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A POINT OF VIEW PAPER BY THE EXPERTS IN BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE AND ACHIEVING ORGANIZATIONAL POTENTIAL
Narcissistic LEADERS Part 1 of 4 Dysfunct ional Le ade rship Styles Series :
AND THE PURSUIT OF Power, Money AND PRESTIGE
Practical Insight THE NEWSLETTER OF CALIBER LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS SEPTEMBER 2015
4 Dysfunctions of Leaders
This article is the first in a series of articles on dysfunctional leaders. Each of the articles provides insight into the 4 Dysfunctional Styles:
NarcissisticAvoidant
Patriarchal (Autocratic) Matriarchal (Nurturing)
Each of the dysfunctional leadership styles:
has natural talents and abilitiesthat when directed can be usedin the service of the organiza-tion.
has specific behaviors that theyuse to achieve their own agen-da that get in the way of theorganizations goals.
have to be managed andcoached in order to shift fromfunctional to dysfunctionalbehaviors.
can be developed over time toadd value to the organization.
We customize our leadership devel-opment and coaching services to meet the needs of your leaders and organizations. We encourage you to call us to discuss your needs.
www.caliberleadership.com
416.406.3939
Part I: The Narcissistic Leadership Style
There is a lot of confusion about the differences between people who are narcissistic
(Narcissists) versus those who have a narcissistic personality disorder. According to the
Mayo Clinic “Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have
an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with
narcissistic personality disorder believe that they’re superior to others and have little
regard for other people’s feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile
self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”
The narcissist is not mentally ill, does not have a personality disorder and is most inter-
ested in gaining power, money and prestige. They may act the same and seem indistin-
guishable to those with a personality disorder for most people, however, their self-
esteem is not as fragile and they are able to develop new behaviors. They seem the same
because they use the same dysfunctional behaviors to achieve their agenda. These peo-
ple are arrogant and obnoxious and act as though they are superior to others. They have
little or no empathy and feel entitled to special treatment. They exploit others to get
what they want and have no qualms about doing this. With little capacity for reflec-
tion, their self-awareness is low. They rarely apologize as they have no insight into
what they do and feel little shame or remorse.
People who are narcissistic easily assume the role of leader because they feel entitled to
the place at the top. This affirms their belief in their superiority. They enjoy having
power and have no difficulty using it to get what they want.
Because Narcissistic Leaders have an image of themselves as being great leaders, they
are more likely to become leaders than their peers. They are promoted for the image
they project rather than for their own capabilities. They easily sell their image and im-
press those above them in the organization. Charismatic and influential, they stand out
from their peers. They tend to be outgoing, socially confident and enthusiastic. Others
are naturally drawn to them and are happy to follow and work hard to please them.
The bad news is that promoting Narcissists into leadership roles without a solid strategy
for managing their behavior and developing them can have a strong, negative impact
on organizational alignment and cohesiveness. Narcissists may be good at rising to pow-
er within an organization, but their success usually doesn’t last long. Once people see
past the image to who they are and what they are actually capable of doing, it is too
late. Studies have shown that narcissist managers are generally rated as average for
problem-solving skills, but below average for “leadership skills, interpersonal skills and
integrity.”
While there are many Narcissistic Leadership behaviors, the following are examples
of the more frequent ones and the type of organizational issues they create.
Caliber Leadership Systems©
4 Dysfunctions of Leaders
1. NOT A TEAM PLAYER
Narcissistic Leaders have their own agen-
da, which is to demonstrate their superior-
ity and be the best. They need to have a
group of admiring people to follow them
and support their ideas and visions. On a
leadership team, their personal agenda of-
ten conflicts with the agenda of their team.
Because they want to show others how
superior they are, they disrupt, delay, dis-
count and devalue people and fracture the
cohesiveness of their team. Easily slighted
by others when they aren’t recognized or
when they are put in their place, they will
use emotions to create further conflict on
the team. Fract
RESULT: FRACTURED LEADERSHIP TEAM
The behavior of the Narcissistic Leader
gets in the way of building strong leader-
ship teams aligned behind the organiza-
tional objectives. Because they need to
win, they create power struggles with team
members or the team leader; are disruptive
during meetings; or they show up late or
unprepared to participate. They easily de-
flect blame or responsibility and will
charm their peers into seeing things from
their perspective. This can lead to “us vs.
them” dynamics on the team.
