Implicit Leadership in the Office

Implicit leadership theory focuses on the idea that we all have certain prototypes for what leaders should be like. Since we have implicit ideas of what leaders should be like or look like, we are more likely to favor leaders that match this prototype. I believe this is a very relevant theory to my experience at AlphaSights thus far in a few different ways. First, I think it is relevant to the role of gender in the office and the breakdown of senior leadership. Second, I think it is relevant to the types of people that become leaders at AlphaSights.

While I do not know the specific numbers of gender breakdown for the AlphaSights office, there seem to be many more girls than boys. However, the company was founded by two men and the majority of the vice-presidents are men. I have also noticed an implicit bias toward men in some of my coworkers. As the summer progresses, I am curious to see if these implicit biases are the norm or the exception. In particular, I have noticed this bias in my trainer. For example: when I tell my trainer I found an expert I want to call, he always says “great, call him.” This occurs very frequently, and he never expects the expert to be a female or says “call her“. I actually asked my trainer about why he thinks he assumes experts to be male, and he said he had never noticed he did that. This has made me curious as to if his bias stems from senior leadership, or is reflective of the organizational culture.

Every person who came to speak to us during training was extremely outgoing and loud. I believe that people at AlphaSights have an implicit bias toward extroverted leaders versus introverted leaders. While being able to talk to new people is a clear requisite for the job, I have noticed that it can make the quieter employees forgotten at times. While confidence is important to a certain extent, being the loudest person in the room does not necessarily make you a good leader. I think that by usually promoting people who are outgoing, the company is doing a disservice to itself. A good leader is able to create change and influence its followers in multiple ways. For example: one of my bosses is extremely quiet, but she always has a positive attitude which creates an optimistic culture for our team. She is also a high performing associate. But, based on the personalities of all the managers I have met, it seems like she would be less likely to be promoted someone who is loud and confident. I think implicit leadership theory powerfully explains why certain people are hired and promoted at AlphaSights. However, I do think it falls short in predicting who is more likely to succeed in terms of results. Just because the management may have implicit biases toward confident people, there is not guarantee that they will do well.