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August 2019 Vol. 56 No. 12

Chamorro-Premuzic (business psychology, University College London, UK, and Columbia Univ.) explores connections between leadership behavior and gender. Synthesizing existing research, he argues that stereotypically male traits such as excessive risk-taking and narcissism are interpreted, incorrectly, as positive indicators of confidence and strength, creating a vicious cycle of leaders being selected based on traits that are harmful to organizational success. The author examines negative leadership traits through the lens of societal perception and gender, comparing common assumptions with research findings to identify the traits organizations should reward in contrast to those they do reward. He suggests that females and non-stereotypical males are ignored for leadership roles because of their lack of these traits, despite having other qualities that would be more beneficial to their organizations. This is fine, but the author does not seem to come through on the "how to fix it" aspect of his thesis. Though he clearly believes increased gender representation will improve leadership, his conclusion seems to be that incompetent men become leaders because the traits that make them incompetent are rewarded; therefore, if the definition of good leaders changed, fewer incompetent people would become leaders, creating more diversity.

--G. Snipes, University of Oregon

Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. General readers and professionals.