We’re here at the Republican National Convention where they are about to choose their next leader. Maybe it'll be me!
Hello followers, Jules here for DNews, and we’re at the Republican National Convention,
where this week they’re trying to choose the next leader of the United States. Some
are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. When
you think of a great leader, what qualities come to mind? In America we tend to think
of people who are charismatic or eloquent as strong leaders. Even Donald Trump is called
a great leader as someone who isn’t afraid to say what he thinks.
But what does it take to be a Trump, or maybe more appealingly a “Julius Caesar” or
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Can you become a great leader, or do you have to be born
that way? Nature, or nurture? Well, like all nature vs. nurture topics, it’s a little
bit of both and nobody really knows. BUT! A study in the journal Twin Research, which
is not what it sounds like, or exactly what it sounds like, asked 247 twin pairs to fill
out questionnaires about their behavior to determine who among them were leaders. What
they found that was that more than half of the traits that define a leader, (originality,
popularity, sociability, judgement, aggressiveness, desire to excel, humor, cooperativeness, liveliness,
and athletic ability), those were possibly able to be passed down genetically, or “heritable”.
Now, that’s a pretty bold claim to make, so we’re going to take it with a grain of
salt, but it does at least point to some leadership qualities being inborn.
But what about the other half of the traits, like persistence, or confidence? Well, another
study, yes there’s always another study, found leaders can inspire other to be confident,
and thus "imbue their subordinates with confidence and creativity,". So leaders can potentially
teach leadership qualities to their followers.
Yet another recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
found that a good leader's brain actually synchronizes with their followers brains as
they communicate! The experiment took a few small groups of people, and scanned the blood
flow in their brain when they started talking to each other. Mid-conversation, leaders emerged
in each group, and their left temporo-parietal junctions, which is where brain-waves are
converted into speech, synced up with their followers, whereas the followers weren’t
as synced with each other. Using this phenomenon, researchers could predict the same effect
in future leader-follower pairs just by looking at the brain. It’s not that leaders communicate
more, but the quality of their communication is higher. As the researchers said, "leaders
emerge because they are able to say the right things at the right time."
But… there’s one big caveat. When we talk about these qualities, we’re talking about
studies that are almost exclusively based on Americans. Yeah. In fact, a 1997 review
of studies on leadership found that 98-percent of them were just American-focused. The studies
chose to emphasize American traits like: leaders are superior and followers are subordinate.
Or that individualism are prized, and collectivism is shunned. But the fact is, that’s not
universally true in all cultures.
The Essentials of Psychology states the best leaders simply understand the dynamic between
leaders and group members -- whatever that may be -- collective or individual, hands-on
or hands-off, authoritarian or egalitarian. This is supported by the 1995 book "Emotional
Intelligence," which refers to the idea that true leaders have the "capacity to be aware
of, control, and express [their] emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships
judiciously and empathetically" Being able to judge interactions with others and handle
those complex interpersonal relationships well, will make a pretty-good leader into
a great leader.
Leadership is seemingly a more nuanced but internal process, and while it isn’t culture
specific, the differences all stem from social differences in interaction, not the interactions
themselves. Basically, if you’re a great leader, then it’s because you “get”
people, and also because you’ve synced your brain with theirs. Which is a little creepy
to be honest. Stay out of my brain.
Who makes a better leader women or men? You can find out in this video here
What do you think makes a good leader? What do you look for? Let us know in the comments
and please subscribe, so you can catch more DNews when we’re at the DNC next week. Thanks
for tuning in!