We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Leadership is the ability to build and maintain a team that can outperform the competition. Therefore a good leader must be someone others are willing to follow.

People look for four essential characteristics in leaders, the first of which is integrity.

People need to know that the person in charge won’t take advantage of his or her position—won’t lie, steal, play favorites, or betray subordinates. Unfortunately, many do.

Integrity is the most important characteristic of good leaders. In our survey of more than 1,000 individuals, 81% said trustworthiness was the most important personality characteristic of their best boss. Conversely, 50% described their worst boss as deceitful.

Trust in one’s superior is essential, and predicts the entire range of desirable organizational outcomes: productivity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Once subordinates lose trust in their leaders, the relationship can never be repaired, and they are likely to remain outside the circle of trust.

To read more about the essential characteristics of good leaders, check out our free e-book, The Hogan Leadership Model.

Steve Jobs is arguably one of the most successful businessmen in modern times. He started Apple and NeXT, took a majority ownership stake in Pixar for $10M and after ten blockbuster films sold the company to Disney for over $7B, and around the time of his death Apple had a market cap greater than the gross domestic product of Poland. Apple is one of the world’s most recognized brands and the company’s products have won numerous awards for their technical capabilities, functionality, ease of use, and aesthetics. Because of these results many view Steve Jobs as the personification of the successful business leader, yet Walter Isaacson’s biography paints a picture of a complex and highly flawed individual. 

As experts in executive assessment, reading Isaacson’s book prompted us to ask three questions about Steven Jobs and current hiring practices. First, would Jobs have been hired to be the CEO of a start up or a Fortune 500 company if he had to go through a formal assessment process?  Second, what would an assessment have revealed about Jobs’ watch outs or development needs? Third, what can we learn from Steve Jobs and his leadership style? This last question is important, as Job’s tremendous success as a businessman has overshadowed some of the critical lessons about leadership.

Read the full article by guest bloggers, Gordon Curphy and Rocky Kimball.

Leadership lessons from Thomas J. Watston, Sr.

What is a good leader? Michael Scott, the former main character in NBC’s hit sitcom The Office, has an intertesting take.

Unfortunately, Michael’s definition rings true. Leadership is usually defined in terms of a person’s status in an organization. If a person has a title, he or she must have the leadership skills. Right? Wrong.

The truth is, people typically advance in organizations by pleasing their bosses with displays of loyalty and technical knowledge. Performance appraisals reflect how much supervisors like their subordinates. Consequently, designated high performers are often skilled at office politics rather than leadership.

Human evolution suggests an alternative definition of leadership. During 2 million years of pre-history, humans lived in egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, and there was constant warfare between them. Leadership probably evolved as a mechanism that allowed normally selfish individuals to pull together for a common purpose—to compete with neighboring groups to defend territory and resources.

Therefore, leadership should be defined as the ability to build and maintain a team that can outperform the competition. Leadership is a resource for the group, not a source of privilege for incumbents; leadership should be defined and evaluated in terms of the performance of the team, which depends on how the subordinates perceive the leader.

To learn more about what makes a good leader, check out our complimentary e-book, The Hogan Leadership Model.

He’s the hothead, the live wire, the one with the short fuse and explosive temper. His energy is infectious, but his mood can turn on a dime, and when he starts lobbing shells, boy you’d better take cover.

On the climb up the corporate ladder, the line between strength and weakness isn’t always clear. Although the loose cannon’s intensity makes him a favorite with his boss, his volatile emotions have the people around him walking on eggshells.

Watch this video to see the loose cannon at work, or visit www.howdoyouderail.com to view the entire HDS video series. Follow on Twitter @ImHiExcitable #howdoyouderail

Popeye is self-aware.

A recent article on ABC News’ website chronicles the story of a job seeker who is suing a potential employer for allegedly using personality assessments to support discriminatory hiring practices.

Here’s the gist, according to ABC News: A woman named Vicky Sandy applied for a job as a cashier, bagger and stocker at a Kroger supermarket in West Virginia. As part of the application process, she took a personality assessment designed to predict whether she would be friendly and communicate well with customers. Sandy, who is hearing- and speech-impaired, scored a 40 percent. Her post-test results showed that she was less likely than other applicants to “listen carefully, understand and remember” and suggested the job interviewer listen for “correct language” and “clear enunciation.” She was not hired, and subsequently filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Without knowing all of the details, we can’t comment on this specific case. But it brings up an important point. As more companies turn to personality assessments to help them with the hiring process, it is critical that those assessments are well validated, and that they are used properly.

At Hogan, we take enormous pride that our assessments have never been successfully challenged, and we provide our clients detailed information about the development and validation of each of our four assessments.

Dr. Kevin Meyer, a senior consultant in our global alliances division, explains it simply in his last blog post “The (Il)legality of Personality Assessment in Employee Selection.”

For the more complicated version, check out our white paper “Adverse Impact and the HPI.”