15 Science-Backed Leadership Skills

Leadership is the ability to impact and influence others.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to shadow the CEO of a major technology company for one day. That one day changed my life forever. Walking through the hallways of his company, hearing him interact on phone calls and watching him tackle projects and challenges was like nothing I ever had seen before.

He was a human behavior hacker.

Every single one of his actions was based on how humans work. Throughout the day, he would turn to me secretly and whisper the explanation behind the behavior we just had witnessed. That day was the start of my fascination with people and the hidden forces that make us tick.

Leaders are extremely adept at getting people to buy into ideas—even ones they might not normally say yes to.

Researchers Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser tested exactly how to get people to do something. They went door-to-door and asked people to put up a large “Drive Carefully” sign on their lawn. Only 20% said yes.

Then they tried asking first for a small three-inch sign in the window. Many more said yes. When they returned three weeks later and asked those same people for the bigger sign, 76% said yes.

If you want to motivate the people around you, put away your wallet. Don’t offer a bonus—instead break out the compliments.

A study by Professor Norihiro Sadato found that receiving praise—not cash—was the best way to motivate participants. When researchers asked participants to complete a finger-tapping activity, the groups that received praise showed significantly higher improvement.

Why? Social rewards like praise are registered in the same part of the brain that lights up when rewarded with money. When you assign someone a positive label, that cues them to live up to that label.

Do you think the world’s greatest leaders primarily use logic or emotion?

Quantified Communications analyzed the communication patterns of global leaders on Fortune’s 2016 list. They measured three persuasion tactics: logic (research and statistics), intuition (credibility and expertise), and emotion (stories and imagery).

Instead of relying on logic, the world’s greatest leaders used 2.9x more appeals to emotion and 3.4x more appeals to intuition.

The Science of Emotions

Understand the emotional appeal

Vanessa's TEDx Talk

See emotional appeal in action

Leaders always get a seat at the table. But which seat is best?

The most powerful seat is at the head of the table facing the door—you can see everyone in the room as soon as they walk in. But not all leaders want the most powerful seat all the time. If you’re watching someone else present, attending a negotiation, or want to be seen and not heard, you’d want a different seat.

Have you ever spent hours doing something and then realized it was a complete waste of time? I call this empty calorie time—we waste time doing nothing, but still use valuable brain energy.

Leaders are extremely purposeful with their mental calories. They don’t waste mental energy on junk activities.

According to one study, when people were mind-wandering, they reported feeling happy only 56% of the time. In mind-wandering, our brain can’t recuperate and it can’t build—it’s stuck in limbo.

It’s often said that leaders ask great questions. But what does a ‘great question’ really mean? Truly great leaders ask questions that crack people open—this is called Behavioral Interviewing.

The right questions can unlock someone’s personality and help you get to know their true behavior. Here are some favorites:

• What’s something that you used to believe but no longer believe?
• Tell me about your best and worst days at work.
• You have two teleportation devices. Where do you place them and why?

Your goals should terrify you just a little bit. You should be only 60% sure you are going to achieve your goal. It should make you sweat when you think about it.

According to research in the Journal of Consumer Research, being more ambitious actually makes you happier. High goal-setters were more happy with their returns AND less disappointed by their losses.

Revenge is like throwing a hot coal at someone else—we burn our own hand more than the person we are trying to hurt.

Study after study has found that when we make decisions based on revenge, we only end up losing money or having more difficulty ourselves.

How to curb vengeful thoughts:

• Get perspective: Think of bigger problems to get your situation into perspective
• Write it down: Expressive writing about anger has been shown to eliminate these feelings entirely

We all know someone who has a natural magnetism. Someone who walks into a room and people look. Leaders have a very specific set of nonverbal behaviors that signal confidence.

What do leaders do?

Smile less. Smiling is actually seen as a sign of submission. Alphas smile less because their power is enough to put people in line.

Embrace stillness. Leaders move less because they are observers. Don’t fidget, pace or hop—stillness is perceived as more powerful.

Use a strong handshake. Leaders know the importance of touch. Keep your hand vertical and give one to three pumps.

In our hyper-connected world, leaders have to be best-in-class communicators across countless channels—from the phone to the boardroom to Slack to the elevator.

• Leaders spend 75 to 80 percent of their working hours communicating
• More than 60 percent of consumers say their perception of a CEO affects their opinion of the company
• Millennials buy based on purpose and cause from brands led by people they believe in

Leaders talk to themselves in a very specific way. A review of more than 25 studies found that the most effective kind of self-talk is called “instructional self-talk.”

Instructional self-talk is the internal commentary that happens while completing a challenging task: “Okay, open up Powerpoint, find a title image, make a chart…”

This kind of self-talk helps us battle distractions and stay logical with our tasks. It’s most successful when thinkers first ruminate on their end-goal, make a plan, then walk through it.

Gary McPherson studied 157 kids learning musical instruments. Some went on to be professionals, others quit. He was looking for patterns. Was it practice? Genetics? IQ?

Only one question predicted success: “How long do you think you will play the instrument you choose?”

If they thought they would play their whole life, they did better. If they thought temporarily, they did not play as well. Success had nothing to do with skills—it was all about attitude.

Researcher Albarracín Senay studied self-talk sentence structure. One group thought “Will I work on anagrams?” while another thought “I will work on anagrams.”

Which group did better? The wondering minds did many more anagrams! Freedom of choice was given to the wonderers, and this created intrinsic motivation.

In another experiment, “Will I?” primed participants to exercise better and state positive motivations. Those primed with “I will” cited guilt and shame.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras studied companies founded before 1950 that reached exceptional success. One key characteristic: they have a core ideology that drives almost every decision.

A core ideology is your values and the reasons why you do what you do. Whenever you don’t know what to do, your core ideology guides you.

How to create a core ideology:

• Make a list of your moral and ethical values
• Add characteristics you value most (creativity, compassion, work ethic)
• Create an actionable statement that embodies who you want to be

I’m going to tell you something crazy: Success doesn’t bring happiness. Happiness brings success.

The research on happiness is clear: if we want to be more successful, we should focus on happiness.

Leaders are happier. One of the biggest Aha! moments was realizing that the best leaders don’t put happiness second. They understand that if they are happier, the people around them will be happier—they will be better communicators and have a bigger impact.