Leading with Warmth and Competence
By Abby Roberts
“You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader,” Evy Poumpouras advised AIHA Connect 2025 attendees in her closing keynote on May 21. As a former Secret Service agent and New York City police officer, Poumpouras has experience with the interpersonal aspects of leadership that translate into other fields, including occupational and environmental health and safety. But she explained to her audience that she would not give them “tips, tricks, or techniques” for leadership, since few people appreciate any of these to be used on them. Instead, Poumpouras recommended behaviors that may help attendees project the “essence” or “ethos” of leadership and earn others’ respect.
Listening and Trust
These recommendations started with being a strong listener. When you speak, she explained, people hear about half of what you say, even if you’re trying really hard to stay connected, because your brain processes information faster than people speak. “When you’re talking to people, you want to have an awareness that you want to keep them engaged,” she continued.
Poumpouras also encouraged letting other people do the majority of the talking in a conversation. Many people like to talk about themselves, while speaking less puts you in control of the conversation and increases the value of your contributions. When you open your mouth, Poumpouras explained, others will know that what you’re about to say will be of value.
Building trust is also key to leadership. “Without trust you have nothing,” Poumpouras said. “I don’t care what business you’re in, because at the end of the day, you’re in the business of people.” She outlined how the human body responds to being around those we trust by increasing oxytocin levels and mirroring the trusted person’s brain waves.
Warmth and Competence
To illustrate the qualities of warmth and competence, Poumpouras played advertisements for two car manufacturers, Toyota and BMW, and asked the audience to rate both brands by their perceived warmth and competence. The Toyota commercial invited viewers to have fun driving Toyota cars, while the BMW commercial sought to impress viewers with their products’ prestige and exclusivity. Poumpouras then asked her audience how they would respond if a driver in a Toyota cut them off at a traffic light as opposed to a driver in a BMW. The answer was clear: people are likely to be more forgiving of the driver in the Toyota than the one in the BMW. Her examples illustrate how competence is likely to be better received when it’s accompanied by warmth.
Warmth requires being non-judgmental, Poumpouras explained. But it does not mean being overly friendly, nice, or polite. A person who comes off as too friendly may be taken advantage of.
Poumpouras acknowledged that other people’s reaction to you will vary. Ideally, if you project warmth and competence, people will want to follow and associate with you. If they perceive you as warm but not competent, they may treat you with pity, and if they perceive you as competent but not warm, they may respond with envy to your success. If you are perceived as neither warm nor competent, you will be ignored.
Self-Regulation, Acceptance, and Adaptability
“Part of being a leader is your ability to self-regulate,” Poumpouras said. Self-regulation means controlling one’s emotional responses to other people. When you react from a place of emotion, you let other people’s behavior control you. Instead, you must be able to hear bad news and criticism without allowing it to affect your mission. You must also accept that respect is a gift from other people. Chasing their respect won’t help you earn it.
Another aspect of leadership is the ability to accept and adapt to the truth. Although the truth is often ugly, “you must accept the truth of what is happening so that you can move forward,” Poumpouras said. This includes accepting people for who they are without trying to change them. A multitude of factors such as age, health, socioeconomic status, beliefs, values, culture, family, friends, personality, life events, and emotions stand in the way of your attempts to change another person.
Good Work
After sharing her advice on leadership, Poumpouras concluded her session with a moving tribute to OEHS professionals. She showed a photo of herself standing in the rubble of the the World Trade Center, wearing short-sleeved clothing and a hard hat for protection. She had been working in the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, and with her colleagues, she had helped set up a triage to administer first aid to survivors when the towers collapsed. Although she was not struck by debris, she inhaled so much dust that she felt that her mouth had turned to paste, she said.
Poumpouras was taken to a hospital and decontaminated, but the next day, she returned to Ground Zero to search for intelligence, weapons, and human remains. She was not told to wear a face mask or informed that she would be exposed to substances that could harm her health. Since then, she has known colleagues who have become sick or died because of exposures they received during the attacks or response. Through the World Trade Center Health Program managed by NIOSH, Poumpouras receives yearly check-ups.
Poumpouras praised OEHS professionals for helping people like her, who do not know how to protect themselves, to stay alive and go home to their loved ones.
“What you do matters,” she said. “Thank you for that, for taking care of people, so that they’re safe. You’re doing good work.”
Abby Roberts is assistant editor of The Synergist.
Read more coverage of AIHA Connect 2025.
