Psychologist finds Nick Clegg is the practically perfect leader

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has topped a UK poll defining the ideal prime minister.

According to research conducted by chartered psychologist Professor Alex Linley, Nick Clegg should be the next prime minister as he has four of the five key personality strengths of a perfect leader.

Conducted over the past three weeks, this research found that the top five strengths that the UK’s next prime minister should have are:

1. Judgement: the ability to make the right decisions;
2. Personal responsibility: holding themselves accountable for their actions;
3. Resolver: tackling problems head on and resolving them;
4. Compassion: helping and supporting people in difficult circumstances;
5. Improver: having the vision on how to improve things, seeing how things can be done better.

When analysed against these strengths, Nick Clegg easily came out on top.

He had nearly all the personality strengths needed to make a perfect prime minister. Based on the results, Clegg is perceived to take personal responsibility for the future of the UK, has accurate judgement, is compassionate and is a born improver.

Gordon Brown was perceived to have the main personality strength of a resolver, tackling problems head on and sorting them out, while rival David Cameron’s key strength was optimism, maintaining a positive outlook even in difficult circumstances.

Brown’s strengths also included persistence, sticking with things no matter how difficult, and service, finding new ways to help people. His weaknesses included a lack of personal responsibility and persuasion.

Cameron also scored highly on strengths including strategic awareness and persuasion, but was let down by a perceived lack of judgement, compassion and persistence to the cause.

Professor Alex Linley, director of the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology and author of The Strengths Book, said:

“The results were surprising. Nick Clegg is rated extremely highly, despite his relative inexperience. For example, people have rated him as having high levels of judgement on decision-making, even though he’s untested.

“These results demonstrate that modern day politics isn’t just about policies, it is about people’s perceptions of the politicians who will lead us.”