Too Much Assertiveness or Warmth Can Burn Chances for Leadership

Ask most people if they like warm leaders, and you will likely receive a lot of agreement. But too much warmth can incinerate a person’s chances to become an effective leader. The same can be said of assertiveness — it can be overdone.

Levels of both warmth and assertiveness, both dimensions of extroversion, are at the center of a recent studies relating both characteristics to informal leadership. Past research has ignored the various dimensions of extroversion.

The term “informal leader” describes someone who emerges from a self-managed team as the individual who has the most influence over his or her teammates. There is no formal title or assignment of leadership; this is simply the individual who others naturally look to for direction. There are even times when there may actually be a formally assigned manager, but someone else surfaces as ultimately more persuasive.

If you are either too warm or too assertive, you are less likely to emerge as an informal leader. A moderate amount of both, in the right proportions, is instead optimal.

Individuals who are too warm have been found to disengage others. Theory and logic have led to the conclusion this is because people feel pressured to match the enthusiasm, which is ultimately a turnoff.

And if you are too assertive, people may think you are too pushy or controlling, but that evaluation could be mitigated by your motivation. If you are driven to look out for the welfare of others, that is known as prosocial motivation. And it is a term you will encounter throughout leadership research.

If people feel you have this prosocial motivation, then your elevated levels assertiveness or warmth will not be as detrimental to your status or power within the team. But it still important to keep both attributes in check.

This information comes from two connected studies. The first was with 260 undergraduate business students who were randomly assigned to 78 self-managed teams throughout one semester. No formal leader was named. During the course of this study, students rated themselves on both assertiveness and warmth.

The self-ratings were used because the assumption is people know themselves best. There was no

“right” or “wrong” assigned to these ratings, which resulted in more honest answers. People did not feel the need to skew the truthful responses one way or the other. Also, likability and advice seeking ratings were provided by others. If all ratings had been provided by others, both self and likability, some bias may have crept into the findings from individual raters.

Students also rated their own prosocial motivation on a scale of how much they agreed with the statement “I care about benefitting others through my work.” As the semester went on, students then rated their team members on how often they sought them out for insight and assistance in solving task-related issues.

A second study, completely separate but crafted in the same way, was conducted with 337 employees of a large Chinese retail company. The results of both studies fell in line with one another.

Self-managed teams without a single voice arising to guide others do not perform as well.

Remember, if this is a position you strive for – be sure to keep the warmth and assertiveness in check.

After all, you do not want to burn out your co-workers.