文章来源：《经济学人》Feb 25th 2023 期 Business 栏目 Dullness and its discontents

The charismatic corporate climber is a common target for resentment in office life. He—and research suggests men are particularly given to such narcissism—hogs the spotlight in meetings, is adept at grabbing undeserved glory, and is a pro at self-promotion. More often than not, he is the boss’s pet. But he rises on the back of another, unsung, corporate archetype: the competent, diligent but unexciting achiever.

在办公室生活中，有魅力的职场攀登者经常成为人们怨恨的对象。他（研究表明，男性尤其自恋）在会议上占据焦点，擅长攫取不应得的荣耀，擅长自我推销。他常常是老板的宠儿。但他的"晋升"是建立在另一种默默无闻的企业原型之上的: 能干、勤奋但平庸的成功者。

Studies find that plenty of confident egomaniacs, unsuited to the subtleties of management, get a leg-up for being, well, confident egomaniacs. Companies disproportionately promote narcissists. Perhaps a fifth of chief executives fit the description, researchers have found, a far higher proportion than within the wider population. Self-absorbed CEOs can sap morale and, evidence suggests, produce poor financial results.

研究发现，许多自信的自大狂不适合缜密的管理，却因为成为自信的自大狂而得到帮助。公司多半会提拔自恋者。研究人员发现，大约五分之一的CEO符合这一描述，这一比例远远高于更广泛人群中的比例。有证据表明，只顾自己的CEO会削弱士气，还会导致糟糕的财务业绩。

A strong case for the dull striver was made by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a psychologist at University College London, in an article for the Harvard Business Review in 2015 entitled “The best managers are boring managers”. Understated competence does not intuitively scream leadership. Many totemic bosses of the age, from bankers to tech founders, come with big egos, showy antics and volatile tempers. Elon Musk may be accused of many things. Dullness is not one of them. Even so, Mr Chamorro-Premuzic argued, conscientious but unprepossessing characters tend to have little-noticed but precious advantages. They can be depended on to make decisions calmly, manage teams deftly and be emotionally mature. They deserve promotion ahead of co-workers with “flash and vision, and bold displays of confidence”.

2015年，伦敦大学学院心理学家托马斯•查莫罗-普雷穆奇克在《哈佛商业评论》上发表了一篇题为《最好的管理者都是无聊的管理者》的文章，有力地为无趣的奋斗者证明。从直觉上看，低调的能力并不意味着领导力。从银行家到科技公司创始人，这个时代的许多代表性的老板都非常自负、爱炫耀、脾气暴躁。埃隆·马斯克可能会被指控很多罪名。沉闷不是其中之一。尽管如此，查莫罗-普雷穆奇克先生认为，尽职尽责但不起眼的角色往往具有很少人注意但宝贵的优势。他们冷静地做决定，熟练地管理团队，情感成熟。他们应该比“闪光有远见、大胆表现自信”的同事更有资格升职。

A seminal meta-analysis of research on leadership characteristics, published in 2002 by Timothy Judge, then at the University of Florida, and colleagues, indeed found a link between managerial effectiveness and personality traits such as being stable, agreeable and dependable. One explanation is that level-headedness makes it easier to deal coolly with the many subtle problems thrown up by human beings (who may all too easily infuriate a more volatile manager). Emotional maturity is also an indicator of trustworthiness. Studies have found that managers with dysfunctional traits such as narcissism are likelier to get up to no good. Conscientious bosses, by contrast, score highly for integrity.

2002年，当时在佛罗里达大学工作的蒂莫西•贾奇及其同事发表了一份关于领导力特征研究的开创性荟萃分析报告，确实发现了管理效率与性格特征(如稳定、随和和可靠)之间的联系。一种解释是，头脑冷静更容易冷静地处理人类提出的许多微妙问题(人类很容易激怒一个反复无常的经理)。情感成熟也是值得信赖的一个指标。研究发现，具有自恋等功能失调特征的管理者更有可能不安好心。相比之下，有责任心的老板在诚信方面得分很高。

The dull but diligent could be especially valuable now. As companies claim increasingly to prize soft skills, such as being able to communicate well with all sorts of people, emotionally intelligent workers ought to be in demand. A volatile business environment in which firms face problems from recession to climate change, pandemics and war, favours the steady leader.

沉闷但勤奋的人现在可能特别有价值。随着公司越来越重视软技能，比如能够与各种人良好沟通的能力，高情商的员工应该很受欢迎。在动荡的商业环境中，公司面临着经济衰退、气候变化、流行病和战争等问题，这有利于稳健的领导者。

Chief executives face tricky decisions about how much risk to take in pursuit of growth, as shareholders look on nervously. Startup bosses who proudly moved fast and broke things are now falling over themselves to look demure. “We are a very boring company,” Oliver Merkel, head of Flink, a grocery-delivery startup, bragged to the Financial Times recently. The trend is visible in politics, too. Joe Biden in America and Rishi Sunak in Britain rose to their countries’ top jobs partly because their boring dependability promised relief from their predecessors’ noisy incompetence. Testing times call for cool heads.

首席执行官们面临着棘手的决定，即在追求增长的过程中要承担多大的风险，而股东们则在一旁紧张地观望。那些自豪地快速行动、打破陈规的创业公司老板们，现在正努力让自己看起来端庄。“我们是一家非常无趣的公司，”杂货配送初创公司Flink的负责人奥利弗•默克尔最近向英国《金融时报》吹嘘道。这种趋势在政治上也很明显。美国的乔·拜登和英国的里希·苏纳克之所以能登上各自国家的最高职位，部分原因是他们乏味的可靠性承诺缓解前任们吵吵嚷嚷的无能。考试时需要保持头脑冷静。

For all that, quietly competent types hoping for greater appreciation (and remuneration) should not sit still. To rise up the ranks, the boring would do well to raise their profiles, whether by speaking up in meetings or talking up their accomplishments. If they bag bigger jobs they will anyway need to master show-offy things like glad-handing clients, chairing meetings and holding forth on strategy. Though Mr Judge’s analysis revealed emotional stability and general diligence were crucial to managerial effectiveness, extrovert qualities such as sociability were also telling factors.

尽管如此，那些希望获得更大赏识(和报酬)的低调能干的人不应该坐以待心。为了晋升，无聊的人会很好地提高自己的形象，无论是通过在会议上发言还是谈论自己的成就。如果他们得到了更大的工作，他们无论如何都需要掌握一些炫耀的事情，比如与客户打招呼、主持会议和阐述战略。尽管贾奇的分析显示，情绪稳定和总体勤奋对管理效率至关重要，但社交能力等外向品质也是有力因素。

Companies’ penchant for promoting the wrong people is deeply ingrained, despite management theorists’ admonitions. By default, many of those dishing out promotions are themselves narcissists who advanced by wowing their superiors. And showy sorts’ shameless self-aggrandisement fulfils a convenient function for bosses, giving them a shortcut—no matter how misleading—to finding candidates for elevation. Many managers are too busy to patiently unearth genuine talent. After all, they have other important things on their plates—like impressing their own bosses.

尽管有管理理论家的警告，但企业对提拔错误人员的偏好根深蒂固。默认情况下，许多提供晋升机会的人本身就是自恋者，他们靠讨好上级来获得晋升。爱炫耀的厚颜无耻自夸的类型为老板们提供了寻找晋升的候选人的一条便捷的捷径，无论这条捷径多么具有误导性。许多管理者太忙了，没有耐心挖掘真正的人才。毕竟，他们还有其他重要的事情要做——比如给自己的老板留下好印象。