Log in or become a subscriber

When managers project a level of confidence they don't really feel, it can make people less likely to be honest with them, a leadership advisor warns.

Patricia Malay, of leadership advisory Candour Leads, says that in almost 20 years of working with leaders across Asia Pacific, she's seen many cases where projecting a strong image, with a view to establishing credibility and legitimacy in a senior role, makes the leader's team less likely to confide in them.

Malay finds this is common among high-performing leaders, and in particular, those who are women.

"I think it's because they were placed in these situations, these rooms, these positions, where they couldn't calibrate authenticity right away," she says. Instead, they felt they had to prove themselves by projecting a certain image...