The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadersity for anything too daring and out of the ordinary. Such leaders
want to participate and lead in contexts where there is at least a 50
percent chance of success. They are willing to delegate authority,
hoping others may have more luck than they seem to have in
influencing outcomes. As a result, such leaders are also able to shift
the blame when something goes wrong. Unlike their counterparts
who think they can affect their external environments, these leaders
do not shoulder responsibility and move on but, rather, are quick to
accuse others of making it difficult for them to act. For political lead-
ers who do not believe they can control what happens, fear of failure
may supersede and crowd out sense of timing.
Need for Power and InfluenceThe need for power indicates a concern for establishing, maintain-
ing, or restoring one's power; in other words, it is the desire to con-
trol, influence, or have an impact on other persons or groups (see
Winter 1973). As with coding of the previous trait, coding of the
need for power focuses on verbs. Is the speaker with this proposed
action attempting to establish, maintain, or restore his or her power?
Some of the conditions where the need for power would be scored are
when the speaker (i) proposes or engages in a strong, forceful action,
such as an assault or attack, a verbal threat, an accusation, or a repri-
mand; (2) gives advice or assistance when it is not solicited; (3)
attempts to regulate the behavior of another person or group; (4)
tries to persuade, bribe, or argue with someone else so long as the
concern is not to reach agreement or avoid disagreement; (5) endeav-
ors to impress or gain fame with an action; and (6) is concerned with
his or her reputation or position. Once again the focus is on actions
proposed or taken by the leader or a group with whom he or she
identifies. A score on the need for power is determined by calculat-
ing the percentage of times the verbs in an interview response indi-
cate that the speaker or a group with whom the speaker identifies has
engaged in one of these behaviors. The overall score for any leader is
the average of this percentage across the total number of interview
responses examined.
When the need for power is high, leaders work to manipulate the
environment to have control and influence and to appear as a winner.