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Niccol Machiavelli, the infamous author of The Prince, wrote in the 1500s that the ideal leader makes and breaks solemn agreements. He creates alliances with weak allies to defeat a powerful enemy and then eliminates them one by one. He blames his next-in-charge for his own mistakes, and he executes opponents in public. St. Francis of Assisi was the antithesis of a Machiavellian leader. Born in 1181, the future saint renounced his fathers wealth, then spent the remainder of his life wandering around northern Italy as a beggar and preacher. Francis gained a reputation for extreme humilitybut certainly he was not weak. He dealt with popes, nobles and even an Egyptian sultan. He founded a religious order, the Franciscans, that survives today. In modern times, Machiavellian leaders abound in the corporate world. Perhaps more surprisingly, many other business leaders resemble Francis: humble and self-effacing, but by no means weak. In our research, we argue that two types of motivation help to explain these vast and enduring differences in leadership. Two faces of power Psychologists have long been fascinated by peoples nonconscious motivesand how to measure them. One influential assessment, developed in the 1930s, is the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT. People write short stories about ambiguous pictures, and researchers then analyze the stories to see which themes emerge: what the writer cares or worries about, and how they see the world. In 1970, psychologist David McClelland coined the phrase the two faces of power to describe two different types of power that motivate people, based on his TAT analyses: personal power and socialized power. Personal power is the motivation to dominate others. McClelland noted that people with a desire for personal power tend to use imagery that evokes the law of the jungle in which the strongest survive by destroying their adversaries. Socialized power, on the other hand, aims to benefit others. McClelland noted that personal power was associated with behavior like heavy drinking, gambling, aggressive impulses and collecting prestige supplies, like convertibles. People concerned with the more socialized aspect of power, meanwhile, join more organizations and are more apt to become officers in them, including sports teams. A few years later, McClelland and consultant David Burnham published an article titled Power is the Great Motivator, elaborating on this basic link between power motivation and leader effectiveness. Through a series of biographical vignettes and an analysis of a large company, they showed that managers exhibiting a high degree of socialized power were more effective than managers motivated by personal power. Measuring motivation It seemed to us that personal power, the law of the jungle, motivates the kinds of behavior approvingly described by Machiavelli. Likewise, socialized power seemed to underlie the forceful but altruistic behavior of St. Francis and modern so-called humble leaders. But we faced a problem: how to measure motivation. Powerful people such as world-class CEOs have little inclination to take TATs or answer questionnaires for admittedly humble scholars. In the 1990s, psychologist David Winter showed that speeches, interviews and diplomatic texts reveal nonconscious motivation in the same way as the Thematic Apperception Testdemonstrating a way to study leaders views of power. For example, someone driven by a desire for personal power often tries to control or regulate people around them; attempts to persuade and convince; and is concerned with fame, status and reputation. However, Winters procedures for analyzing texts are manual and complex; it is difficult to process a large number of documents. Also, he focused on personal power; socialized power was not included in his coding procedures. Words and action In order to overcome these limitations, we used computer-aided text analysis to analyze the language of CEOs in interviews and conference calls. In a series of 2019 studies, which were peer-reviewed and summarized in the Academy of Management Proceedings, our team identified 40 Machiavellian and 40 humble CEOs. First, we took a close look at the types of words and phrases that distinguished the two groups, shedding light on the kind of power that motivates each one. Using these patterns, we created two dictionaries of words and phrases that expressed personal power and socialized power. Language about strong, forceful actions, control, managing impressions, punishment and fear of failure, to name a few themes, constituted the personal power dictionary. Defeat, overrun and strafe, for example, appeared among the words on the personal power list. Themes such as rewards, mentoring and positive relationships characterized the socialized power dictionary. Then, we used a computer program to scan hundreds of interviews and quarterly conference calls. The computer program calculated personal and socialized power scores for each of the CEOs. Our team also developed indexes of Machiavellian and humble leader behaviorsuch as smearing competitors and backing out of agreements, or making significant donations to charity, respectivelyand measured all 80 