2. ARROGANCE & SUPERIORITY
Narcissistic Leaders believe they know
better than others. They dismiss or devalue
the ideas and opinions of their peers, boss
and direct reports should they differ from
their own. They also exaggerate their
achievements and talents, and expect to be
recognized as superior. To others, they
appear arrogant. They give their opinions
and expect others to agree with and defer
to them. Status is important to them and
they want to associate with other special or
high-status people often dismissing others
they consider to have no value.
RESULT: ORGANIZATIONAL SILOS
This leaders wants to be king or queen of
the castle. To do this, they have to create
their own domain where they can do so.
They will implement systems and practices
different from those used in the organiza-
tion. If the organization has a culture that
is family oriented, the culture of their de-
partment may be functional and imperson-
al. Driven by the belief that their way is
the better way, this leader does their own
thing at the expense of organizational
alignment.
3. LACK OF COMPLIANCE
With a strong sense of entitlement, Narcis-
sistic Leaders believe they don’t have to
comply with organizational policies, proto-
cols and even timelines. They expect the
exceptions to be made for them and be-
lieve their excuses and rational will be ac-
cepted without question. Should anyone
get upset with them or when they are held
accountable, they either blame others or
circumstances or they use emotion to get
others to back down. They become en-
raged should someone say “no” or treat
them like everyone else.
RESULT: FAILURE TO “WALK THE TALK” While Narcissistic Leaders promote an im-
age of the type of leader they are, their
behavior rarely aligns. They will promote
values, authenticity, consistency and align-
CALIBER LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS — Dysfunctions of Leaders—Narcissistic Behavior SEPTEMBER 2015
Caliber Leadership Systems©
ment of behaviors which they follow
when it serves them. They will be the
first to criticize others for not doing so,
but will not listen to feedback about their
behavior and the impact it has on the
business. This creates performance issues
when their direct reports disregard the
organizations mandate in favor of the
Narcissistic Leader’s.
4. USES PEOPLE FOR OWN AGENDA
These leaders have no qualms about using
people to achieve his or her own ends.
They promote their image of being supe-
rior and devalue others to increase their
self-esteem. Someone has to be weak so
they can be strong. They see vulnerabili-
ties in others and get others to serve them
by exploiting them. They chose people
with low self-esteem and take advantage
of their weaknesses. They will criticize,
humiliate or embarrass others in public
with demeaning jokes or comments.
RESULT: NO LEADERSHIP BENCH
STRENGTH Because Narcissistic Leaders feel threat-
ened by competent people, they don’t
hire competent leaders as their businesses
grow. Instead they hire people who are
less competent or inexperienced to main-
tain their status as “top dog.” The result-
ing lack of bench strength and leadership
gap creates serious issues with employees.
It can also interfere with the ability to
deliver to customers. Next level managers
end up working long hours to compensate
for their lack of development and
experience.
5. GRANDIOSE GOALS
The Narcissistic Leader won’t listen to
anyone or anything that doesn’t align
with their view of reality. This includes
feedback about themselves and their vi-
sion. Fuelled by their current success and
image of what they can do, they make
decisions without testing the reality.
Should someone challenge them, espe-
cially in a public forum, they retaliate in
passive and aggressive ways. Employees
learn quickly not to challenge or question
them.
RESULT: FAILURE TO ACHIEVE GOALS
Narcissistic Leaders will take risks that
can threaten the value of the organization
instead of increasing it. They will build a
thriving company only to crash it by tak-
ing excessive risks! Looking to increase
their status and power, they drive growth
so fast that their business implodes. Or
they take capital risks without doing due
diligence. They reject any advice to the
contrary of what they want to do and
stay. With little insight into themselves
and their motivations, they set their own
course for destruction.
6. CONTROLS & OVERPOWER OTHERS
While these leaders don’t think of them-
selves as controlling, they use many tac-
tics to control the behavior of others.
