Owned by Our ILTs

Through direct interaction with the execs at Vaudeville Ventures, I learned about the ways in which my own implicit leadership theories (ILTs) govern my thoughts and opinions about others. I saw how leadership styles and personalities combat each other in situations where it’s not obvious who holds the highest rank in the room. When I first started at Vaudeville, it was clear the three execs wear different hats at the organization because of their different strengths. One exec is quieter and hands-off, the second is articulate, charismatic and polished, and the last exec is difficult to follow, disorganized, distracted easily and more imaginative than any of others. I assumed that the third exec wouldn’t fill the “leader” role at the organization despite being a co-founder. He wore old tee shirts to work rather than the button down that the other execs wear. He didn’t conform to my ILTs although I knew he had years of experience working at and starting companies. Despite knowing that, I dismissed his ability to fill the leader role in my mind. 

Whether subconscious or not, I think of leaders as being articulate, charismatic and polished. I would say that many of us credit individuals with these qualities as being more suitable for leadership roles, even when other candidates might be more talented but do not fill the leader mold.  I saw this play out in evaluating the exec at Vaudeville who didn’t conform with my ILTs, as well as how other execs and employees interacted with and talked about him. He was subject to much more criticism than anyone else in the office, whether it was about his ADD, his messiness, or his tendency to go on tangents rather than getting straight to the point.

Implicit leadership theories (ILTs) are discussed in the article by Forsyth and Nye, “Seeing and Being a Leader: The Perceptual, Cognitive, and Interpersonal Roots of Conferred Influence.” In Forsyth and Nye’s research they found, “people associate leadership with instrumentality (analytical, task-oriented, problem-solving) and social sensitivity (egalitarian, positive, extroverted). In many ways, the exec I have been discussing is discredited as a leader because he does not possess “instrumentality” quality that people expect in a leader. The theory seems to check out in terms of providing an explanation as to why I found myself and others discrediting this leader, despite his experience, intellect, and creativity. If my coworkers and the execs were all leadership students, I think they’d be more likely to understand and re-evaluate the way they treat this exec and others because of their ILTs. If people were more aware of how their ILTs play a part in why they discredit others as leaders, I believe the organization would run smoother and people would focus more on improving upon their own flaws rather than critiquing others. While this insight about ILTs wouldn’t necessarily solve all the problems between individuals of an organization, it would help people become more self-aware of their biases when it comes to evaluating others as leaders.