A study from the University of California at Berkeley found that displaying overconfidence makes others feel you’re both competent and higher in status. (On a lighter note, another study showed that wearing glasses does make people think you’re smarter—though less attractive.) When it comes to leadership, researcher Chiara Amati puts it bluntly: “Faking it seems, to a degree, to just be part of good people management.” Jeffrey Pfeffer agrees: “The secret of leadership was the ability to play a role, to pretend, to be skilled in the theatrical arts . . . To come across effectively, we need to
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