An individual’s ability to exercise leadership is hinged on his or her ability to persuade others to follow. According to the Hogan Leadership Model, followers look for four essential qualities in a leader: integrity, judgment, competence, and vision. Of these, integrity is most essential.

In a recent survey, Hogan asked more than 1,000 individuals about the qualities of their all-time best boss. Eighty-one percent of respondents said trustworthiness was their most important personality characteristic. Conversely, 50% described their worst boss as deceitful.

“People need to know that the person in charge won’t take advantage of his or her position,” said Dr. Robert Hogan, founder of Hogan Assessments. “That they won’t lie, steal, play favorites, and betray subordinates.”

In a separate study, Dr. Hogan and Hogan co-founder and former vice president Dr. Joyce Hogan gathered personality data and performance ratings from the immediate supervisor and subordinates of 55 managers at a large transportation company. Statistical analysis revealed that subordinates ratings of their managers’ overall effectiveness was directly tied to the degree to which a manager was trusted.

Unfortunately, as the as the past decade of scandal, corruption, and Congressional hearings proved, there are an alarming number of dishonest people in leadership roles. Our latest complimentary eBook, Trust and Betrayal, examines who these people are, and how companies can prevent them from damaging their workforce.

In their book chapter “The Mask of Integrity,” published in Citizen Espionage: Studies in Trust and Betrayal, Drs. Joyce and Robert Hogan, outlined four characteristics that typified the ideal betrayer:

Charisma – According to Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, vice president of research and innovation at Hogan, there are three ways to influence others: force, reason, or charm. Force and reason are rational – even when people are forced to do something, they obey for a good reason. Charm, on the other hand, is based on emotional manipulation and has the ability to trump rational assessments.

Self-absorption – The second characteristic of an ideal betrayer is an unusual degree of self-absorption, or, more to the point, a relentless drive for self-advancement. Betrayers possess a ruthless dedication to self-advancement to the extent that other people lose their value as humans and become objects to be manipulated.

Self-Deception – The third characteristic that typifies the ideal betrayer is self-deception. A major tenet of psychoanalysis and existentialism is that people are prone to deceive themselves about the reasons for their actions.

Hollow Core Syndrome – The final characteristic of the ideal betrayer is a pattern of personality characteristics called the hollow core syndrome. The hollow core syndrome refers to people who are overtly self-confident, who meet the public well, who are charming and socially poised, and who expect others to like them, but who are privately self-doubting and unhappy.

Unfortunately, this charm, confidence, and talent for ingratiation provides betrayers the tools they need to find employment at and quickly ascend the ranks of large, hierarchical organizations, and the private self-doubt associated with the hollow core fuels their pursuit of the money, power, and prestige offered by senior management positions. Trust and Betrayal, a new eBook from Hogan, examines what companies can do to identify and mitigate the effects of betrayers in their ranks.

Harvard Business Review blogger, Jack Zenger, recently wrote “we wait too long to train our leaders.” In his post Zenger points out the discrepancy between when individuals first take on leadership roles and when they first receive leadership training. When looking at data from over 17,000 leaders across the globe, the average age an individual became a leader was 30, yet the average age for entering leadership training was 42. Why does this gap exist?

Some critics have pointed the finger at business schools, claiming they focus on developing “hard” business skills while doing little to develop their graduates’ “soft” leadership skills. These critics assert that new managers use their MBA skills marginally or not at all in their first management assignments. As such, MBA program administrators and faculty can no longer assume that graduates will successfully motivate and lead people in the business world without first developing these skills. In fact, companies prefer to recruit graduates who have been exposed to soft skill leadership development while still in school.

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) concluded that business schools could enhance their relevancy by devoting more attention to soft skill competencies and recently developed Reflect, an online development tool aimed at addressing this gap. Also, MBA programs have started implementing leadership development courses into their curriculums. Several of U.S. News’s top ranked MBA programs describe their leadership development courses on their websites to attract prospective students. Business schools appear to be working to close the gap by providing their students with leadership training early in their careers.

Interestingly, a similar trend may be happening in the leadership ranks within universities themselves. A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted Lucy Apthorp Leske, co-director of the education and not-for-profit practice at Witt/Kieffer, as saying, “There has been a real shift to the professionalization of higher education administration.” She explained that universities are putting more weight on factors like business sense and creative problem-solving rather than just research prowess for their leaders.

So while Zenger has a point, universities seem to be addressing this gap in more ways than one, working to equip leaders with the skills they need to be successful in the future.

Dr. Hogan to speak on personality assessment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness.

Although it is one of the most researched topics in the world, the academic study of leadership has failed to produce any applicable results.

Why? Dr. Robert Hogan explains.

In season 3, episode 15, of the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” one of the characters introduces the gang to a workplace phenomenon called the chain of screaming. I’ll let the video clip below do the heavy lifting, but it basically works like this: my boss’s boss screams at my boss, who in turn screams at me, after which I scream at one of my subordinates, and so on.

