Some of the liveliest discussions about leadership center on those leaders who impact large populations in a negative way. Hitler, Stalin, and others are responsible for the killing of millions while many in their population just watched or rationalized their behavior to do nothing. Second to that would be those toxic leaders that run the organization into the ground all the while their immediate underlings did the bidding of the toxic leader. Enron, Arthur Andersen, and others are textbook examples. The strange thing is that the exit of the toxic leader exhibits behaviors of these same underlings to degrade the former leader and attempt to befriend the remaining employees as if those who saw the devastation in the organization have short memories.
The common feature with many toxic leaders is their narcissistic nature. The narcissism is like a virus that spreads through upper and sometimes middle management until the organization implodes. The concept of humility is unheard-of. The main focus for a toxic leader is the massaging of personal ego. For upper management and even middle management it’s the same. This can even be seen by administrative assistants who assuage their personal ego by the mere association of the narcissistic toxic leader.
The question is begged what is at the core of this type of dysfunction? How do seemingly intelligent people get caught up in this tragic groupthink? Narcissists and narcissistic organizations go to great pains of avoiding self examination. They feel they are perfect. Sure, you might hear words like humility in their conversations but their actions speak volumes. Once again, this is related to what Erich Fromm calls the “malignant narcissism” and the unsubmitted will. The concept of “speed of the leader, speed of the pack” takes effect in a negative way. The dysfunctional groupthink spreads like a cancer within the organization. Rationalization bolstered by the crowd mentality gets easier and easier.
Illicit behavior typically is developed and is shown in this thing we call conscience, however, the narcissistic personality borders on that of the psychopathic mind. Many times psychopaths exhibit no behaviors that can be detected through a polygraph exam, however, internally the lying, deceit, or illicit behavior shows itself in other physical or mental manifestations, i.e. premature aging, disease, etc. The unfortunate piece to all of this is that most narcissistic people don’t get it. The pathology is so engrained the dysfunction is their normal.
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