n addition to issues of perception, perhaps there is something about the fundamental relationships
between analytical and social intelligence that makes it more difficult to identify leaders who show
strengths in both.
One study examined this possibility by looking at the relationships
between
intelligence, empathy, and leadership.
Intelligence and empathy were each associated with leadership;
however, intelligence and empathy were negatively correlated with one another.
We have already seen this trade-off between social and non-social thinking in the moment-to-
moment dynamics of the brain.
Recall the mentalizing network that allows us to think about what is
going on in the mind of others (see
Figure 2.1
).
There is also a separate network for abstract reasoning
about nonsocial phenomena that is associated with general intelligence (see
Figure 2.3
).
One of the
defining features of these two networks is their relationship with each other.
When we are left to our
own devices to think as we please, these two networks act
like two ends of a seesaw
; as either side
increases (goes up) in activity, the other side decreases (goes down).
This relationship between thinking socially and thinking non-socially may make it hard to do both
at the same time.
In many cases, mental processes facilitate one another rather than competing.
For
instance, seeing and hearing complement one another.
Seeing someone’s lips move as they speak
helps our auditory processes unpack what we hear that person saying.
Though there have been studies
showing the social and nonsocial reasoning
systems operating in a complementary fashion, it is far
more common to see them at odds with each other.
There are two ways to think about this antagonism between social and nonsocial intelligence as it
relates to leadership.
First, some people might just have an enduring predisposition to activate the
network for nonsocial reasoning, deactivating the social network as
an accidental by-product.
This
could be a result of genetics or the result of a lifetime of practice, living in a society that values
abstract thinking over social thinking.
Alternatively, other people might prioritize nonsocial thinking because of how they think about
their job.
To the extent that someone frames a leadership task primarily in nonsocial terms, they are
more likely to suppress the social mind, rendering them less sensitive to the social events around
them and less likely to consider the social implications of their own behaviors and those of their
employees.
Often when a team member says that she is having trouble making progress on a task, the
subtext may be that she is having difficulty working well with one or more other people on the team.
A leader who is socially attuned may realize the group dynamics need work.
A leader who isn’t may
focus on whether the employee needs more personal training in order to be able to complete the task
—a poor solution to the actual problem.