97. People Are Swayed By A Dominant Personality

Why Does The Leader Become The Leader?

A decision arose from a group does not necessarily mean that every member agreed on that decision. More often than not there is always at least one person in a group who will dominate the others and try to guide them in a certain direction.

Research Study Cameron Anderson and Gavin Kilduff in 2009 formed groups of students to solve GMAT math problems. The group discussions towards the math problems were taped and the leader was identified by the researchers. Each group was then asked to identify the leaders. All the members in each group filled out questionnaires and it revealed that the leaders had the highest measure of dominance. It was discovered that the leaders were simply the ones who spoke first in the group and the groups' answers to the questions were always the first answers proposed by the leaders.   When a person is the first to initiate in a group, they sometimes end up doing most of the talking and overshadow other members to speak up, leaving them to agree with the dominant member even if they had other thoughts.

Takeaways

Avoid deciding on the first solution and look into more options. Have each member note their ideas ahead of time and bring those ideas to the group so everyone has a fair chance of contributing. The most dominant member in a group typically speaks first, becoming the leader.