The Dark Triad and Leadership

These three personality traits add up to bad leadership.

Psychologists have identified three “dark” personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. All three have been linked to bad leaders.

Narcissism is characterized by being self-centered, arrogant, lacking in empathy and consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration.

Machiavellianism. (derived from the 16th century writings of Niccolo Machiavelli) includes being manipulative, self-serving, and duplicitous. High Machs, as they are called, will do anything to get ahead.

Psychopathy is an antisocial personality type, seemingly without any conscience, valuing of others, or guilt.

The surprising thing is the number of individuals who possess some or all of the dark triad who attain high-level leadership positions. Of the three traits, the greatest amount of research has been on narcissism and leadership and we will explore that in some depth.

An obvious concern is to try to keep people who possess the dark triad out of responsible leadership positions because it is believed that these individuals can ruin departments and organizations (“the rotten apple spoils the whole barrel” effect). There have been calls, therefore, to use more personality testing in the screening and selecting of people for leadership positions.

For Development: Unfortunately, personality disorders are very hard to treat and nearly impossible to eliminate. Mild levels of narcissism and Machiavellianism, but not psychopathy, might be acceptable. The key is to not allow these individuals to ascend to positions of leadership and authority. Think about the bad leaders you have known — either directly, or read about. Did they exhibit any of these dark triad characteristics?