Extroverted leaders are ‘annoying’

When it comes to leadership, extroversion is considered a good trait. However, a recent study has suggested that some leaders may have too much of a good thing. The study has found that informal leaders were better liked and more sought after for advice when they hit middle ‘sweet spot’ between two facets of extroversion- assertiveness and warmth.

“Overly extroverted leaders can come across as too pushy or too annoying. A moderate amount of assertiveness and warmth may be optimal,” said Jia (Jasmine) Hu, lead author of the study. The study did find one factor that helped highly extroverted leaders receive better marks from their peers: prosocial motivation, or the desire to look out for others’ welfare. The researchers did two related studies. The first involved 260 business undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to 78 selfmanaged teams. The stu

dents worked in their teams on a variety of projects through a full semester.

At the beginning of the semester, students rated themselves on two facets of extroversion. One was assertiveness, which is the desire to be dominant and forceful. The second was warmth, which is how friendly and outgoing they were. The students’ prosocial motivation was measured by asking them how much they agreed with statements like “I care about benefiting others through my work.”

Later in the semester, students rated each member of their team on how much they showed leadership in their group activities. Based on these ratings, the researchers chose the person on each team who was seen by most of their peers as the leader. Team members also rated how much they liked each of their team members and how much they went to him or her for advice in solving problems related to their tasks.

A second, nearly identical study involved 337 employees on work teams. Both studies had very similar results.

Leaders who were extroverted tended to be better liked and more sought after for advice by their team members – but only up to a point.