When the sun sets, shadows that showed at noon but small, appear most long and terrible.
Dark Side Leadership
Drunks looking for keys under a lamp post?
Nathaniel Lee
Reasons to be un-cheerful about Psychology’s evidence base
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 2
Another fad?
What is new here?
Is Dark Side Leadership
simply another way of
reminding us of what we
already know?
Or does it offer new
insights and
methodologies to make
advances in how we
assess and develop
leaders?
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 3
Despite the popularity of
competency models, their
popularity has not been
accompanied by any
leadership renaissance
The dynamics of the causes of
leadership impact and the
effects of organisational
performance have proven
elusive
Exceptional leadership it is
argued is needed to produce
outstanding returns
How do the dynamics of dark
side leadership shape success
and failure?
The dark side to help rethink leadership
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 4
Dark side leadership is bad
The global financial crisis was
largely caused by corporate
psychopaths….Measures exist
to identify corporate
psychopaths. Perhaps it is
time to use them.
Clive Boddy
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 5
Dark side leadership is necessary
Dark side leadership is key to
how the current system
functions. We need:
A few sociopaths to run the
“system”
The clueless who maintain
the system despite any lack
of loyalty from the system
The losers who just coast
along with enough
discretionary effort
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 6
I shot 630 elephants and 63
men, and I regret the elephants
more.
Arthur Jones, Nautilus
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 7
Jack Welch at GE: a sociopath who understood the dark side?
Jack Welch’s greatest
genius wasn't in reading a
balance sheet or executing
a business strategy, but
rather in his preternatural
understanding of raw
power.
He knew how to ingratiate
as well as intimidate the
media - to squelch, kill or
chill unflattering portrayals
of him. That meant
rewarding allies and
punishing potential
adversaries.
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 8
Dark side leadership may be good
Psychopathy is like sunlight.
Overexposure can hasten one’s
demise in grotesque,
carcinogenic fashion. But
regulated exposure at controlled
and optimal levels can have a
significant positive impact on
well-being and quality of life.”
Psychopathy……is personality
with a tan.
Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of
Psychopaths
Does dark side leadership
incorporate important
qualities that organisations
value?
The seven deadly wins:
1. ruthlessness
2. charm
3. focus
4. mental toughness
5. fearlessness
6. mindfulness
7. action
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 9
Is the dark side a positive predictor of leadership?
Based on prior theory and the
experiences of practitioners, we
hypothesized negative relationships
between the subclinical disorders and
leader development over time. With
regard to this hypothesis, our results
were certainly more ambivalent. …..we
found … positive relationships with
leader development over time and across
multiple dimensions of leadership.
The remaining dimensions had few or
inconsistent effects.
The results require some explanation.
Peter Harms on research
tracking the development of
leadership within West Point
Tunnel vision helps. Being a
bit of a shit helps. A thick skin
helps. Stamina is crucial, as is
a capacity to work so hard that
your best friends mock you,
your lovers despair, and the
rest of your acquaintances
watch furtively from the
sidelines, half in awe and half
in contempt. Luck helps, but
only if you don't seek it.
Felix Dennis, How To Get Rich
Felix Dennis is candid about the dynamics of success
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 11
Leadership: business success and failure
One business leader was a
tyrant whose leadership style
“created a culture that
condemned his organisation to
an inevitable fate.”
The other was a visionary and
business genius “who
reshaped entire industries by
the force of his will.”
What made the difference?
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 12
The halo effect of business success and failure
Our attributions of success and
failure are shaped by the Halo
Effect
We evaluate the causes of
business outcomes from our
knowledge of the consequences of
what happened; not so much
prediction as post-diction
Our romanticism of leadership
leads us to over-estimate the
impact of leadership in business
success and failure
We continue to make up plausible
narratives as explanations for
success and failure
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 13
Do we know the extent of the
problem?
Do we have a “theory”; which
frameworks and constructs seem
more or less useful?
