[March 4, 2020] To the surprise of my close friends, the current literature on psychological traits, and these traits’ relationship to leaders, the effect of agreeableness is somewhat of a mixed bag. They were hoping for some positive correlation, especially since I believe that a kind, respectful, an empathetic leader can be very successful. I knew better. A disagreeable person is a better leader in nearly every circumstance.
Agreeableness is the personal warmth, cooperation, trust, and acceptance of others. On the surface, this appears to be a good thing; however, leadership more often calls for an assertive, competitive approach that the agreeable leader may find awkward or uncomfortable. People see agreeableness as a sign of weakness.
“Agreeable leaders tend to avoid the disagreeable, such as corrective feedback. Agreeable leaders tend to tolerate bad behavior longer than is wise. When this happens, workers begin to lose respect for the leader as the bad behavior most likely has a negative impact on them. When employees begin to see the agreeable leader as a “doormat,” teamwork erodes.” – Clare Novak of Clare Novak, Novak, and Associates
The problem with agreeable leadership is:
- The tendency to avoid giving critical feedback
- Tolerating of incorrect behavior longer
- Accommodating and cooperative behaviors
- Avoiding competition and aggressiveness
- Difficulty making tough decisions
I’m not surprised at this finding, and it partly explains the divergence among men and women in business and military leadership positions. The psychological literature is straightforward and supported through decades of research that men are more disagreeable than women. Women are more nurturing, consensus focused, team-oriented, and function best in an inclusive workplace culture.
Interestingly, there is evidence that agreeableness has a positive association with academic performance.1 Primary education shows the most significant benefit. Agreeableness is reflected behaviorally with students spending more time on homework, employing more self-regulatory learning styles, and better at time management. Women now outnumber and outperform men post-secondary educational institutions.
While the answer is still out on whether socialization or genetics is a more significant influence on our personalities, we do know that not everything is biologically determined. One of the fundamental ideas that I promote is that leadership is learned. I will not deviate from that principle.
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Gen. Satterfield, you drew an interesting link between agreeableness and its association with academia but the opposite effect in the workplace and the military. What does this mean, exactly? Does it mean that leadership in academia must be different? Or, does it mean that there is some sort of disconnect at the academic levels in our society? Good questions that need answering.
Gen. Satterfield, you certainly put your finger on the problem of ‘agreeableness in leaders’. I’ve seen the downside of them too. Ultimately too agreeable leaders will eventually be overcome with their lack of decisiveness and fail. For example, you cannot allow poor behavior to get to the point that it starts to drive away your customers and employees.
It can be the leader at any level in an organization, not just the senior leadership. Whenever a senior leader sees one of his junior leaders being indecisive and lacking the guts to make changes, that junior leader needs to go.
Very true. I’ve seen organizations fail when they don’t take on those agreeable leaders fast enough. You want leaders to be caring but not too caring or that gets in the way of their mission.
I agree Greg. Good comment.
Hey guys and gals, did you see the votes results from the Democrat super Tuesday yesterday? Interesting that Joe Biden came out ahead of Bernie “socialist” Sanders. What a surprise. I thought the young and blind would be taking over the D’s party.
https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/super-tuesday/
Deplorable John, I guess you and I are not just deplorable enough. We aren’t “woke” and we aren’t Communists. That leaves us out of most of the hyper-leftist thinking. Ha Ha. Anyway, those folks are just nuts.
Joe Biden is just TOO AGREEABLE for my tastes. Any senior leader must be disagreeable. They must be strong, decisive, and bold. None of those things are Joe Biden.
As still a newcomer to the leadership pages of Gen. Satterfield and his blog, I want to say I’m enjoying both his daily articles and the discussions in this forum. Rarely can you find it anywhere. I looked for and wide where you can find open discussions like this. For that reason I would like to suggest an idea. Maybe Gen Satterfield could create a new page that deals with a daily topic and that is where discussion “strings” could take place over time. I’m not sure how it would work but he might have the technological ability to make it happen. Thanks for reading my long-winded input!
Very interesting input, Randy. I think this is a great idea. That is one way to be able to have a historical accounting of thinking in one single place. Not sure how but hey, the Internet is full of ideas, just pick the best ones.
Great suggestion Randy. I’ll support it.
Randy, you’ve certainly proposed a valuable idea. Let me think about exactly how I could do this. Again, thanks for continuing to make suggestions that would make my website better.
Very good, Gen. Satterfield. Thanks from all of us.
Good article. Good thinking. ?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Thanks Janna and always good to see you on board with Gen. Satterfield. It’s been a while since I’ve been here and glad that many of those from then are still here. Cheers!
Welcome back Joe
Joe you’ve always given us your perspective about leadership from the “Aussie” view. Keep up the great works down there. I know that there have been some natural disasters that has taken you away from us for a while. Let us know if there is anything we can do.
Welcome back Joe. I hope that none of your family were hurt in these recent events.
Nice followup from yesterday’s article on the big 5 personality traits. Looking forward to reading more about these.