CEOs. We found very high correlations between power motivation and CEO behavior. CEOs with high personal power scores, based on our analysis of their interviews and conference calls, also tended to show Machiavellian behavior. CEO humble behavior was positively related to socialized power. People and profits Do these abstract statistical results really mean anything? Evidently. Numerous CEOs from our list of humble executives have founded or managed exceptionally successful and people-oriented companies, including Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, Danny Wegman of Wegmans, and James Goodnight of the SAS Institute. Several of the humble CEOs have appeared multipletimes on Fortunes annual Best Companies to Work For list. The Machiavellian CEO list included Kenneth Lay of Enron fame and John Rigas, one of the founders of Adelphia Communications Corporation, who was convicted of fraud. Mark Hurd, one-time CEO of Hewlett Packard, appeared on Complexs list of the worst chief executive officers in tech history. In general, criticisms of profits over people, poor treatment of employees, scandals, lavish spending, lawsuits and accusations or convictions of fraud characterize many of our Machiavellian CEOs. McClelland and Burnham were right. Power really is the great motivator, but its the type of power that makes the difference. William D. Spangler is an associate professor emeritus of management at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Aleksey Tikhomirov is a lecturer of public administration and policy at Binghamton University, State University of New York. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Cass Sunstein is a Harvard Law School professor and one of the most cited legal scholars in the world. He founded the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School, served in the White House during the Obama Administration, received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, and has written dozens of books on topics ranging from behavioral science to constitutional law. Whats the big idea? Hidden forces shape our decisions all the timewhether that comes in the form of peer pressure, marketing strategy, or cultural norms. Manipulation is silent, pervasive, and dangerous. We need to find ways to protect ourselves from influences that guide our actions without giving us a fair shot at making deliberate choices. Below, Cass shares five key insights from his new book, Manipulation: What It Is, Why Its Bad, and What to Do About It. Listen to the audio versionread by Cass himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Manipulation undermines your freedom to choose. Manipulation isnt just persuasionits trickery that prevents people from exercising their capacity for deliberation. It might stir emotions, hide crucial information, or bury key terms in fine print so you cant make a truly informed choice. The danger lies in how it quietly strips away your agency, making you act without genuine reflection. 2. Sludge is manipulation by a thousand cuts. Sludge refers to needless barriersendless forms, hold times, or bureaucratic hoopsthat make it hard to get what you want or to escape a bad deal. Companies often make signing up effortless, but impose exhausting obstacles when you try to cancel or change terms. This easy in, hard out design is manipulation on steroids. 3. We need a right to not be manipulated. Societies already protect people from fraud and deception, but theres no legal safeguard against manipulation itself. Thats a problem because manipulation can waste your time, drain your money, and damage your well-being without breaking existing laws. Its time to create a clear, enforceable right that shields people from such exploitation. 4. The Barbie Problem: buying what we wish didnt exist. Some goods are bought not out of love, but because social norms make them feel unavoidable. Think of Barbies, cigarettes, certain social media platforms, or any items that most people purchase yet many privately wish would disappear altogether. Companies exploit social pressures to manipulate us into consumer choices that dont reflect our true preferences. Getting people to buy products they deplore or regret purchasing is a serious problem that we need to find a way to reduce. 5. Social norms can trap us. Once a product exists, refusing it can send an unwanted signal: in some communities, turning down a drink implies youre no fun; skipping a trendy app makes you seem out of the loop. To avoid that social penalty, we complyeven if wed be happier without the product entirely. This is manipulation by peer pressure, and is extremely hard to resist because of how certain choices signal specific social perceptions of you. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