Overview
External selection
Talent management and
succession planning
Implications for practitioners
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 14
Are we headed for hell in a hand cart?
A range of “gloomy”
estimates based on
different sources,
with very different
definitions, criteria,
samples and
methodologies
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 15
The Chicken Little industry of the consulting business
Is the sky about to fall on our heads?
If these figures are remotely accurate:
■ how does business life continue?
■ did the leadership industry fall asleep
for the last 2 - 3 decades?
Estimates are very much at variance from
other studies, e.g. employee engagement
or 360 feedback data
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 16
An interesting study of “bad” leadership
About one-third
rated their bosses
as “failures”
(question mark)
An empirical
investigation of the
antecedents,
behaviours, and
outcomes of bad
leadership
Journal of Leadership
Studies, 2007
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 17
An interesting study of “bad” leadership
Maybe the
solution is
easy. Stop:
ignoring the
problem
rewarding bad
behaviour
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 18
Impact of dark side leadership: a perspective from succession
In 1996 Enron Chairman Kenneth
Lay agrees a succession plan with
Rich Kinder, his President. He would
remain as Chairman and Kinder
would become CEO.
Rich Kinder falls out with
Kenneth Lay (a combination of
disagreement about the
strategic direction of Enron and
Kinder’s affair with Lay’s PA).
Kinder leaves to form Kinder
Morgan.
Jeff Skilling sees
the succession gap
as his opportunity
and demands to be
made CEO.
Never get yourself in a
position where you
have only one
candidate. It’s too risky.
Jim Robinson, ex CEO American
Express
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 19
Do we have a theory of dark side leadership?
The confusion between the ineptitude
of leaders who lack capability vs. the
behaviour of leaders who display
“vices”
The complication that virtue and vice
may be highly inter-connected; the
bright side may have a dark side, and
the dark side may have a bright side
How can we tell the difference?
Is it useful to think of a spectrum of
dark side leadership? A kind of
index that runs from the inept
through to the “asshole” to the
toxic?
Or does dark side leadership come
in any variety of forms? If it does,
why does it seem to cohere within
patterns?
Our virtues are
most frequently but
vices in disguise.
Duc de la Rochefoucauld
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 20
Frameworks of dark side leadership
Specific models of psychopathy Hare, Lilienfeld, Paulhus and the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism,
Psychopathy) or Quartet (Sadism)
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 21
Personality models Eysenck’s Psychoticism and variations of the Big 5
Ancient wisdom character and an appeal to the seven deadly sins
Sub-clinical models Manfred Kets de Vries and 5 varieties of neurotic leadership: Dramatic,
Suspicious, Detached, Depressive and Compulsive
Hogan Development Survey and 11 maladaptive themes
Nigel Guenole and DSM 5: Negative Emotionality, Detachment,
Antagonism, Disinhibition, Compulsivity, Psychoticism
A variation of a Big 5 model
g: general intelligence vs.
concretistic thinking
n: emotionality, neuroticism,
sensibility, id vs. placidity, stability
e: extraversion, energy, surgency,
eros vs. introversion, gravity
c: conscientiousness, control,
superego vs. impulsivity,
casualness
w: will, independence, ego vs.
subduedness, passivity, affability
a: affection, idealism vs. tough-
mindedness, cynicism, thanatos
The Scientific Study of
Human Nature, Edited by Helmuth Nyborg
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 22
a
e
c
g
n
w
Dark side leadership as permutations of personality traits?
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 23
high w, low a, low c
low n
Fearless Dominance
high n
Self-Centred Impulsivity
low g
Reckless Idiot
low g
Dangerous Fool high g
Confident Risk
Taker
high g
Charismatic Doer
FT interviews with 60 CEOs
Describing their dark sides, 58 of the
60 admit weaknesses that are really
strengths, e.g. impatience,
perfectionism 1. Control freakery
2. Vanity
3. Dithering
4. Poor listening
5. Bullying
6. Fear of conflict
7. Lack of small talk
The three worst traits of
chief executives are: a
lack of self knowledge, a
lack of self knowledge
and a quite extraordinary
willingness to give
themselves the benefit
of the doubt.
