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Breaking ceilings: Debate training promotes leadership emergence by increasing assertiveness
Jackson G Lu1, Michelle X Zhao2, Hui Liao3
1MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Journal of Applied Psychology
|March 10, 2025
Summary
Debate training can help individuals emerge as leaders by increasing their assertiveness. This intervention was effective across diverse groups in fostering leadership skills and career advancement.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Behavior
- Communication Studies
- Leadership Development
Background:
- Limited understanding of interventions for leadership attainment.
- Leadership emergence is crucial for organizational success.
- Assertiveness is a valued leadership trait in U.S. organizations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test debate training as a novel intervention for leadership emergence.
- To investigate if debate training fosters assertiveness, a key leadership characteristic.
- To address the knowledge gap regarding effective leadership development strategies.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted, including a 9-week longitudinal field experiment at a Fortune 100 company (N=471).
- A second experiment involved a larger sample (N=975) comparing debate training to control conditions.
- Assertiveness and leadership emergence were measured using self, group-member, and coder ratings.
Main Results:
- Debate training participants showed increased leadership advancement and emergence.
- The positive effect on leadership was mediated by an increase in assertiveness.
- Training effects were consistent across diverse demographic groups (nationality, gender, ethnicity).
Conclusions:
- Debate training is an effective intervention for enhancing leadership emergence.
- Developing assertiveness through debate training can facilitate career progression into leadership roles.
- The benefits of debate training for leadership are applicable across various demographic segments.
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