As we continue our discussion on this critical subject, we will consider the rudiments of the narcissistic leader’s effective leadership approach in this article; those characteristics will be wholly absent with the narcissistic leader.
Narcissistic leaders in managerial or supervisory roles are easier to weed out: all you must do is ask the people that they lead to get an accurate perspective of their leadership style. Since a leader’s job is primarily to influence people, all you need to do is measure their impact on the people they lead, those in the organisation who are directly related to them. These are the more likely people to get the work done, they are closer to reality, the business, and the clients. If these people can share their experiences about the narcissistic leader, which may be difficult, the closest indication you will get is that they are dominated by fear. Those led by a narcissist are always scared of the narcissist, intimidation, manipulation, and anger are their normal day to day experiences.
It is pertinent to note that narcissists are typically very skillful at managing up; they’re often good at eye service. So those above them in the organisation’s leadership often regard them as compliant and pleasant and useful to their organisation. As it is almost impossible to build organisations with control groups, the narcissistic leader’s leader has no realistic means of directly assessing how much performance is left on the table due for those being led by the frightened, demoralised feeling of narcissism.
A thorough appraisal of leaders, specifically on their effect on the people they lead, is very likely to generate a substantial improvement in their effectiveness as leaders, and significantly impacting the organisation’s effectiveness as well. And if you don’t want to weed out narcissists, the essential and valuable leadership evaluation will, of course, do the job for you. A successful feedback loop would undoubtedly lead to an improvement in important learnable personal characteristics such as social and emotional maturity for the non-narcissists, maybe for those gingerly living on the autistic continuum.
When we talk about effective leadership, I want to point out that it takes a tremendous amount of bravery for a “good” leader to be able even to discover and recognise the degree of instability discussed above. It then takes even more confrontational courage. Engaging narcissists can be frightening since most people can sense the frustration concealed just below the surface. It also takes courage to disengage people from an organisation. Moreover, if the corporate culture is conflict-avoiding and most possibly packed with conflict-avoiding leaders, it is vulnerable to narcissistic infiltration and, ultimately, their infestation. Red flags can be overlooked, reduced, and rationalised in these types of organisations.
How narcissists flourish in our organisations is when the leadership believes that the narcissists are an outstanding performer who delivers impressive results always, so we can’t weed them out of the organisation. Further, a study found that narcissistic young adults are more likely to end up in supervisory jobs. Emily Grijalva, an expert in organisational behavior, says the study’s report is “suggesting that selfish, arrogant individuals are rewarded with more powerful organisational roles.” To support this view, Durvasula, a psychology professor at California State University, Los Angeles, says a narcissist can distract you with smartness and charisma. However, there is a lack of empathy and compassion beneath the mask, and a tendency for deception, making them hard to love as a romantic partner.
No matter how much of an important figure, contributor, or top player you think the narcissist is, you can be sure to have a net detrimental impact on the organisation and avoiding their actions will not make it go away. For every unit of goodness that they add, they will subtract at least two from those around them, and probably much more. This is one-way narcissistic leaders shine: by puffing up when tearing down their peers or reports.
Also, they often claim credit for the efforts of those they lead, while ignoring their contributions and achievements at the same time. The effort and contributions of the people doing the job do not need to be recognised as the object of those who report to them, from the viewpoint of a narcissist, is to make them look acceptable to others and satisfy their narcissistic needs. What’s vital to a narcissist is the image of themselves they want to present to the public.
The long-term costs of the narcissists’ behavior are exhausting, and the insidiously manipulative acts in terms of scope and complexity are almost untold. How do you even account for the awful experience of inflicting psychological torment on innocent people who want to come to work, do a fantastic job, and feed their families?
The result is that talented people learn to hide their innovations or reduce their creativity or productivity or leave the organisation. This is the death of leadership.
Do look out for a continuation of this article.
However, you can take the Narcissistic Personality Quiz to gauge your narcissistic traits:
https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/narcissistic-personality-quiz/
Sobande is a Lawyer and Leadership Consultant. He is a Doctoral Candidate at Regent University, Virginia Beach, USA, for a Ph.D. in Strategic Leadership. He can be contacted by Email: [email protected]
