The title of this post is from an article published by the Harvard Business Review in 2013. This subject remains relevant ten years later. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, summarized his article, “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?”, this way, “Why are so few women in management positions? The popular explanations range from women just aren’t capable of being leaders to women just don’t want to be leaders. According to the author, however, the absence of women in leadership roles has less to do with women themselves and more to do with how we interpret leadership traits. Confidence – a trait more associated with men – is often misinterpreted as competence. As a result, charismatic, but incompetent men have fewer barriers to reach the top than women. Individuals in positions to promote and hire managers should think more critically about what seems like a leadership trait versus what is an actual leadership trait. They will find that arrogance and overconfidence – the characteristics that get men into management positions – are also the characteristics that cause poor performance.” You can read the entire article here. 

This is evident as you think through what happened in the U.S. House of Representatives a few weeks ago and the mess created by incompetent men during the speakership fiasco, validating the analysis in the article. By the way, I don’t recall a mess like that under Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I  asked myself the same question many times during my 24-plus years serving in the U.S. Army. I witnessed numerous competent women not securing top positions due to the belief that those roles were exclusively for men with combat experience. I recall receiving a survey from the Department of Defense seeking input, and I utilized that opportunity to advocate for the inclusion of women general officers in four-star commands. I specifically highlighted officers like then Lieutenant General (3-Star) Laura Richardson, an experienced combat leader, capable of effectively leading high-level commands. I was delighted to witness her promotion to 4-Star and her appointment as the commander of the U.S. Southern Command. Another exceptional general officer is Major General (2-Star) Michelle Schmidt, currently commanding the 7th Infantry Division, marking the first female leadership of an army active-duty division. Having served under her, I can attest to her exceptional leadership skills. She stands out as one of the Army’s finest leaders, and I aspire to see her ascend to a four-star general position.

It’s time to reassess our perspectives on leadership. Our choices should prioritize competence over connections. In a previous post, I reviewed a book discussing bad leadership and the enabling role of followers, a factor contributing to the perpetuation of incompetent leadership within our ranks.

I like how Tomas ends his article, “there is no denying that women’s path to leadership positions is paved with many barriers including a very thick glass ceiling. But a much bigger problem is the lack of career obstacles for incompetent men, and the fact that we tend to equate leadership with the very psychological features that make the average man a more inept leader than the average woman. The result is a pathological system that rewards men for their incompetence while punishing women for their competence, to everybody’s detriment.” 

We need to think long and hard about this particular statement, “But a much bigger problem is the lack of career obstacles for incompetent men”. Maybe we can save our country and the world if we put a few barriers out there.

• Leadership