How to behave like a natural-born leader

Fake it till you make it

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Are you a natural-born leader or follower?

As it turns out, it doesn’t matter, because anyone can behave like a leader if they want to, a new study has found.

Researchers at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands videotaped a series of meetings between project management teams who had never met before and unveiled a series of behavioural signals that led people to identify them as leaders, reports New Scientist.

Psychology professor Fabiola Gerpott and her team monitored the participants’ behaviour for a period of seven weeks.

Afterwards they concluded that every person was either a leader or a follower based on a variety of leadership signals that some showed and others didn’t in the meetings.

Next, the videos were edited into 42 short muted clips and were subsequently shown to 18 different people.

As these people watched the videos, the scientists monitored where on the screen each viewer was looking and for how long they looked there.

They concluded that the viewers looked more frequently at the participants in the video who were later identified as leaders and they also looked at them for longer.

So, what were the leaders doing that made them so much more engaging to watch?

Firstly, they used “active gestures” when they spoke i.e. they moved their hands a lot when they talked.

Secondly, they also exhibited positive body language in the meetings and faced people when they spoke to them.

Speaking a lot at the beginning of the meeting also showed strong leadership skills, the scientists said.

When problems arose during the meetings, the researchers noted that the leaders in the group were the ones suggesting solutions.

As for things that an aspiring leader should not do – which the scientists noticed all of the followers doing – it’s best not to yawn, frown or stare into space, as these are considered passive facial expressions that are not engaging.

Interestingly, smiling made no difference in terms of who was perceived as a leader or a follower – so hopeful leaders needn’t worry about forcing a giant grin if they don’t fancy it.