children feel free and familiar with their much older relatives”. These accounts suggest that different cultures have had differing attitudes toward emotionality.

— From Gohm, C. L., & Clore, G. L. (2002). Affect as information

These are extreme examples but there’s an important point: just like the thesaurus writers, we typically have unexamined notions about how leaders are “supposed” to be. These notions drive our behavior within organizations, and also influences attitudes towards other managers and leaders. They form what’s called your implicit theory of leadership aka ILT.

Consider the following differences in leadership prototypes between different regions:

• United States: Free Agent Star—a winner who gets short-term results; sees money as an indicator of worth

• Latin America: General—strong man in charge, keeps order, promotes change, controls

• France: Genius—smartest one, best exam score, member of intellectual elite, graduate of the best school

• UK: Diplomat—big thinker, well-educated, well-traveled, good social skills

• Germany: Master—most respected by peers, expert in field, has in-depth knowledge

• Italy: Godfather—holds together conflicting factions, punishes and favors, paternalistic

• Holland: Marathon Winner—outworks the rest, runs hard, trains well, endures, at head of pack

• Japan: Senior Statesman—older, wiser; from the group; survivor, consensus builder

• China: Warlord—local power; uses quanxi (favors) for loyal supporters; rich

• Israel: Field Commander—smart, energetic, creative, tactical, self-made

• Africa: Tribal Chief—older, wiser, consultative; orchestrates various networks, builds factions

— from Leadership by Craig Johnson, Michael Hackman

Why is this important?

Because ILT applies to your managers, and organizations as a whole — they have their own implicit leadership theory. If you are out of sync with your organization’s ILT, or your direct manager’s, then you have a difficult uphill climb to shine in your career.

Your objective performance is only one part of the equation when it comes to career success. The surrounding environment, and how they interpret your performance, is an equally important but ignored, and less understood, aspect of success in organizations.

ILT is one reason why folks who were superstars in one organization, end up complete duds in others. This begs two key questions:

• Are you aware of your own implicit theories of leadership?

• What is the dominant ILT in your organization?

I did a deep dive into implicit leadership theory covering the following:

• What exactly is ILT

• Key traits that factor into ILT

• Questions to test your awareness

• Important findings from research

• How to account for ILT in your work and overall career

Click below to access the main article:

That's it for this edition. Know someone who will benefit from this? Share it with the below button. Thanks for reading!