Leaders: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

How is it that some leaders lose their moral compass?

You could argue that striving for great leadership responsibility is a neurotic deviation from the norm…and indeed, some of the time it is: There are enough nutcases in leadership positions, seemingly especially so on the global stage at the moment.

Some leaders are driven from a sense of inner insecurity and malignant narcissism. They are driven to achieve in order to prove to themselves and to the world that they are worthwhile human beings. They crave external appreciation to compensate for a lack of inner appreciation. Their childhood is typified by cold and distant parenting, overindulgent parenting or interrupted development of some kind.

This early childhood damage leads to a poor sense of self-esteem. These individuals can achieve positions of great responsibility and be extremely successful. But they can also be extraordinarily dangerous people. Without psychological help and coaching these leaders can cause great damage to their environment and to themselves[i].

Napoleon said that leaders were merchants in hope. They peddle their hope for a better future to their followers who in turn project their hopes back onto the leader. Transference is an important feature in leadership and followership.

Through their charisma, leaders invite followers to project their dreams onto the leader, thereby reinforcing the leader’s sense of being in control — perhaps to the point of invincibility or infallibility.

Especially in stressful situations, followers can develop unreal expectation of their leaders and leaders can lose themselves in hubris with disastrous consequences. They lose touch with reality and enter into a surreal world of fantasy. This is the place where things go insanely off track, and truth and lies, right and wrong get blurred as leaders lose their way.

The line between right and wrong is an ethical and moral one. In a volatile environment the temptations to water down ethical values can be great…but will inevitably lead to political, business and, usually, personal disaster. Viz. Jeffrey Skilling (Enron)or Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Renault) who are both at the mild end of the spectrum compared to some autocratic political nutcases.

Leadership can bring out the best and the worst in human beings.

Few other activities provide such a breadth and depth of opportunity to make our world a better place. Unfortunately, at the ugly end of the good-bad spectrum, it has tragic consequences for our world.

Article adapted from a chapter of my book written a few years ago. More on leadership styles here.

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[i] Manfred Kets de Vries, The Leader on the Couch, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2006.