They use both aggressive and passive
aggressive behaviors and are not above
using their emotions to intimidate and
manipulate the feelings of others to get
their own way. Their agenda is clear. Do
it my way or pay the emotional conse-
quences.
RESULT: CREATES A FEAR CULTURE People who work for or with Narcissistic
Leaders often walk on eggshells around
them. They are unsure of how they are
going to respond and are afraid to offer
opposing opinions. While they can’t
figure out why anyone would be afraid
of them, direct reports become “Yes”
men and women. Employees will work
hard for them, but will always keep
themselves protected for fear they do or
say something wrong.
It is said that it is most difficult to change
the behavior of narcissistic people. This is
because they can’t see past their perfect
image of themselves to the real person
behind it. Developing their emotional
intelligence, including building self-
awareness, developing empathy and re-
flecting on their behavior are all critical
to their long-term success as leaders.
There are three key barriers that need to
be addressed in order to develop
Narcissistic Leaders:
CALIBER LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS — Dysfunctions of Leaders—Narcissistic Behavior SEPTEMBER 2015
Caliber Leadership Systems©
LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS & SELF-
REFLECTION: Narcissistic Leaders can’t
see past their inflated image to see their
part in the problem. They are defensive
rather than insightful.
LACK OF ADAPTATION OR CHANGE:
Even though their behavior is dysfunc-
tional, they don’t change it – because they
don’t think they have a problem. They
may say they are going to try and then
don’t.
INABILITY TO SEE THEY ARE THE
PROBLEM. Narcissistic Leaders see the
cause of problems as being outside of
them. Since they don’t see their part they
don’t see the need for them to change.
They blame others or try to change other
people to help them feel better.
Narcissistic behavior is a form of adaptation. Long-standing adap-tive patterns of behavior can be changed and new, productive re-sponses and patterns can be put in their place.
Based on our experience working with
narcissist leaders, they can develop their
leadership skills and emotional intelli-
gence by doing the following:
BUILD SELF-AWARENESS Understanding the drivers of their behav-
ior, their emotional needs, strengths and
weaknesses and having an accurate assess-
ment of their capacity is critical to their
development. They also need to under-
stand the impact of their behavior on oth-
ers and how it gets in the way of them
achieving their leadership potential.
DEVELOP EMPATHY
Learning to consider the perspective of
others and imagine how they might feel
in a difficult situation allows Narcissistic
Leaders to strengthen their relationships
with coworkers. They can learn how to
tolerate and handle others emotional re-
sponses without dismissing or devaluing
them.
LISTEN TO OTHERS
Narcissistic Leaders can learn to listen to
what others are saying and not discount
information that is contrary to what they
believe. Having discussions that help
them understand the other persons point
of view rather trying to win or show the
other person they are wrong reduces the
risk of them making impulsive decisions
that may negatively impact the business.
LEARN TO SHARE
Narcissistic Leaders need to learn to share
center stage and able to listen as well as
talk. They are able to tolerate being on a
team without having to take over to show
their superiority. It is also important for
them to be able to ask for feedback and
learn how to coach and mentor others
without feeling threatened.
HIRE A LEADERSHIP COACH
As it is difficult for Narcissistic Leaders to
develop without consistent feedback from
someone who is sensitive to their charac-
ter formation, Leadership Coaching is a
must. The Coach needs to understand
their personality structure, their defences
and be able to confront their dysfunction-
al behavior. The Coach needs to show
them the potential negative consequences
should they not change.
PARTICIPATE IN A LEADERSHIP DEVEL-
OPMENT PROGRAM WHICH INCLUDES
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COACHING Narcissistic Leaders must build awareness
of how they are contributing to their
team and employee’s dysfunction. These
people tend to have some natural leader-
ship characteristics without having the
necessary skills to manage, develop and
assess performance. Participating in a
team training program lets them be rec-
ognized for their progress while, getting
feedback from their peers.
For information on how we can help you deal with narcissistic or other dysfunctional leadership be-havior in your organization, contact us for a complimentary consultation.
416.406.3939
www.caliberleadership.com
CALIBER LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS — Dysfunctions of Leaders—Narcissistic Behavior SEPTEMBER 2015
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