One highly successful venture capitalist who is regularly pitched by young entrepreneurs told me how frustrated he is by his colleagues' failure to distinguish between good presentation skills and true leadership ability. I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they're good talkers, but they don't have good ideas, he said. It's so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent.
This quote from Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" touches on a profound and enduring issue within leadership and organizational culture—the frequent conflation of charisma or presentation skills with genuine leadership ability and intellectual merit. It highlights a common pitfall where individuals who are articulate or persuasive in speech might be elevated to roles of authority not because of visionary ideas or deep...
