Ambitious Leaders May Not Be as Good as They Think
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed that only people who didn't want power were qualified to hold it.
In other words, ambitious people determined to be leaders might not be the best people to have in charge.
Was he right?
A team of modern-day researchers wanted to find out: Do ambitious people make the best leaders, or not?
Spoiler alert — the answer is "No!"
As the research team pointed out, it's usually the most ambitious people who put themselves forward for leadership roles, perhaps attracted by financial, personal and professional rewards.
So these people are more likely to get these jobs, rather than those who are less ambitious — but who might be just as capable, if not more so.
The researchers collected data on 472 executives at a business school in the US. As part of their program, the executives took part in a "360-degree" leadership assessment.
This meant they got feedback on their leadership from their managers, colleagues and employees, as well as reflecting on their own performance.
People working with or working for the executives were asked to rate their ambition and the effectiveness of their leadership.
The executives also rated their own effectiveness and completed a questionnaire about their ambition.
The study found that there was a big difference between how ambitious executives rated themselves and how others rated them.
The researchers said that ambitious executives often thought they were very effective, but this view was not shared by the people working with them.
Less ambitious executives were not seen as any less effective than their more ambitious peers.
At first, the researchers said they were a little surprised by the results. "But then, we considered how many incompetent people end up running companies, schools, even countries," study coauthor Shilaan Alzahawi told PsyPost.
That doesn't mean that ambitious people should be discouraged from becoming leaders, or that less ambitious leaders should be made to do so. But the researchers said that organizations should make sure prospective leaders are "motivated for the right reasons."
