The Leadership Value of Male Answer Syndrome and the Illusion of Explanatory Depth
Things They Forgot To Tell Me In Business School

Leadership is a confidence game in ways both good and bad. For example, one common and important trait of the successful leader is the ability to inspire confidence within the hearts and minds of others simply by appearing confident themselves. In business this ability can be a powerful force multiplier but is itself content-neutral, holding no predefined values and able to transmit heartfelt conviction or pedal snake oil with equanimity. In good times, a collective feeling of confidence can transform merely good results into great ones, while in times of strife confidence alone will not turn things around but will allow potentially game-saving solutions to implant and succeed.

Certain people are born with this power of mass persuasion in abundance, but most of us are not and remain further hamstrung by either a lack of self-confidence or a surfeit of conscience. So, how does one not naturally dripping with this certain charisma develop what latent power they do have to its greatest potential? There may be many answers to this question, but today we will do our best to rehabilitate, in part, two closely related and heavily disparaged psychological traits, namely Male Answer Syndrome and the Illusion of Explanatory Depth.

Male Answer Syndrome, as its name suggests, is a popularly recognized tendency of individuals, predominantly but in no way exclusively male individuals, to respond energetically and confidently to any question fielded, even when having precious little idea what they are talking about. This ability to extemporaneously and authoritatively create responses on diverse subjects from a few gossamer threads of barely recalled knowledge is a frail and dangerous tool if used without discretion - but when harnessed with a version of our next trait it can become a formidable weapon in the arsenal of persuasion.

The Illusion of Explanatory Depth [IOED], again as its name suggests, is a trait whereby people feel they understand complex items and phenomena with far greater precision, clarity, coherence, and depth than they actually do. IOED is a not-knowing-what-you-don’t-know type of self-delusion. It is extremely prevalent in the internet age where we enjoy near-infinite access to information while consuming it in increasingly brief and superficial ways.

Thus, flawed though they may be, these tools of persuasion do possess intrinsic strength that with a few tweaks can be harnessed for the greater good [or at least for our own greater good].

In today’s world, any enterprise beyond a certain size is simply too complicated for any single individual to truly understand even a fraction of what is going on in a technical sense across the organization. Too many details and too much specialized knowledge. So how does a leader express legitimate confidence in processes s/he may barely understand, keeping in mind that the intent isn’t simple deception but rather to provide people the opportunity to reach predestined conclusions under their own steam?

As most people who have stood in positions of leadership can attest, understanding each business activity in great technical detail is less important than recognizing how each piece fits into the bigger picture, focusing on the who, when, where, why, and how rather than on the excruciating details of the what. Confident leaders realize there is no shame in not understanding everything and great value in having a firm grip on knowing what you don’t know and matching it with a talent for determining whether or not it matters to you in this particular case.

Here is where we embrace our two friends. First, we leverage the Illusion of Explanatory Depth - but not without turning it on its head such that we do not try to convince ourselves we know more than we do, but rather we work our magic to convince others that this is the case. And we do this by first being secure that whatever few threads of knowledge we do have are the right ones, and then we proceed by presenting the resulting message with the unshakable confidence of your typical sufferer of Male Answer Syndrome. Don’t be shy, be bold and self-assured, and keep in mind that while your knowledge may be spotty and your prescience questionable it is far greater than people further down or outside the organization with more limited fields of view. And remember, you can blow smoke, plenty of it at times, as long as you have (just) enough fire to justify it.
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