As is the case for many founders, my journey began as a one-person show. I started Digital Voices, an influencer marketing agency that helps brands grow by pairing them with creators across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. With just a shoestring budget of $300 and a background in digital strategy, I launched the company with more ambition than certainty. Afterlong hours coupled with hustle and self-doubtit has now evolved into a multimillion-80-person operation spanning the globe. Here are five lessons about leadership I learned along the way. 1. Get comfortable with constant change Leadership today is defined by constant fluctuation. On a Monday, youre making long-term strategic decisions aimed at future-proofing the business. The next day, youre brainstorming creative ideas for a client campaign. All of this comes as you attempt to balance the businesss progress against your own personal journey. And thats before you even get to the impact that your actions or a throwaway comment have on your wider team. In order to grow, your business should be constantly changing. For example, weve built new technology that has completely changed peoples day-to-day work, changed roles, titles, teams, opened offices in the United States, and built a team in Costa Rica. One of my favorite business adages is, If your company doesnt feel like an entirely new business every 18 months, youre not scaling. Youre stagnating. This puts immense pressure on every leader. That relentless tension means that for real progress, you always have to feel out of your comfort zone. You need to spin multiple plateschecking that the aspects of the business you used to run are going smoothly, while feeling like a beginner at whatever obstacle youre throwing yourself at next. 2. Vulnerability is key Ive never met a leader whos gone their entire career without making mistakes. Neither have you. The perfect leader doesnt exist. It doesnt matter how many books youve read, coaches youve had, how much time or money youve invested in self-development, making mistakes is part of this game. The proximity to failure keeps most entrepreneurs motivated. The polished, superhero, all about the grind, idealized image of entrepreneurship is dead. People want to see the honest version of your struggles and humanity. Sharing your mistakes publicly isnt a sign of weakness; its an avenue towards building trust with your customers and employees. Try to resist the urge to receive every piece of negative feedback on your backfoot. Very rarely is it a personal attack or a character assassination. Think about it this way: Giving negative feedback and offering solutions is hard. It means your employees care enough to think about how your business can be better. Also, no one likes conflict or enjoys having hard conversations. They are risking discomfortand at times even their jobto give you insights. 3. Hire for fit The culture versus credentials debate: Weve all heard it, some of us have lived it. The truth is that the perfect on paper candidate will always turn your head. According to their resume, theyve got all the relevant experience, the certifications and qualifications, the recommendations… For all intents and purposes, theyre a shoo-in. And yet we should all recognize by now that credentials are only part of the puzzlea vital ingredient certainly, but not the whole pie. You need people who thrive in the uncertainty of a scale-up environment and who believe in what youre striving for and genuinely want to help drive your business forward. Not everyone will be capable of that level of engagement, or even want it. So dont let a resume with big brand names mask the fact that someone isnt the right fit from a culture perspective. Spend the time and hire slow. And then keep the trust of your team by firing fast if they arent the right fit. 4. Stay true to your values Be clear on what your cultural non-negotiables are in the business. Write yours down. Inform your team as they need to know what lens they should view decisions through. There will be times when protecting your bottom line will clash with your business’s purpose. Principles will cost you money. Ive been offered multiple seven-figure sums to market gambling or weight-loss brands. And while the business could have used that money, we turned it down. Why? Because were accountable to the businessand not just commercially, but culturally, too. Which means you need to be confident that the experience, grit, skills and team that got you this far, will continue to propel you forward. Im not saying dont edit your approach. Im saying be careful with the tweaks that cost you your principles and culture. Those decisions are nearly impossible to roll back. 5. Empower your employees Too many founders lean toward helicopter leadership. Its like the business version of helicopter parenting, a term used to describe the sort of parents who constantly hover round their kids, micromanaging every experience. While the business might have once been your baby, you cannot spin all the plates across all teams. For one, its not sustainable. For two, your employees will despise you for it. You need to create an environment where people are not afraid to put their hands up if something is going wrong. They need to trust that youll jump in and help them solve the problem, rather than play the blame game. Hard on the problem, easy on the person. This isnt about maintaining total control, its about achieving clarity and trust. The most impactful founders move beyond acting as a boss, and start acting as conductorsbringing out the best in their team for the collective benefit of everyone.
Category:
E-Commerce
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