Although this seems like a clever joke around which to build a 20-minute episode, according to an article published yesterday on Forbes.com, the chain of screaming is real – sort of.

A new study suggests that bullying bosses affect more than just their victim. Researchers polled 233 people from various fields and found that, much like the chain of screaming, victims of a bullying boss often turn into bullies themselves, spreading their discontent through the office like a nasty virus.

Hogan’s own research supports these findings – 75% percent of working adults say the most stressful aspect of their job is their immediate boss.

Fortunately, companies aren’t powerless against the effects of bullying bosses and the disengaged workforces they create. To find out more, check out our free eBook, “Leadership: You’re Doing It Wrong.”

Three days after the Super Bowl XLVII dust has settled, the Twittersphere is still buzzing with predictable comments, including Beyonce’s wardrobe choice, the funniest commercials, and what caused the 30-minute blackout. Not surprisingly, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was not excluded from popular trending topics. As many are aware, Lewis ended his NFL career on Sunday with his second Super Bowl win, a bittersweet day for Baltimore Ravens fans. While most of the attention around Lewis after the win on Sunday was positive, historically, Lewis’ reputation with the media has been quite controversial. (A quick Google search will give you all the grizzly details). Despite Lewis’ rocky past and the public’s love/hate relationship with him, his influence and impact on his team are indisputable. As another football great retires, there are a couple of key observations to glean from Lewis’ career as a leader.

The performance of his team

The qualities of an effective leader have long been debated and are still not well-defined. Dr. Hogan will tell you that the best determinant for measuring a leader’s success is by the performance of his/her team. Applying this principle to Ray Lewis, his success as a leader is clear. In a recent Yahoo! Sports article, former teammate Tony Pashos was quoted as saying “…you know what happens when Ray Lewis is in the locker room, and on the field? Guess what, you just maximized your entire salary cap, because everyone around him is playing at the highest level he can play. When I hear about the great ones like [Boston Celtics legend] Bill Russell, they say that he made everyone around him better. That’s Ray.”

His impact beyond raw talent

As many sports writers attest, Lewis did not earn his champion status based solely on his athletic talent. Although he has many accolades of which to be proud, including being selected in 13 Pro Bowls, receiving the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award twice, and two Super Bowl rings, his legacy will be known for much more. Sports writer Michael Silver states: “Because he ascended to the top of his profession on the strength of intangibles — work ethic, attention to detail, relentless passion, indefatigable drive — Lewis' locker-room cred is tremendous. I exist in a world in which players routinely take private jabs at one another, especially those whose outsized personalities cause them to become public caricatures. Yet I've never covered an athlete more revered by teammates and opponents than Lewis, who habitually exceeds the lofty expectations of the newcomers that enter the Baltimore locker room.”

Although there may be other determining factors that lead one to such legacy status, these aspirations should be weighted heavily when considering how to make the greatest leadership impact. By focusing on such objectives, current leaders may realize some of the same notoriety upon retirement, just like the football legend himself.

Good leadership is critical for business success. Yet, few people agree on what constitutes good leadership. In this video, Dr. Robert Hogan outlines the four characteristics of good leaders.

Ryan Ross and Jocelyn Hays will present at the 2013 Innovations in Testing Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, February 3-6. The conference fosters innovation by showcasing the latest technologies and encouraging relationships among the diverse group of attendees.

Innovations in Leadership Assessment: Research, Instrumentation, and Technology
This session will explore innovations in leadership assessment from several standpoints including: technology innovations that have provided accessible and affordable leadership assessment, research of evidence-based assessment practice opportunities leveraging longitudinal needs analyses and validation results, and a review of trends in leadership derailment and impacts on organizational effectiveness.
Ryan Ross, Vice President of Hogan Global Alliances 

Developing Model Request for Proposal (RFP) Guidelines for the Assessment Industry
This panel discussion will feature perspectives from both assessment providers and firms that use assessments regarding the RFP process, how it can be standardized, and how we might move forward with developing appropriate process guidelines.Innovations in Leadership Assessment: Research, Instrumentation, and Technology.

Pre-Employment Assessments: Expanding the Scope beyond Employee Selection
This session will explore the use of assessments for purposes beyond employee selection and audiences beyond job candidates and incumbents. 
Jocelyn Hays, Hogan Consultant 

Psychologist Dr. Robert Hogan, an international authority on personality assessment and leadership, contends that great leadership stems from the skills and personality of the leader, rather than the position itself. Hogan’s personality assessments are used by more than half of the Fortune 500 and his influence is felt in boardrooms around the world. While he is optimistic that organizations can improve leadership and operational effectiveness, he is highly critical of how leadership assessment and succession planning are carried out in the public and private organizations today. Find out more in our Leadership Myths & Truths Q&A.