A Pretty Face Is Not a Leadership Skill
You have to look the part. That’s especially true for leaders.
It’s what people expect – a snappy suit, perfect hair, always on form, always exuding confidence and authority, every moment of every working day. After all, leadership is all about attraction – attracting people, potential, possibilities, talent, results and outcomes. But it’s unfair that better-looking people may be better placed to achieve those outcomes.
If more people who are stereotypically ‘beautiful’ are promoted into leadership positions, then those who are deemed socially unattractive are not only less likely to be promoted to a leadership position, but more likely to have less influence over their teams if they do ever reach the top.
I think it goes without saying how awful that is and how damaging it will be to businesses and industries in terms of diversity – which isn’t just about skin colour, gender, or religion; but about diversity of thought, feeling and experience, too. And not just diversity, but also in terms connection, culture, outcomes, results, and more.
Bias is in Our Biology
In 2018, 57% of recruiters decided not to hire a candidate based on content found on social media. What’s more, a series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov revealed that it takes a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgements). Are some recruiters judging books by covers, in spite of qualifications? It seems likely so.
Researchers have even found that when attractive people ask strangers to do them a favour, they are more likely to grant the request. Take moment to reflect, and be honest – does this ring true for you? Inside and outside the workplace?
Cognitive biases date back to our earliest days, but it’s not about survival of genetics when we’re identifying future leaders and high potential talent, trying to create diverse workforces, and developing and coaching leaders. Nevertheless, studies show that being gifted with a great face and body increases a person’s likelihood of being hired, will see them receive higher ratings of job performance, and a higher income too. It’s not a stretch to summarise that physical attractiveness does make people more influential, and that it does provide them with a direct path to leadership.
Another 2013 study discovered that people judge leadership ability, success, and even trustworthiness from body height, facial elongation, and facial dimorphism. One 1994 study found that attractive employees earn 10 to 15% more than their unattractive counterparts. Further research shows that tall men are significantly more likely to attain managerial positions. But even if it’s in our nature, it’s our responsibility to nurture this bias out of us as we grow up.
In the workplace, attractive employees are perceived colleagues to be more competent, intelligent, and socially savvy, and those with generally perceived ‘less physically attractive’ characteristics, such as being overweight, suffer a major disadvantage at every stage of the employment cycle. Even if they demonstrate all the essential leadership skills and deserve to be identified as incredible future leadership potential.
Cosmetic Surgery: The Ultimate Irony for Leadership
Working from home and adopting half suit-half pyjama work outfits for those endless Zoom calls has done nothing for anyone’s confidence in their physical appearance – leaders and employees alike. “Lockdown face” was also very real and very depressing, brought on by stress and lack of sunlight and exercise. In fact, the unflattering lighting and angles of those calls has actually contributed to a collective Zoom dysmorphia and subsequent boom in cosmetic surgery – for both men and women.
However, I read an interesting article the other night about leaders having had plastic surgery then struggling to connect emotionally over Zoom and even in person with their people.
Not only can a lack of facial expression be confusing to others, but according to a study from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, the temporary paralysis of the face can block a person's 'proprioceptive feedback.' This process helps us to understand the emotions we observe by reproducing them on our own bodies. The study found that Botox recipients found emotions especially difficult to read when observed expressions were subtle. Another study further confirmed this, finding that Botox participants exhibited an overall significant decrease in the strength of emotional experience.
On Zoom, you might look younger to your audience, but when you can’t make the face, you have trouble understanding it, and trouble reading that audience. Talk about irony.
Research by think tank The Center for Talent Innovation shows that being perceived as leadership material is essential to being promoted into leadership positions – but that leadership energy is not about appearance, but also a leader’s communication skills and their ability to project gravitas.
More Than Just a Pretty Face
The psychological traits relevant to successful leadership may well feature in beautiful leaders, but it’s not a given. A beautiful personality may enhance the physical attractiveness effect, however perhaps being physically attractive is actually detrimental when a leader is lacking essential leadership skills? When they focus too much on physical appearance and end up resting on their laurels? When HR teams don’t focus on developing and coaching leaders, to equip them with the tools necessary to succeed? No one is going to stay engaged with sizzle in lieu of any steak at all.
It’s proven that being a great leader makes you more attractive. And there are so many more important ways to be a great leader than looking sharp: being confident, knowing how to both lead and follow, caring about people, being open to experience, emotional intelligence, emotional stability, infectious energy and optimism, being a good active listener, a giver rather than a taker, being honest, devoting time and passion to developing your employees and helping them to transform. The list goes on and on. And these are not traits that automatically come with a pretty face.
As with all bias, we can only start to overcome it when we acknowledge it. This inherent halo effect in our biases has started to decrease in recent years (political correctness, social media, anti-discrimination laws, etc have seen increasing diversity efforts and our own perceptions of beauty start to change). However, the more leaders are positively expressive, the more attractive they will be perceived, and the faster we can break this bias down. As our mothers told us all, beauty lies within. Leaders: the same is true for you.
Another classic bit of Mum advice to mull over: how can you possibly be attractive to others if you are not accepting yourself for who you are?
Written by Michael
Michael Mauro is the founder of a forward-thinking organisation specialising in leadership, HR and employee development. With over a decade of global experience, Michael has become a leading voice on topics such as culture, inclusion, wellbeing, and the future of leadership.
