Narcissistic Leaders

I'm going on some sort of kick with the Harvard Business Review article reviews. This next article that I read Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons by psychoanalyst Michael Maccoby, shows the progression of the research started by Zaleznik mentioned in the previous post.

Maccoby describes what we might call "Rock Star Leaders" or the "twice-born" leaders mentioned previously. I hate to pick on one person so much... but with the recent release of the Jesus-Phone... I mean iPhone... I'm going to pick on Steve Jobs.

I give him credit though; he is a genius. He is also extremely driven to mold the world into his image (something Freud would call narcissistic). And to a certain extent he has succeeded. A generation ago, people would feel naked if they left home without their watches... now people can't seem to get through the day without popping those little white ear-buds into their ears and plugging them into an iPod.

I would say narcissism is almost a logical offshoot of our capitalist society. (We all work hard in order to reap the benefits for ourselves. Nothing is wrong with this. This is what keeps the world turning.) However, at a certain point, narcissism can turn pathological, which will usually lead to the decline of the organization that the "Rock Star Leader" is running.

Narcissistic leaders have great many strengths:

• Great vision - This one is obvious. Usually their vision includes they being worshiped like a god, hence Jesus Phone....
• Charisma - The strength of their personalities attracts followers.
  

Maccoby explains that narcissistic leaders often have the personal charisma and drive that give them enormous strength during times of chaos. (Think Winston Churchill and Mao). However, during the times of peace things don't usually go so well. You need at least some managerial abilities in order to keep all of the boring but important things going as they should.

Their downfall is usually caused by the archetypal weakness of narcissistic leaders:

• Overly Domineering - "My way or no way!" Thats how Jobs was fired from the company he started.
• Thin Skinned / Poor Listeners - Any criticism is seen as a personal attack on their personal "perfection". Consequently, they have selective listening and can't learn from mistakes, eventually making one that they cannot recover from.
  
• Lack of Empathy - Because they are so wrapped up in themselves, they cannot understand why other people may think differently or have different needs from them. They may be masters of politics, but they tend to see people as tools to exploit. In the end, people we become sick of it. (Winston Churchill was voted out of the Prime Minister's office right after he won WWII).
  
• Poor Mentors / Mentees - Well if you're a poor listener and lack empathy, you probably won't do well with mentoring.
  
• Overly Competitive - Having a competitive spirit is great, until you compromise your morals or your team members because of it.
  

How to survive if you are a Narcissistic leader:

• Get a sidekick - No really, a strong, competent, and thick skinned "manager" can help bring balance. (Kinda like the Yin to your Yang).
• Indoctrinate your team - (Use sparingly) If everyone agrees with you and trusts your decisions 100%, you can avoid conflict.
  
• Know yourself - Try to understand your narcissistic personality. Often that may be enough to stop a rant with "Is this really that important to chew out one of my most loyal team members, or am I just being psycho?"

Sorry Steve, but the Lisa, Newton, NeXT, puck mouse, and Apple TV should be good indicators of your narcissism. Get over it and you'll be the better for it. Now how about sending me one of those nice 80GB Video iPods :-).