Lucy Kellaway, FT
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 24
Lucy Kellaway’s 7 deadly sins
Vices as re-interpreted as virtues
1. Control freakery: accepting the buck stops with
me
2. Vanity: projecting pride in my company’s
achievements
3. Dithering: caution to assess decision options
carefully
4. Poor listening: simply managing information
load
5. Bullying: abruptness to tackle bad behaviour
6. Fear of conflict: civility and courtesy to maintain
interpersonal harmony
7. Lack of small talk: cutting to the chase in a busy
world
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 25
Vices & Virtues Scale (VAVS) and the Dark Triad
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 26
Machiavellianism Narcissism Psychopathy
Veselka et al, The Dark Triad and the seven deadly
sins. Personality & Individual Differences, 2014
Patterns across different frameworks of dark side leadership
Douglas et al, 2012, “Distinguishing the
Dark Triad: Evidence from the Five-Factor
Model and the Hogan Development Survey”
Dark Triad measures of Narcissism,
Machiavellianism and Psychopathy
Hogan Development Survey
Measure of Big 5
Dark Triad constructs were highly related
but sort of “distinguishable”; all associated
with high aggression and low empathy
Substantial correlations across Primary
(callous, selfish and manipulative) and
Secondary (impulse emotional instability)
Psychopathy and Big 5
Factor analysis:
1. Emotional reactivity of aggression and
paranoia
2. Extraverted narcissistic risk taking
3. Antagonistic anti-social behaviour
4. Inflexible conscientious compulsiveness
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 27
How do we decide which framework to use?
Coherence: is the model a simple listing of dimensions? Or
does the framework make the connections between context,
causes and consequences? The right amount of elegance
Insight: how much insight does it provide? Is the framework
largely descriptive or does it offer explanatory power that goes
beyond description to provide an understanding of causal
dynamics? The right amount of explanation
Pragmatism: can it be used practically within organisational
life with applications for assessment and development? Or will
the constructs and associated terminology be off putting to end
users? The right amount of relevance
Impact: will it improve organisational decision making? Not in
principle in the abstract but in practical gains of business
benefit. The right amount of utility
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 28
CONTEXT
When does the theory
work?
Under which specific
circumstances?
With which
individuals?
CAUSES
How does the theory
work?
How simple or
complex is the causal
mechanism?
How elaborate is the
causal sequence?
CONSEQUENCES
What outcomes are
predicted from the
theory?
What is the size of the
effect?
How sustainable are the
outcomes?
What does any decent theory look like?
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 29
The context of dark side leadership
Strategic Structural Cultural
■ Bold and
adventurous
aspirations for
growth
■ Intense competition
■ Fast moving change,
complexity and
uncertainty
■ Weak regulation and
lax enforcement of
financial and
professional
standards
■ Incentive systems
■ Complexity of
business model
■ Lack of diversity within
the senior
management team
■ Low levels of technical
expertise
■ Inadequate systems
for corporate
governance and risk
assessment
■ Hierarchical operating
model
■ Individualistic
■ Compliance based on
fear
■ Arrogance
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 30
The causes of dark side leadership
Power and its effect on leadership and
the toxic tandem with followership
Stress and imbalances with personal
and working life
Early life experiences and unresolved
issues (e.g. family dynamics)
Exposure to specific triggers (e.g. role
models of success and failure)
Personality traits
Values and motivations and mind-sets
(e.g. sense of entitlement)
When you give people
power they basically start
acting like fools.
Dacher Keltner
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 31
Last Friday night, I Twitted a photograph of myself that I intended to send as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle. Once I realized I posted to Twitter I panicked, I took it down and said that I had been hacked. I then continued with that story which was a hugely regrettable mistake.
