There is new evidence that healthy-looking people are perceived as better leaders. Healthy people are perceived as better leaders, even over intelligent-looking people.
A recent article on the Harvard Business Review blog states the following:
“The evidence comes from a study led by Brian Spisak at VU University of Amsterdam and published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The study asked participants to judge leadership potential by looking at faces… When the researchers tallied the choices of all of the participants, both healthy and intelligent-looking leaders were chosen more often. However, health cues were more clearly influential in choosing a leader than intelligence cues.”
The implications are obvious, not only for you as a leader, but also for all of the leaders throughout your organization.
Share this information throughout your organization. From a purely self-serving perspective, as well as from the perspective of earning the honor and privilege to lead others, it pays to be and look healthy!
