What Every Leader Needs To Know About Human Nature

[photo by independentman]

[Note: You can also listen to this post as a podcast]

In my last post, The Number One Reason Leaders Fail, I made the comment it’s “in our DNA” to follow. I did not literally mean there was a “following” gene; I just meant humans have a propensity to follow. I said that for the same reason I would say it is in our DNA to be lazy.

Both of these traits are driven by our quest for efficiency. I have written before about our natural inclination to conserve mental energy in the post, Rules are for Lazy People. We also have an inclination to conserve physical energy.

Our compulsion to innovate is motivated by our desire to work less. In essence it is our drive to conserve energy which creates our ability to get more done. Yet at the heart of it, at each stage of the process, it is an effort to get the most done with the least amount of work.

“It’s a lot easier to criticize a solution than to come up with one.”

Being a follower has a similar attraction and payoff. We follow because human nature tells us it’s easier than leading. The leader does the tough innovative mental work, we just have to decide if we agree or not. As anyone who’s ever been in a group trying to solve a problem will tell you, it’s a lot easier to criticize a solution than to come up with one.

The reason it’s easier to criticize a solution than to develop one is because coming up with a solution takes innovation. Criticism only takes comparison.

We’re very good at comparing things. It’s easy. Whenever we have a difficult decision to make it’s usually because there are a lot of choices. It’s too overwhelming to independently evaluate each choice on its own merits so we use some macro criteria to narrow down the choices to a manageable range.

How we manage choices

I recently moved to Annapolis, Maryland to take a job teaching leadership at the United States Naval Academy. As part of the moving process I had to find a house. As anyone who has had to look for a house before knows, there are a lot of choices—most involving highly subjective criteria.

For each preference we can easily define a ceteris paribus ranking on a better/worse scale. But taking all the consideration together is an impossible mental overload so we make broad choices which narrow down the options.

Big decisions about what school district to live in, how many bedrooms we need and how much we’re willing to pay narrow down the field to a more manageable number of choices. If we can get it down to three or four houses our brains are pretty good at making a comparison and coming to a decision.

“Our choices are irrational because we compare rather than evaluate.”

In Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational, he points out how our buying choices can be irrational because of our propensity to compare rather than evaluate. This leads clever marketers to place their products in arrangements that make comparisons easy and advantageous for their product.

It’s easy to compare three different mp3 players or mobile phones, but much harder to invent a new one. Similarly, it’s easier to decide who to follow than it is to be a leader.

In our effort to avoid hard mental work we look for someone who already has a similar worldview and follow them. The closer their worldview is to ours, the more comfortable it feels. If we find someone whose vision matches our perfectly, it’s euphoric.

So following a leader is comfortable, natural and desirable.

Why it’s not what you think

Some people resist the idea of following. It seems limiting and they sense it’s taking something away from their freedom to make independent choices. It’s human nature to resist domination.

But keep in mind, following does not mean “doing what someone else tells us to do”. That feels uncomfortable and we generally rebel against such a situation unless we have a good reason to keep our emotions in check.

For some, the luxury of not thinking is a strong enough motive to overcome their instinctive rebellion against being told what to do. For most of us though it takes something more, like wanting to keep our jobs…or stay out of jail.

Having worn handcuffs a few times in my life I can attest to their ability to inspire cooperation. Nothing quite says, “Do you really want to go down this road?” like cold, steel restraints.

“It’s easier to decide who to follow than it is to be a leader.”

There is a segment of the population who has a hard time taking direction. I’m part of that group. For some reason our desire to rebel against authority is stronger than most people’s. But we’re happy to follow, because following is a different dynamic. It’s not doing what another person tells you to do; it’s choosing to align ourselves with their vision.

When we have chosen to align our worldview with someone else’s we get the energy efficiency of not having to innovate without the cost of compromising living the way we want. This is naturally appealing.

But there is an additional human drive at work here, one we’ve all felt and strived to recreate—the drive for connection.

Leaders connect with followers

Humans are social animals; we thrive in communities. We’re constantly seeking out people to connect and bond with.

I think everyone can relate to the expansive feeling of being around people you just clicked with. It’s a heart-racing, chest-pounding, skin-tingling experience. Connection is thrilling.

The process of identifying a leader you’re willing to follow is a lot like this because they are a person you identify with on a deep level. They share your belief system, see the world the way you do and have an inspiring vision of future possibilities.

This is why leadership works where management doesn’t. People genuinely want to do things for leaders because we believe in the cause. We want them to succeed and we want to help them do it.

“It’s human nature to desire connection and community.”

I think following resonates with us in a visceral way which is why we’re all followers of someone.

When we decide to follow, we don’t turn our whole life over to them and say, show me the right way. We follow multiple people, each of whom we feel has a vision we can share for a particular area of our life.

Maria Killam has great insight on decorating, but I don’t ask her for financial advice. Adam Baker knows a lot about finances but I don’t ask for his career advice. Penelope Trunk…well, I’m not sure I’d ask her for career advice either, but she has some great ideas on lifestyle design.

You have to pick your leaders for their strengths and be a leader where your strengths lie.

So when I said following was in our DNA I was referring to our natural drive to avoid mental work by picking a person to follow instead of forging a new path and this instinctive desire to find connection and be part of a community.

It’s a big part of who we are.