Where Egos Dare: The Untold Truth About Narcissistic Leaders and How To Survive Them

Citation

(2001), "Where Egos Dare: The Untold Truth About Narcissistic Leaders and How To Survive Them", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950aae.002

Where Egos Dare: The Untold Truth About Narcissistic Leaders and How To Survive Them

Where Egos Dare: The Untold Truth About Narcissistic Leaders and How To Survive Them

Dean B. McFarlin and Paul D. SweeneyKogan PageISBN 0749427248£17.99

Keywords: Leadership, Problem solving, Management styles

The six most common telltale characteristics of a narcissistic leader are:

1. 1.

   Reliance on manipulation and exploitation – narcissistic leaders crave attention and admiration; lying, misleading, divide and conquer strategies and bullying are some of the weapons they use to get it.

2. 2.

   Impulsive and unconventional behaviour – narcissistic leaders will often throw tantrums where they berate and threaten subordinates: they invariably demoralize and demotivate employees.

3. 3.

   Excessive impression management – narcissistic leaders are preoccupied with crafting their images: they are shameless self-promoters and credit stealers.

4. 4.

   Poor administrative practices – narcissistic leaders make lousy day-to-day managers: they run off in a dozen different directions at once and vacillate between loose delegation and micro-management.

5. 5.

   Inability to recognize a flawed vision – narcissistic leaders project an exaggerated and misplaced level of self-confidence in their skills and abilities: they believe that they are invulnerable and infallible.

6. 6.

   Failure to plan for succession – narcissistic leaders want the limelight for themselves; they make no real effort to develop subordinates or groom successors.

If you recognize any of these characteristics in your boss, or – worse still – in yourself, then perhaps you ought to read this book.

Business leaders are modern role models. The very image of the dynamic, focused leader inspiring people to share in a vision of corporate success is exhilarating. But, unfortunately, not all who end up in positions of supposed leadership are inspiring. This book suggests that a significant proportion of them have obsessive egotism and warped self-absorption and goes on to "expose" this unpleasant side to leadership. The book does helpfully move on to address proactive measures that can be taken to curb a narcissistic leader's excesses. The authors provide tools and tactics to fight back (if you are the victim of such a leader) or to alert you to the dangers of narcissistic tendencies in yourself and show you where your ego must never dare to go!