The Power-Attractive Leadership Style Spectrum
Suzanne Peterson from the Thunderbird School of Global Management presents a framework for understanding leadership...
Suzanne Peterson from the Thunderbird School of Global Management presents a framework for understanding leadership style as a spectrum between 'power' markers and 'attractive' markers, with the goal of strategically flexing between them based on context. Power markers generate attributions like dynamic, charismatic, confident, and commanding - but overdone, they become intimidating, aggressive, and cold. Attractive markers generate attributions like collaborative, great mentor, easy to talk to, and likeable - but overdone, they become passive, deferential, and lacking gravitas. The critical insight is that style is not personality. Personality is largely unchangeable, but style is a set of behaviors and habits that can be deliberately adjusted with small tweaks producing disproportionate impact on how others perceive you.
- Identify Your Natural Default Position
- Map Behaviors to Attributions
- Make Small Targeted Adjustments
- Identify Your Natural Default PositionDetermine whether you naturally lean toward power markers (confident, commanding, direct) or attractive markers (collaborative, warm, deferential). Most people stuck in their careers lean attractive - they're well-liked but not seen as leaders.
- Map Behaviors to AttributionsConnect specific behaviors to the perceptions they create. Being 'abrasive' is rarely about disagreeing - it's about interrupting repeatedly, saying 'you're wrong and I'm right,' and disagreeing in a disagreeable way. Separating behavior from attribution makes change actionable.
- Make Small Targeted AdjustmentsPick one or two behaviors to adjust, not five or six. Style changes with very minor tweaks produce big perception differences. Over-rotating from attractive to powerful or vice versa creates an inauthentic impression that backfires. Stay within your authentic range.
- Ask 'How Do I Want to Be Seen?' Before Every InteractionBefore entering any situation, consciously decide: do I need to lean more powerful or more attractive? A meeting where you need to be listened to requires different markers than a conversation where you need to be a trusted listener.
- Let Behavior Lead EmotionDon't wait to feel confident before acting confidently. Focus on the behavior: strong posture, eye contact, declarative statements, a strong two-minute opening. The emotions catch up to the behavior once you see positive responses from others.
Peterson uses the airplane overhead compartment scenario: if a 17-year-old with headphones has their small bag blocking the space, most people would ask them to move it. If it's the CEO, most would check their own bag instead. This demonstrates that everyone naturally flexes their style based on context and perceived resources - the framework simply makes this flexing deliberate and strategic rather than unconscious.
Peterson developed this framework through extensive research on leadership attributions and years of executive coaching. She found that managers consistently gave vague feedback like 'you need more gravitas' or 'you're not ready for the table' without specifying concrete behaviors to change. Employees then interpreted this as personality criticism, creating helplessness. The framework makes the squishy concrete by mapping specific behaviors to specific attributions.