Anthony Weiner
The consequences of dark side leadership
Personal consequences:
At best: the “degrees of freedom” to
perform and progress
At worst: risk of career derailment and
any number of life disruptions
Organisational outcomes:
The possession of
psychopathic traits has
proved a useful passport
to high office.
Norman Dixon
At worst:
the loss of talent that has the
capability and character to achieve
for the long run
counter-productive work behaviours
and absent citizenship
a toxic impact on corporate culture
with a knock on effect on productivity
and innovation
distorted strategic decision
making
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 32
Why do organisations make bad strategic decisions?
They fail to manage two difficult tensions:
Pushing into the market vs.
creating a viable organisational
infrastructure
Grasping the opportunities of
change vs. benefiting from the
gains of consolidation
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 33
Business Challenges: integrating strategy and capability
ARCHITECT: redefining the
organisation infrastructure to create
new operating methods and practices;
exploiting technological capability to
create new organisational structures,
systems and operating styles
TROUBLE-SHOOTER: identifying and
removing unproductive and inefficient
business function; tackling those
business activities which are no longer
contributing to corporate performance
REGULATOR: focusing attention on
the efficiency and consistency of all
internal processes; applying financial
discipline and administrative control
over organisational activity to gain
improved levels of efficiency
INTEGRATOR: raising the overall skill
level of the work-force through focusing
resources on training, development,
recognition and reward; raising levels of
staff capability and motivation to
improve organisational loyalty and pride
VISIONARY: planning next generation
products and services to formulate an
innovative business strategy; developing new
business concepts which redefine the rules of
business success
EXPLORER: investigating opportunities to
break into new markets in pursuit of a
diversification strategy; developing
relationships with other key players in the
industry to explore scope for alliances and
joint ventures
BUILDER: translating business strategy into
sales and marketing priorities; reviewing the
customer service delivery process for areas of
improvement; exploiting the organisation’s
customer-base through attention to sales and
marketing activity
LOBBYIST: representing the organisation’s
interests across the wider business community
to improve corporate image; planning a
programme of corporate communication which
gains greater influence and freedom of
manoeuvre for the organisation © AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 34
Business Challenges as leadership mind-set
Connecting strategic choices to
organisational capability to
leadership effectiveness
Assumption:
Strategic decision making is not
just a rational exercise to identify
the basis of competitive
advantage.
But is shaped by the mind-sets of
the decision makers and their:
Functional expertise and
experience
Exposure to business success
and failure
Motivational and personality
traits
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 35
Understanding and
addressing the assumptions
management is making
about its industry and the
business’s relative position
in the industry is
crucial….the sheer logic of
strategic choice is not
enough; it will not be
convincing if it ignores
management’s assumptions.
Michael Porter
Business Challenges and Hogan Development Survey
ARCHITECT
TROUBLE-SHOOTER
Less Imaginative
More Sceptical and
Diligent
REGULATOR
More Diligent, Reserved
and Cautious
Less Colourful and
Imaginative
INTEGRATOR
Less Bold
More Dutiful
VISIONARY
Less Mischievous and
Sceptical
EXPLORER
More Colourful, Bold and
Mischievous
Less Cautious and Diligent
BUILDER
More Imaginative
Less Cautious
LOBBYIST
More Colourful
Less Sceptical © AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 36
Implications
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 37
Character
the values and attributes
which provide leadership
purpose and meaning for the
longer-term
Career Management
self management and political
savvy to navigate through
organisational realities
Credibility
background credentials and
connections to build
confidence as a potential
leader
Capability
the functions, tasks and skills
to be deployed to meet the
problems of leadership and to
be effective
External recruitment
Talent and succession planning
Somebody once said that in
looking for people to hire,
you look for integrity,
intelligence, and energy.
