self-made men

  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - what role does narcissism have in leadership? - - - - - - - - - - 

Narcissus by Caravaggio

Caravaggio’s painting presents a young man gazing at his own reflection in the water. He seems mesmerized and cannot take eyes of his own glance. 

The myth of Narcissus is firmly rooted in our culture, symbolizing self-love and egotism, selfishness and turning away from the world. Narcissus is not only in love in himself but also in his idealized image, which he creates. It is interesting to explore the meaning of this myth in the context of leadership.

In "Envy Theory: Perspectives on the Psychology of Envy" Frank John Ninivaggi describes narcissism as the 'energetic dimension of ego', 'the motor behind universal self-revelance strivings', a feature - when within normal limits - is necessary to maintain a reasonably coherent sense of self and self-identity. Only abnormal and excessive levels of narcissim are expressed as arrogance, egocentric pride and vanity. The psychological birth of narcissism is natural, and dates back to each one of us first experience of hunger and first cry as an infant, which signals to the mother a state of loneliness and need for help. 

Being an abnormal narcissist paves the way to ‘leadership’ – people with narcissistic personalities usually aspire to become someone ‘special’. Taking a leading position represents one of the ways of realizing this need. Narcissists are tireless in the pursuit of success and are ready to give up their private lives for this sake. The life of a narcissist becomes a never-ending race to confirm his own value.

Being a narcissist facilitates building one’s career and surpassing others - not because one is better than all the rest. People with this character trait are simply more willing to sacrifice everything for success. Moreover, narcissistic people are often selected as leaders due to the fact that they are very convincing and able to make a good impression. The impression is false – behind a façade of a confident person hides someone whose internal self-esteem is not very high and whose competences do not actually stand out.

Narcissism is a detrimental and dangerous feature of any leader, and it should not be mistaken for positive characteristics like self-confidence or willingness to take control over a situation. Narcissistic leaders, while always ready to give orders and constantly empahasizing their dominant position, are not good at the basic activities which facilitate the work of any team: communicating, listening to others, encouraging knowledge, ideas and information sharing. Collaboration is just not their thing. Narcissistic leaders prefer obedience to constructive criticism, strive to make their authority undeniable, instead of welcoming opposing views as valid points on the way to compromise solution.

The problem is that almost everyone can get narcissistically ‘stung’ – our self-centered, egotistic characteristics can come to the surface once we climb up the career ladder, once we emerge as leaders. 

Let's be alert to that. Haven’t we had enough of narcissistic 'leaders' in our history? Don't we have enough of them in our daily lives? 

The first step to overcoming one's excessive levels of narcissism is gratitude - that is, clearer appreciation of and developing admiration of the attempts of another, realistic and respectful acknowledgment of differences, weaknesses, shortcomings, faults and uncertainties of both oneself and others (Ninivaggi, 2010)