Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-05-16
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Imran Mir, PhD Candidate in Education, University of Glasgow Oral fluency is often overrated when it comes to choosing employees who will receive a promotion. Pressmaster/Shutterstock In many companies, leadership is still confused with charisma.
A misdiagnosis that can weaken teams, hinder performance, and discourage talent. Many have already worked under the command of a manager who appears confident, eloquent, and omnipresent – but struggles to effectively lead their team. Employees become disengaged, decision-making slows down, and performance declines.
And yet, these same profiles often continue to climb the ranks. This phenomenon is nothing exceptional. In many organizations, the potential ofleadershipis evaluated based on easy-to-observe signals – such as self-confidence, charisma, or ease of speaking – rather than on the qualities that truly allow a team to function.
This creates a lasting problem. Organizations promote people who have the appearance of leaders rather than those who actually demonstrate the necessary skills to lead. The importance of visible signals Promotion decisions are often made in uncertainty.
Supervisors do not always have the necessary information to accurately assess a candidate’s leadership abilities. They therefore rely on visible signals. These signals generally rely on how a person expresses themselves in meetings, presents their ideas, or interacts with management and stakeholders.
Those who display confidence and authority in their communication are more easily perceived as ready to take on leadership roles. But these signals can be misleading. In the course of my ongoing doctoral research on inclusive leadership, I have found that a leader’s effectiveness depends less on their visibility than on their ability to support and advance their team.
Someworks have shownthat people who adopt an authoritative stance and display self-confidence can be perceived by management as more competent and ready to lead, even when objective performance indicators do not confirm this impression. D’other searcheshave even shown that traits like narcissism can increase the chances of accessing leadership positions – even though these qualities do not predict effectiveness in leadership.
When evaluating their employees, managers tend to confuse theself-confidence and competence. Extensive studies on personality and leadership show that people exhibiting traits like extraversion aremore likely to access management positions. But even here, these characteristics are not always good indicators of real effectiveness in the role.
The qualities that really matter While self-confidence and charisma can play a role in leadership, they are not its main drivers. Someresearch workshow that other skills are often more decisive. These notably include judgment, the ability to help others grow, emotional intelligence, and the ability to create an environment where employees feel recognized.
Concretely, this can translate into the freedom to propose ideas or raise issues without fear. The teams aremore efficientwhen employees feel valued in their work. And the possibility to openly share ideas, or admit mistakes without fear, is also a key factor in building strong teams.
Studies on theemotional intelligencesuggest that leaders who demonstrate empathy and a good understanding of interpersonal relationships are often better able to establish trust and maintain a high level of performance within their team. Thetrue measure of leadershipis thus reflected more in collective performance and the results obtained than in the charisma or visibility of an individual.
These skills, however, remain difficult to assess during promotion processes. They develop gradually with experience and are expressed mainly in daily interactions, rather than in highly visible moments like presentations or meetings. As a result: organizations may overlook profiles with high leadership potential – simply because their contributions are less visible.
Promoting poor leadership profiles can have significant consequences. When organizations value visibility over real skills, they risk establishing a culture where self-promotion takes precedence over collaboration. Teams then become more reluctant to challenge decisions or propose new viewpoints, especially if leaders display confidence without being open to feedback.
Consequences on performance In the long term, this can weaken decision-making, reduce employee engagement, and increase turnover. Large meta-analyses also showclose tiesbetween the behavior of managers, the engagement of their teams and the company’s performance (measured notably by productivity or customer satisfaction).
Promotion systems that favor self-confidence and visibility can also homogenize leadership teams. People who communicate differently or who are less inclined to highlight their achievements risk being sidelined, even if they have strong leadership skills.
Result: leadership teams that lack diversity in ways of thinking and backgrounds, because the same traits and communication styles are continuously valued. If organizations want to progress, they must go beyond these most visible signals of leadership potential.
They can, for example, rely more on concrete elements showing how individuals support and grow their teams even before holding managerial positions: their ability to support colleagues, create collective momentum, or face difficulties together with others.
Overcoming stereotypes Organizations can collect broader feedback on potential profiles, notably from peers or through collective evaluations. This allows for a more accurate view of how a person concretely exercises leadership. Leadership development programs can also help to better identify profiles with strong skills, but who do not necessarily fit the traditional stereotypes of a leader.
Work environments are becoming increasingly complex, with the development of remote work and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence transforming the organization and management of teams. Leaders must adapt to these changes while managing increasingly diverse groups.
In this context, the ability to listen, collaborate, and support employees can prove far more decisive than simply displaying confidence.
Imran Mir does not work for, advise, hold shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no other affiliation than his research institution. –ref.
Why companies favor the “false good leaders” –https://theconversation.com/why-companies-prefer-fake-good-leaders-281263