Harvard Business Review. Why so many incompetent men become successful

[Maraya1969]

https://hbr.org/2013/08/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men

This reminds me of Jane Goodall's exploitation of how a male gorilla be comes leader of a group by stomping around and making the most noise, acting like he deserves the position somehow.


Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

There are three popular explanations for the clear under-representation of women in management, namely: (1) they are not capable; (2) they are not interested; (3) they are both interested and capable but unable to break the glass-ceiling: an invisible career barrier, based on prejudiced stereotypes, that prevents women from accessing the ranks of power. Conservatives and chauvinists tend to endorse the first; liberals and feminists prefer the third; and those somewhere in the middle are usually drawn to the second. But what if they all missed the big picture?

In my view, the main reason for the uneven management sex ratio is our inability to discern between confidence and competence. That is, because we (people in general) commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as a sign of competence, we are fooled into believing that men are better leaders than women. In other words, when it comes to leadership, the only advantage that men have over women (e.g., from Argentina to Norway and the USA to Japan) is the fact that manifestations of hubris — often masked as charisma or charm — are commonly mistaken for leadership potential, and that these occur much more frequently in men than in women.

This is consistent with the finding that leaderless groups have a natural tendency to elect self-centered, overconfident and narcissistic individuals as leaders, and that these personality characteristics are not equally common in men and women. In line, Freud argued that the psychological process of leadership occurs because a group of people — the followers — have replaced their own narcissistic tendencies with those of the leader, such that their love for the leader is a disguised form of self-love, or a substitute for their inability to love themselves. “Another person’s narcissism”, he said, “has a great attraction for those who have renounced part of their own… as if we envied them for maintaining a blissful state of mind.”

The truth of the matter is that pretty much anywhere in the world men tend to think that they that are much smarter than women.

[flamingdem]

1. yes, indeed

[bettyellen]

2. Yeah, men get the benefit of he doubt more. And also men are often ineffective reigning in bullies

In many places there is still a pecking order where this blustery machismo rules. Look how many people give DT a totally undeserved benefit of the doubt and make excuses for his crazy shit. He's frightened many people into submission.

[Maraya1969]

3. It is really horrible to think of what these men did to Hillary in order to put this asshat

in power. She is a strong, extremely intelligent woman who can run circles around that clown. They had to keep her under "investigation" for bullshit charges and spread false information for YEARS to get her out of the running.

And then, I wholeheartedly believe they still had to rig the election! I still say there is no way all the mathematical predictions, early voting polls and exit polls that clearly predicted Hillary are the winner could all be accidentally wrong!!!!

[bettyellen]

9. It was so disconcerting hearing so many men say "they hated her" and not have rational reasons...

So many were convinced she was a liar, but could not say about what! And equally there was complaints about her husband?!? Coupled with NO knowledge of her own career... and the all too frequent "I just can't listen to her!" Fuck all of that, you dumbasses.

[tavernier]

4. I'm reading a biography of Steve Jobs

who was basically a cry baby and a bully. Most of the genius came from Wozniak and his staff. However he was miles ahead of trump in intelligence and instinct.

[Motownman78]

5. Obviously the Harvard Review

has never heard of the property management industry. 97% of the managers, up to and including the CEO, are women.

[Marie Marie]

6. Well stated.

And then there is also The Peter Principle.

[ebbie15644]

7. I remember being right out of college

I was working on a new program in human services and a male coworker sensed that I felt in over my head, he told me if I do t know the answer "fake it". He had great confidence and he told me even if he didn't know he never let it show. It was fantastic advice, I believe as women we are not trained to be confident and that is half the battle

[brush]

8. Shut out half the population, women, from competing, then POCs, then the game is rigged...

for you know who to hog all the top jobs.