Without realising, we can tell who is likely to become a leader, automatically giving them more of our attention. When a group of people who don’t know each other meet for the first time, leaders naturally emerge, signaling charismatic behaviour and a variety of vocal cues.

A group from Vrije University in Amsterdam have studied whether such signals triggered more automatic changes in who we pay attention to. They filmed meetings held by teams who had never met before over a period of seven weeks. At the end of this time, independent mentors rated each team member on whether they had emerged as a leader or follower. The researchers then edited the videos into 42 soundless clips, and showed them to 18 new people.

As the volunteers watched the videos, the researchers measured where they were looking, and for how long. They found that the volunteers looked more often, and for longer, at people who went on to become leaders within the group. The basic idea was that from an evolutionary perspective it might have been very helpful to recognise quickly who you should follow.

To find out how the leaders were able to trigger changes in others’ attention, the team analysed how the people behaved. They found that emerging leaders used active gestures more often when others were speaking, such as constantly moving their bodies, and large hand movements, and were “present” with their whole bodies and expressions throughout. Their negative facial expressions, such as yawning or staring blankly, were less frequent, although both followers and leaders smiled equally frequently. The unpublished data suggests that talking a lot helps to signal leadership, but what a person says becomes more important over time. Vocal pitch can also signal if someone intends to dominate or submit to another person. (The Leadership Quarterly, doi.org/cgzs).

Initially talking a lot and being present in the discussion is important, but as the discussion develops it’s more about what you say than how much you chatter on. “Being a solution-orientated person who doesn’t focus on problems is what seems to pick you out as a leader.”
The team’s results also suggest that women face additional obstacles in becoming leaders. In situations where women went on to emerge as leaders, people spent slightly less time looking at them than they did at men who went on to become leaders in other scenarios. The researchers assumed (correctly?) that there is a preference for male emergent leaders and this could explain why more men end up in leadership roles. (Helen Thomson. New Scientist 9Sept 2017).

My take: this seems to suggest that people will follow those who talk a lot, maybe quite charmingly, sound very positive, but actually say very little of substance, just look good. We have all encountered these people, who like the sound of their own voices, avoid difficult (negative) problems and monopolise the conversation. Missing is any attempt to include the quiet and shy in the discussion (What do you think?) or encouragement (Good idea!). If the researchers are right and have been reported correctly, no wonder we get some superficial people in positions of power. In America, to be a CEO you need to be male, tall, fairly slim, remember people’s names, play golf, dominate meetings without committing yourself to action, and, most importantly, be very handsome. I met people like that at General Motors years ago. The huge company was badly managed and nearly went bankrupt in 2008. Followers of Epicurus listen rather than talk and wave their hands (I’m joking)