Being Overly Extroverted Can Hurt a Leader’s Likeability
Extroverts are often seen as natural leaders, but have you ever worked with an extroverted leader whose peers reported them as overly assertive? Why would this be so? Well, new research from the Ohio State University (OSU) found that team members react less favorably to leaders who rate high on assertiveness and warmth, two key characteristics of extroversion.
“Overly extroverted leaders can come across as too pushy or too annoying,” says Jia (Jasmine) Hu, lead author of the study and associate professor of management and human resources at OSU’s Fisher College of Business. “A moderate amount of assertiveness and warmth may be optimal.”
For this report, which appears in the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers conducted two studies. The first study randomly assigned 260 undergraduate business students to 78 self-managed teams. The teams worked on a variety of projects over the course of a full semester.
At the beginning of the semester, the students rated themselves on two facets of extroversion: assertiveness, or the desire to be dominant and forceful, and warmth, or the degree of how friendly and outgoing they were.
Later in the semester, the students rated each other on how much leadership they displayed in their team activities, how much they liked each person, and how often they sought advice in problem-solving from each person. Using these ratings, the researchers identified one person from each team who was seen by most as the leader of the group.
The second study was nearly identical to the first, except the participants were 337 employees in a large retail company in China. These employees were already divided into self-managed teams without formal leaders.
Both studies had similar results: Extroverted leaders tended to be liked better and more sought after for advice by team members—but only to a certain point. Those who rated themselves as “very assertive” or “very warm” experienced a drop-off in how much their team members liked them and how often they were sought for advice.
“If you’re too assertive as a team member, people think you’re pushy and they don’t like that,” Hu says. “And if you’re too warm and friendly, that can be overwhelming for others who feel pressured to respond in the same enthusiastic way.”
So how can these leaders gain more favorability? The researchers found that fellow team members can tolerate more extroversion if you’re doing it for the good of the team.
“If you’re prosocially motivated, people see more benefits to your assertiveness and warmth,” Hu says. They know you’re not doing it just to promote yourself but have a genuine interest in the whole team. That means a lot.”
Lisa Cunningham
Lisa Cunningham is a freelance writer and social media consultant. She holds a master’s degree in professional writing with a focus on web content development from Chatham University and a bachelor’s degree in English writing and communication from the University of Pittsburgh.
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