Carrot or Stick

How Values Influence Leadership Style

Various positions require different types of leadership. The approach to leading a group of soldiers on a battlefield, misbehaving teenagers in a math classroom, or a newly opened coffee shop would be different. People with other skills, types of charisma, and values lead smaller or bigger groups, gaining the team's trust through genuine kindness, focus, authority, shared vision, and sometimes fear or even aggression. In this essay, I will divide the leadership styles into categories. Charismatic, focused on enthusiasm, and a magnetic personality that attracts and inspires others, fear-based leadership and aggressive leadership often powered by one's fears and insecurities, manipulation, and aggression.

People tend to trust aggressive leaders. Aggressive might be an exaggeration in this context, but I used this word because it resonates with capability, a trait extremely valuable in leadership roles and appreciated by relationship partners, employees, and voters. It is being capable of making difficult decisions and acting when necessary. When we try to list a perfect leader’s traits quickly, we think about kindness, empathy, and honesty. Nevertheless, Donald Trump received over 60 million votes in 2016. I wouldn’t necessarily say he is viewed as a kind, empathic, and honest person. Despite this, almost half of the United States voters trusted him to lead the country, giving him the most challenging job and making him one of the most powerful people in the world. Donald Trump gained his popularity for being a successful businessman. He was not afraid of taking huge risks, which were extremely rewarding, but even more importantly, he was not scared of failure. He has several failed business ventures. Trump's Atlantic City casino, Taj Mahal, called the '8th wonder of the world,' sold for pennies on the dollar, quoting a Chicago Tribune article from 2017. Donald Trump’s ego and unquestionable self-confidence allowed him to take those risks, but above all, it helped him create an internationally recognized brand from his name through the enormous publicity he received since the beginning of his business career. In general terms, business is based on capitalism, which tends to transform everything that draws attention, including people, to the product. He saw this opportunity and did not hesitate to use it. Insulting journalists, luxury lifestyle, firm handshake, and quotes such as “I will build a great great wall on our southern border, and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall." are nothing close to kindness or empathy, but they create charisma, which is a result of an aggressive personality that 60 million Americans trusted with running the country.

This leads us to an interesting question: Why are people attracted to people with dark personality traits? Why do we trust people who present The Dark Triad personality, displaying narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism? It is seemingly dangerous and not logical, but this dominance, charisma, and leadership abilities often result in gaining the trust of people who desperately need help or change; they don't want to get hurt, just to feel safe. People with this dark type of personality, often smart, are capable of making difficult decisions and providing the sensation of safety. Interactions with those people are dangerous; they might even result in trauma, but we simply might feel desire towards people displaying confidence. After that cheerful conclusion, let’s look into a more positive leadership style.

In Startups, student-led groups, or newly opened businesses, the most important things should be trust among team members, effective communication, and a shared vision. Presenting and maintaining those principles requires a specific leader, a very charismatic one, generally positive, empathic, and trustworthy. A person who believes that the team's combined efforts will result in something remarkable and makes sure that team members feel the same way. They connect emotionally with others, understanding and responding to their needs and concerns. In this scenario, employees do not fear the leader, as it might disrupt communication and result in more significant problems later. A startup leader should be capable of conveying his ideas with passion and conviction, not fear, aggression, or manipulation. Pressuring members would simply result in them walking away since pay could be related to the team's performance and not guaranteed success of the venture, or there might be no pay at all. It requires a person with a particular skillset to manage the group in such a scenario. Often kind-hearted and trustworthy, and almost always charismatic. Creativity and willingness to collaborate would be appreciated since many problems might be faced, and solutions must be quick and effective. The team needs to see that their leader is optimistic and willing to learn, he needs to be patient with the growth, focused, yet flexible. When we think about such a leader, we usually smile, unlike the next one.

Fear-based leadership is an extremely effective approach in some cases. I have the pleasure of speaking from my own experience and using the example of my cycling coach, a former Olympian in track cycling. Just to have a better impression of him: a bald man in his mid-40s, around 6′ 4″ well built. He was the last coach in the cycling development program I was a member of and the most serious one. We heard many stories about him before he took over our group; everyone said he was responsible for “shaping” or “modeling” cyclists while they were still young, teaching them the right values, teamwork, how to win, and how to handle defeat. He was respected in the cycling community and even more respected in our club. He was not the guy you joke about or don't care about.

The older I am, the more I respect him because I realize what skills and experience it takes to take a group of teenagers and turn them into the winning group, a working team that has won every race in the country. The commitment was expected from us. We all knew we didn’t have to be there, but we were there for a reason and were proud to be a part of this group. Between the lines, he taught us life, how things work, and that we choose if we win or not. My coach wasn’t a bully, but the fear of him boosted the performance. He was feared not because he shouted a lot. He was scary because he did it so rarely, and when he did, we knew what it meant. He was focused and composed. During one sports camp, our two friends from an older group were caught with alcohol at night. In the morning, during the usual check-in and short lecture, nothing happened for the longer part. Coach almost gave the impression that no consequences would be faced, and during the lecture, the faces of the guilty guys went through every color I knew. At the end, our coach mentioned one more item to discuss. He asked the two guys to stand up and just said to pack their belongings, named a date to hand back bikes to the club office, and asked If it was worth it. It was the first and last time when I saw 17-year-old boys cry. We feared him, but his leadership was based on authority and mutual respect; if you showed up every day, worked harder than expected, and stayed focused, you would get his support and attention. The principles of this leadership style differ from those of my previous example. There was no place for “willingness to learn”, because we were learning from him, we couldn’t demand compromise or flexibility. We were winning races because we did what he told us.

Leadership always requires difficult decisions; we might later question them or try to justify our actions. George Orwell’s essay "Shooting an Elephant" presents such a situation. The narrator is a police officer of European origin in Moulmein, lower Burma. The local community does not like him. At some point, the town is being terrorized by the elephant. The narrator did not intend to shoot the elephant, but as the crowd grew, the situation changed. “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands, I was momentarily worth watching.” He was given the attention and, therefore, the power to do something he didn’t want to, he was afraid of being laughed at. Under pressure from spectators and long hesitation, a police officer shot the elephant. He commented it:

And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.

The police officer shot the elephant because the crowd scared him, he was afraid of having no respect. What looked like a strength was a weakness. He was pressured into making this decision and later tried to justify it. 

A good leader requires experience, skills, and values that might be difficult to obtain suddenly. A leading person should be aware of the decisions they make and the impact they have. They should consider if their leading principles apply to their team and goals. Fear or aggressive-based leadership might be a result of trauma or a leader’s fears and insecurities. It might be a fear of losing control, not being good enough, or just an ego or pride. But not always. Sometimes, using fear might be a conscious decision, which we justify by saying that this is the only way of squeezing a true maximum potential from musicians, athletes, and artists, and sometimes it is.

Is it destructive? It could be. Is it effective? It could be.