Michael Maccoby has written about larger-than-life leaders who envision the big picture and dream about future. Leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jack Welch are the representatives of this breed of business leaders. Maccoby claims that all these contemporary leaders have a significantly different characters and styles from their predecessors from 1950s to 1980s. These are people who do not shy away from sharing their views on various topics other than business. Their charisma is their asset and they do not hesitate to use it to promote their vision.

When analysed, all these leaders have been shown to display many common character traits such as independent thinking, not easy to be impressed, reliance on innovation, risk taking capability and most importantly an audacity to push through the massive transformations that society periodically undertakes. As per Freud’s classification, they are the narcissists, and Maccoby believes that they are assets to the business if we can take advantage of their strengths while tempering their weaknesses.

Productive and non productive narcissistic leaders

Even though narcissism has a negative connotation, actually narcissist leaders can be good as well as bad for the society. They are gifted strategists who can see the big picture and take risks to accomplish them. They are the ones who dare to challenge the status quo and leave legacy behind. Shaw put it nicely – “some people see things, and they say ‘why?’; narcissists dream about things that never were and say, ‘why not?’”

But when their dreams become unrealistic because of lack of restraining anchors and self-knowledge, they tend to become unproductive. Their tendency towards grandiosity and distrust becomes their Achilles’ heel.  In such a situation they self destruct and lead their company to disaster. The challenge facing today’s organizations is to ensure that they prevent their narcissist leaders from becoming unproductive.

Source of strength for narcissistic leaders

Narcissist leaders have two sources of power – their great vision and their ability to attract hordes of followers who share their vision. They are, by nature, people who have tremendous foresight and the ability to transform their dreams into reality. In today’s changing and competitive environment they get ample opportunity to act on their dreams. They get the chance to change the very rules of the game. Clearly this motivates them to “want – and need – to leave behind a legacy.”

Narcissist leaders attract followers through their charisma and oratory skills. Their ability to stir enthusiasm amongst the audience is their primary weapon. In reality, these followers are their source of affirmation and adulation.

Weaknesses of the narcissistic leader

Despite their success, there are certain negative traits that narcissist leaders possess. They are extraordinarily sensitive and generally become emotionally isolated. They are not the best people to be criticized or scrutinized for their actions. They ignore or avoid anything that they feel is threatening or detrimental to their leadership. Their obsession of paying heed to only good things being said about them creates a circle of ‘yes-men’ around them. They crave for empathy and adulation from others but do not reciprocate with the same. Their ruthlessness sometimes becomes their strength but mostly it creates a repulsive aura around them. They do not change as long as they are successful. They distaste mentoring or being mentored. For them, they are the centre of their successful world and thus, on the rare occasions in which they choose to mentor someone, they want to make their protégés a pale reflection of themselves. They become so independent that they find intimacy difficult. They want results and are willing to take chances in arguing with authority. This makes them relentless and ruthless in their pursuit of victory. They make every game a test of their survival skills. Many a times this results in them finding enemies that actually are not there – even amongst their colleagues.

Avoiding the traps

Productive narcissists are the need of the hour. Every business needs them and it’s the biggest challenge for both the individual as well as the organization to ensure that they can prevent their narcissist leaders from becoming unproductive. Here are some of the suggestions offered by Maccoby after his research on narcissistic leaders.

Find a trusted sidekick – who can understand his partner’s vision, act as an anchor and keep him grounded. He should be able to point out the operational requirement of the narcissistic leader’s vision and thus keep him rooted in reality.

Indoctrinate the organization – followers should share the leader’s vision, they should be able to identify with them. If that happens they will champion the cause on the leader’s behalf. A narcissistic leader should direct his efforts in indoctrinating his vision into the entire organization.

Get into analysis – feedback and criticism keep oneself grounded to reality and this is one trait that is a necessary requirement for a successful leader. He should be aware of the reality. Only control and discipline cannot buy him power, he needs to increase his self-knowledge. Psychotherapies can also be a good source to increase this self-awareness. Once they become open minded, they will be better equipped to broaden their perspectives.

Concluding remarks

We believe that Maccoby is right to a certain extent when he brands the mentioned successful leaders as ‘narcissistic leaders.’ The negative connotation attached with the word ‘narcissist’ might make many of us believe that they are the autocrats of the business world. However, Freud’s definitions have improved over time and we hope that his words get interpreted correctly by people over a period of time.

In today’s uncertain times, filled with dramatic discontinuities, narcissistic leaders might be the only option. Innovation holds the key for businesses and clearly narcissists are the biggest champions of innovation. Leaders who can create new futures will guide us to a path of sustainable success. Organizations on their part face the greatest challenge in finding such leaders and then making sure that they remain grounded to reality.

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