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| © MarketWatch photo illustration/Everett Collection The ‘dark triad’ consists of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. |
By Quentin Fottrell, MarketWatch
Do you ever wonder why the bad guy is in charge — and the good guy is pushing paper?
There
may be a reason for that. Bad bosses often promise the world, according
to Deborah Ancona, a professor of leadership at MIT Sloan School of
Management and founder of the MIT Leadership Center, and hard-working
employees can be left to deal with the aftereffects. “Toxic leaders are
often talking about all the great things that they can do,” she told MIT Sloan.
Management
are always looking for solutions and someone who talks a good game, she
said, but those people may not have the best interests of the staff or
company at heart. Charisma and building a personal brand that inspires
confidence can be enough to get the corner office. “Only later, through
interaction or their behavior over time do you start to see the
underbelly that isn’t always visible at first glance.”
‘Toxic leaders often talk about all the great things that they can do.’ — —Deborah Ancona, founder of the MIT Leadership Center
Are bad bosses more likely to be men or women? A 2013 experiment published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
found that women are selected much less often as leaders, even when
they have a stellar track record. The researchers noted key differences
between the sexes: men were “overconfident” and more likely to
exaggerate their past performance.
These personality traits are
not pretty, and don’t bode well for employees, customers or, indeed,
investors. The “dark triad,” cited by Ancona, consists of narcissism
(extreme self-centeredness), Machiavellianism (manipulation of others)
and psychopathy (acting impulsively with no regard for other people’s
feelings). One is bad enough. But all three would make for a difficult
work culture, especially in a competitive field with power and prestige
at stake.
Dorothy Ann Spry, an organizational psychologist and author of
“Psychopathic Leadership: Good, Bad & Downright Ugly,” has worked
with companies in the U.K. about how to recognize “dark triad” measures.
“Sadly, a lot of people that train in emotional intelligence are not
trained to recognize these dark traits — high manipulation,
dysfunctional narcissism. Instead, recruiters are selecting charismatic,
persuasive and cunning individuals.”
This is of concern to
investors and employees, Spry says. “Just the thought of the existence
of a narcissistic, authoritarian, manipulating and controlling leader
wandering the corridors of an organization should be of interest to
those involved in corporate management and corporate governance,” she
said, “because their very presence influences the way organizations are
run and their negative effects both on society and the environment we
live in.”
But how can you tell? Ancona says to watch out for
people who are moved around the company a lot, who may still have the
confidence of upper management, if not the people they work with. Other
signs: People who talk smack about other employees behind closed doors,
especially their subordinates and co-workers, and bosses who don’t share
information with their employees in an effort to manage up and take
credit.
‘Recruiters are selecting charismatic, persuasive and cunning individuals.’ — —Dorothy Ann Spry, author of ‘Psychopathic Leadership: Good, Bad, & Downright Ugly’
“It’s not a wonderful personality constellation,” according to Jesse Fox, associate professor of communications at Ohio State University, and co-author of a study of 800 men — “The Dark Triad”
— published in the April 2015 edition of “Personality and Individual
Differences,” a peer-reviewed journal, and a similar paper studying 400
women.
Workplace experts say it’s important to keep records of a
person’s behavior, especially a toxic boss, should you need to make a
report to human resources. It’s also important to speak up in meetings
and advocate for yourself on digital platforms like Slack to avoid being
marginalized, understand that it’s not personal, and keep your resume
updated in case the culture becomes too much to bear.
Many studies on corporate leaders have suggested that empathy is key to strong leadership
and opens up a company to shared ideas through the ranks of an
organization and even among offices in different countries. Julie
Barnes, a New York-based clinical psychologist, says there’s “healthy
versus unhealthy” narcissism. The latter could damage relationships,
while the former might actually be useful to get ahead at work.
Another way to get clues about your boss or coworkers’ personality traits? Their social media profiles. In the era of Facebook (FB) Twitter (TWTR) Snapchat (SNAP) and
Instagram, people are more adept at curating their own personal brands.
Indeed, people who post selfies on social networks like Instagram and
Facebook are more likely to exhibit the “dark triad” of personality
traits. That’s according to Fox’s study 1,200 men and women who
completed personality tests and answered questions on their online
habits.
‘Individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident.’ — —May 2019 study by Stanford University and the University of Virginia researchers
Constantly posting selfies provides an unrealistic mirror
of our own lives, experts say. Narcissism, self-objectification and
psychopathy predicted the actual number of selfies posted on sites like
Instagram, as did how often people edited photographs that they posted
online. Scouring social media is one more way for managers to make sure
they’re hiring the real deal.
The latest study supports a separate
paper published last week by researchers from Stanford University and
the University of Virginia in the peer-reviewed Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes.
“Individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident,”
they concluded. The result? “Advantages beget advantages.”
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