by Charles Plant | Jun 3, 2013 | Leadership Development
In looking at leadership scandals and the tendencies of today’s political leaders to be Narcissistic Sociopaths, it struck me, where were the women?
As I thought about it more, I realized that very few of the scandals that are plaguing politics in Canada, the US and Europe today are being initiated by women leaders. And what’s up with that? Women are more successful these days in breaking through the glass ceiling but then why aren’t there more scandals involving women?
Are women just more ethical than men? Are the numbers of women in leadership scandals too few or have they not been there long enough for us to notice a trend in woman initiated scandals?
Since Freud says that everything we do springs from two motives: the urge for sex and the desire to be great, one would expect that the combination of the two would result in just as many scandals involving women as men.
But that’s not the case. Scandals seem to be the virtually exclusive purview of men. While leadership isn’t only about avoiding scandals, is it perhaps that women make better leaders than men?
by Charles Plant | May 30, 2013 | Leadership Development
Well I think I’ve learned a new term to describe leaders like Rob Ford. The term is Narcissistic Sociopath. I started the week wondering why we end up with so many leadership scandals in politics. I think now that it’s a result of the type of people who attracted to politics today. After all, who would want the current life of a politician, always in the limelight, under constant scrutiny. It would take some one with a screw loose to want that type of life.
Take a look at the list below and ask yourself: Is this Rob Ford? Is he a Narcissistic Sociopath? The list below includes sociopathic traits taken from the book Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Dr. Robert D. Hare, Ph.D:
- Glib and superficial charm.
- Grandiose self-worth.
- Need for stimulation or proneness to boredom.
- Pathological lying.
- Conning and manipulative.
- Lack of remorse or guilt.
- Emotional poverty or a limited range or depth of feelings.
- Callousness and lack of empathy.
- Parasitic lifestyle.
- Poor behavioral controls.
- Promiscuous sexual behavior.
- Lack of realistic, long-term goals.
- Impulsivity.
- Irresponsibility.
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions.
But then how can we spot them ahead of time? How can we avoid working with a Narcissistic Sociopath? How can we make sure we don’t hire them or elect them?
by Charles Plant | May 29, 2013 | Leadership Development
It seems as if I’ve gone down one of those rabbit holes that keep me entertained on the net for ages. Yesterday’s blog led me to further my not so structured research into sociopaths and I’ve come up with a whole new look at politicians as narcissists.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a narcissist exhibits “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
- has a grandiose sense of self-importance
- is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
- believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
- requires excessive admiration
- has a sense of entitlement,
- is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
- lacks empathy
- is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
- shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
If that doesn’t describe most politicians these days, I don’t know what does. Although not all narcissists are sociopaths, all sociopaths are narcissists. And while not all narcissists are politicians, are all politicians narcissistic?
And even more, are many leaders outside of politics narcissists? If you look at the list carefully, I’m sure you’ll identify many of the behavioural traits of former and current bosses of yours.
But do you need to be a narcissist to be a leader?
Keri Damen wrote a blog recently for MaRS that pointed out some of the character traits of entrepreneurs. High on the list for entrepreneurs was a severe lack of empathy. It would be great if entrepreneurs could be tested for further traits of narcissism. It might settle the old nature or nurture issue: Can you teach someone to be an entrepreneur. And this gets into the debate on leadership. Can you teach someone to be a leader?
I tend to think you can teach someone to be a leader but if narcissism is a prerequisite for leaders then this is something that cannot be taught. A bit distressing actually.
by Charles Plant | May 28, 2013 | Leadership Development
There is some research to support the proposition that personality traits that are particular to sociopaths are very similar to ones demonstrated by strong leaders. I went on the net again to find just such research to see whether politics attracts people who aren’t ethical or whether people lose their ethics by being involved in politics,
Some research out of Emory University found that the character trait of Fearless Dominance that is normally associated with sociopathy may predict presidential performance.
“Certain psychopathic traits may be like a double-edged sword,” the study’s lead author Dr. Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory, said in a written statement. “Fearless dominance, for example, may contribute to reckless criminality and violence, or to skillful leadership in the face of a crisis.” “Politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths.”
This would explain why we end up with so many ethical scandals in politics. They’re all like that and it just takes a little time for problems to become visible.
But politicians are only one type of leader and there are all sorts of leadership situations that may not for instance require Fearless Dominance as a personality characteristic.
Back to the old issue of causality then. Do you need to be a sociopath to be a political leader or do you become a sociopath from being a politician? And furthermore, do you need to be a bit of a sociopath to be any other type of leader?
by Charles Plant | May 27, 2013 | Leadership Development
When I started blogging, I made up a list of attributes of leadership that has come to be 84 items long. You may have noticed that I’m working through the list, tackling a different subject every week (plus other stuff from time to time.)
Well I was wanting to comment today on the current political scene in Toronto and checked my list to see if the purpose of my post was going to come up as a future item and lo and behold, much to my surprise, it didn’t.
And what was it I wanted to talk about today? Ethics. I happened to notice that right now, if you live inToronto, you can’t help be inundated by the news about political scandals. In fact for the first time in my memory anyway, there is a major scandal at every level of Government.
The Ford boys are mired in the hash/crack ‘I don’t/didn’t do it’ scandal. The provincial Liberals are trying to extricate themselves from a $1 billion decision to close a few gas plants. And the Federal conservatives are just padding their expense accounts. (I mean, talk about boring. The Conservatives can’t even bother to have a good scandal with sex, drugs, and billions.)
So I wanted to talk this week about ethics and went to my list of topics and found, much to my surprise that ethics wasn’t even on my list of potential leadership qualities. Perhaps this says something about my ethically-challenged self but since I compiled the list from stuff I found on the web it can’t only be my fault.
But this led me to the question. Do you need to be ethical to be a good leader or does it get in the way? Given all the scandals we are seeing nowadays one must wonder whether politics attracts people who aren’t ethical or is it that people lose their ethics by being involved in politics.
Do candidates start out ethical and lose it over time or were they always unethical and it just takes us a while to figure it out?
Does ethics even matter in leadership?
by Charles Plant | May 24, 2013 | Leadership Development
Well here it is, what you’ve been waiting for all week, my definitive advice on what to do with difficult people. Are you ready?
Nothing. That’s right, nothing. Difficult people are that way as a result of some combination of low emotional intelligence and poor interpersonal skills. On Howard Gardner’s list of 8 types of intelligence, they lack Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Intelligence.
Unfortunately, difficult people have learned this type of behaviour somewhere. Changing your own behaviour is difficult, very difficult and changing other people’s behaviour is almost impossible. Think about how hard it is to quit smoking, quit drinking, exercise regularly, or stop eating crap. Now think about how you may have tried to get someone else to change theses things. Tough eh?
So no amount of whatever advice you read on the net will work. Telling people you don’t like their behaviour, walking out, coaching them, these all will fail. You have a chance if you’re their boss but it will take constant effort over a very long time to change their behaviour.
Since there is nothing you can do to change their behaviour, what is left? Avoid them, ignore them, limit exposure to them, don’t let them invalidate you, and don’t let them affect your own well being.
Just look at difficult people the same way you do the parking ticket you got, the rotten apple you just bit into, or the pile of dog shit you just stepped in. This too shall pass.
