There is a multiplying cost to organisations, when they undervalue Quietly Powerful leadership.

I continue to hear from people in organisations that there is a bias towards more outspoken, confident appearing styles as what’s needed to be promoted into leadership.

The obvious cost of this bias is that quieter professionals are overlooked for leadership positions, even if they have the potential for leadership. This is the gap between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness (to read more, read this article).

This is demotivating for the quieter individuals, but also has a broader cost to the organisation. Some organisational consequences that are not so obvious, include:

• 𝗗𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: When you have senior leadership teams full of vocal alpha types, not a lot of space is left for quieter leaders or team members. The lack of space leads people to believe that their views do not matter. It can also be perceived as low psychological safety.
• 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀: Some of the deep thinkers may have the breakthrough idea or have a calming influence, the best listeners may be able to work through differences and harness collective intelligence, and the best question askers can help avoid groupthink and check assumptions. Conversation quality suffers when everyone is loud.
• 𝗗𝗘𝗜 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱: With a narrow mental model of good leadership that is typically an alpha style, leadership talent from minority groups may be discounted as not fitting this model. People in minority groups may also have trouble speaking up, being heard, or being recognised for different and effective leadership styles. This disadvantages people beyond biases based on visible characteristics.
• 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹: Some of the best leaders have a quieter approach, with essential yet underrated leadership skills such as listening, deep thinking and creating space for others. If there is a tendency to overlook potential quietly powerful leaders, organisations are diminishing leadership effectiveness as well as diversity in leadership and thinking styles overall.
• 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁: When highly capable quiet achievers are overlooked and leave, the organisation not only loses their potentially significant contribution, but other onlooking quieter achievers become more convinced that they are not valued, nor are likely to become leaders.

If the quality of leadership and culture, and realising benefits from diversity and inclusion are important to your organisation, it’s time to rethink approaches to leadership and talent.

Download the white paper ‘Rethink talent: 7 reasons why you are losing your best leadership talent and what it’s costing organisations’ at https://bit.ly/3mvPWmy

This article is Lesson 7 in a series on ‘8 lessons from 8 years of Quietly Powerful’. View the other posts at #QP8thbirthday.

Written by Megumi Miki, with Anna Reeve and Leigh Gassner, co-founders of Leaders who Listen. We aim to develop leaders who create a listening environment of safety and space within their organisations to enable better decision making, drive growth and innovation, enhance collaboration and inclusion, and manage risk. If you’d like to understand how your leadership team can engage in productive disagreements, contact us about our Leaders who Listen assessment tools, presentations, masterclasses and development programs.