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Leaders must be similar to the people they lead (psychology of leadership)
I recently finished "The New Psychology of Leadership" and it's the best leadership book I have ever read.
One of the most important takeaways is that leaders must be prototypical of the group they represent.
That means that if the group thinks they are hard-working and straightforward, the leader must also embody those qualities.
Basically, the charismatic leader who leads based on his intrinsic qualities is a myth.
Yes it happens that charismatic take the reins, but that's mostly in tumultuous times and as Greene righteously notes in "The Art of Seduction", they tend to be dropped when things calm down.
To put it with the authors' words:
Leaders can be ahead of the group, but never so far ahead that they are out there on their own.
Some more important takeaways:
- Being unfair to the outgroup can be more beneficial than always being fair
- An enemy will often shore up the leader's support (and that's why political leaders often seek an enemy)
- Political leaders will try to manipulate their message and the group's culture to receive support for their policies
If we look at George W. Bush he was terribly effective with point 2 and 3.
Eventually, reality caught up with him and he went down as a terrible president. But by then, the damage was already done.