And if you don’t have the
first, the other two will kill
you. If you hire somebody
without integrity, you really
want them to be dumb and
lazy.
Warren Buffett
The challenge of self report
A dramatic increase in research and literature on
faking: the “volitional attempt at increasing
scores on personality assessment to obtain a
desired outcome.”
Going from:
Can applicants fake?
Do they fake?
Does it matter?
To now ask:
Who fakes?
Why do some fake?
When do applicants fake?
Under which circumstances is it more or less a
problem?
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 38
Solutions to faking
Proactive
Use of warnings in
instructions
Questionnaire design
subtle and non transparent item
content
alternative formats such as
forced choice
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 39
Reactive
Social desirability response scales
to detect faking
applying any number of tactics e.g.
scale correction, applicant exclusion
Bogus items and over-claiming
technique
Social Desirability Response
scales…not a valid proxy
measure for faking
behaviour…. usage should be
discontinued.
D L Paulhus
Faking and dark side leadership
Dark side leaders not only fake
but can fake successfully to
avoid “detection”
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 40
Given the manipulative nature of
psychopathy, it was predicted, and
found, that respondents who
successfully faked good would have
significantly higher psychopathy scores
than individuals who were caught faking.
Book et al, Psychopathic traits and
experimentally induced deception in self-report
assessment, 2006
Respondents successful at faking good
scored higher than unsuccessful fakers
on factors of Machiavellian egocentricity
and blame externalization and lower on
stress immunity..
MacNeil & Holden, 2006
Unobtrusive measures of dark side leadership
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 41
It has long been an axiom of mine that
the little things are infinitely the most
important.
Sherlock Holmes
Company reports and press releases
Office décor and artefacts
The language used
Awards and success
Reactions to the small annoyances of life
The books read, recommended and
written
Robert Horton, then boss of
BP... the main thing to be
displayed on the
bookshelves were his own
leather bound dairies
stretching back 10 years or
more. My conclusion about
him: overbearing and out of
touch. Within months, he
was fired from BP for being
overbearing and out of touch. Lucy Kellaway
Snoopology in the office
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 42
Fred Goodwin’s Brave heart sword
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 43
The language used
I am soft, I'm lovable but
what I really want to do is
reach in, rip out their heart
and eat it before they die.
Dick Fuld, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Lehman
Brothers
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 44
Reactions to the small stuff: the biscuit test
The best index to a
person's character is how
he treats people who can't
do him any good, and how
he treats people who can't
fight back.
Abigail Van Buren
Talent management and succession planning
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 45
Sociopaths, in their own
best interests, knowingly
promote over-performing
losers into middle-
management, groom
under-performing losers
into sociopaths, and leave
the average bare-
minimum-effort losers to
fend for themselves.
Venkatesh Rao
The nine-box
category system is
crude and clumsy. Adrian Furnham
Who conducts the assessment, using
which methods?
top down, largely based on the personal
judgement of the top team?
line management evaluations?
HR driven, drawing on additional data
(e.g. assessment centres)?
bottom up in which individuals complete
career profiles?
the process of data consolidation and
integration to summarise talent
intelligence
the choice of technology
How is talent data used in decision
making and action planning?
processes for review, debrief and
development planning
optimising the impact of talent reviews
and career conversations
What frameworks are in place to inform
the judgements and decisions we make
about individuals?
the factors that are key to the
organisational “model of success”
how the outputs of past success are
integrated with the inputs of future
success
Rigour in talent management and succession planning
Conclusions
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2014 47
Dark side leadership seems to incorporate
both potential vices and virtues
But knowing what makes the difference – the upside and downside – is proving more troublesome
Its prevalence is over-stated, but its impact can be devastating to businesses
Do the obvious to deal with emerging signs
If a business needs the virtues of the dark side, it should be prepared to manage it very well
Self report measures can be problematic; but we can look for other clues
Succession and talent management processes need more rigour to go beyond line management ratings of the “potential” of the good guys