Malcolm Gladwell chapter response

                On Thursday October 10th, we read a chapter from Malcolm Gladwell in class. It mainly emphasized the point of how individuals tend to pick a person by their looks over their true knowledge when coming from a leadership standpoint. What stood out to me the most was the ignorance associated with judging intelligence and leadership solely based off of looks. The fact that people still to this day and age judge a person by how they look and appear to be is astonishing. I believe that the biggest take away message was that you really mustn't do such. You must get to know a person before deciding how you feel about them. We need to take what this chapter says into consideration when discussing leadership, because no matter how physically powerful and strong looking someone is, it doesn't prove that they are an ideal leader. A strong mind with conscious decision making skills is much more important than looking the part, when it comes down to it. I think with much work and effort we can undo our unconscious biases, although it would be a lengthy process. I think that if we merely took the time to really observe a person instead of making a quick judgement, we could make the best decision possible in choosing leaders. There are many qualities much more important than physical attractiveness when it comes to leaders. Some of the most important in my opinion include: intelligence, firmness on decisions, ability to do what is best for everyone you are leading, and being open to everyones opinions on every matter. I completed the IAT Race test on Friday October 11th. It did reveal a moderate unconscious bias that I have toward European-Americans as opposed to African-Americans. I was a bit surprised by my results, because I consciously think of everyone as equal.