Dark Side Leadership And How They Can Get Into Power

R. (2012). Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 489 -505. http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pdh&AN=2012-19403-001&site=eds-live&scope=site

nfeld, S. O., Waldman, I. D., Landfield, K., Watts, A. L., Rubenzer, S., & Faschingbauer, T. R. (2012). Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 489-505. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pdh&AN=2012-19403-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

Lilienfeld et al., (2010) examined the attentiveness of psychopathic personality traits that aligned with job performance and leadership of the past presidents including George W. Bush, whereas their successful or unsuccessful behaviors were a matter of public records. The description of a psychopathic personality is conveyed as superficial charm along with other descriptions such as egocentricity, dishonesty, guiltlessness, callousness, and risk taking, which are based personality traits (Lilienfeld et al., 2010). According to Lilienfeld et al., (2012) there were about 8 listed limitations with fruitful directions for further research; however, the study and the findings didn’t address the questions between boldness and political performance. In the results, it was raised that boldness often associated with psychopathy advantages within a host of occupations and social roles. Clearly it’s warranted further investigation of the implications of boldness for leadership is needed.

Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. – all possessed such leadership traits as ambition, self-confidence, and intelligence. These cannot be learned; they are innate. Two well-respected research studies that support the notion that personality traits can predict leadership were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and in the Leadership Quarterly.

Like other employees or human beings, leaders also have their own sets of weaknesses that may prove to be pernicious to the progress they make while conducting their mandated duties. There is a cluster of personality traits that are referred to as Dark Triad. According to O'Boyle et al. (2012) Dark Triad personality traits refers to characteristics like selfishness, arrogance, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Even though these character traits were effective when applied to certain setups in the past, they also have the potency to adversely affect the productivity of an organization’s employees. The nature of Dark Triad personality traits is that they do not make room to accommodate good work relationships and receptiveness towards

Seth Spain, author of The Dark Side of Work, argues that narcissists have advantages when it comes to their take charge personality in which it helps them to get ahead. Spain implies, “They are motivated to seek positions of power and influence, because those positions are consistent with their views of themselves as special and important” (Spain). However, studies have proven that narcissists do not do well in workplace environments specifically because of their inability to form relationships with fellow co-workers. Spain counters his argument by explaining, “In long-term interactions, other people often come to view the narcissist as hostile and arrogant. Excessively narcissistic behavior is likely to contribute to the derailment of a successful career” (Spain). Narcissists have a large amount of charisma which often times pleases people in the beginning. However, it is crucial to remember that it will nearly always back-fire in the end. So being narcissist is not needed and will end up catching up to the individual and end in

Article 1: Fearless Dominance and the U.S. Presidency: Implications of PsychopathicPersonality Traits for Successful and Unsuccessful Political Leadership by S.O. Lilienfeld, I.D. Waldman, K. Landfield, A.L. Watts, S. Rubenzer and T. Faschinbauer.

It is not uncommon for some leaders to have their personal goals overshadow the goals of the organization, and at the end of the leader’s tenure, there are often negative consequences for both the employees and the organization (Harvey, et al., 2007). Certainly, this reversal of objectives can be seen in the political arena as well, where leaders seek a leadership position to promote their own personal ambitions, which often generate substantial material gains (Harvey, et al., 2007). In addition, leaders who have negative and destructive leadership tendencies by taking advantage of their positions tend to take their organizations toward destruction (Reed, 2004; Pelletier, 2010). On the other hand, followers’ behaviors can cause the creation of toxic leaders when they attribute divine powers to leaders due to their desperation and hope that this leader will act like a therapist and alleviate their concerns (Lipman-Blumen, 2005b).

Lipman–Blumen, Jean (2005). The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians––And How We Can Survive Them, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press.

Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. – all possessed such leadership traits as ambition, self-confidence, and intelligence. These cannot be learned; they are innate. Two well-respected research studies that support the notion that personality traits can predict leadership were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and in the Leadership Quarterly.

I believe that specific elements of personality are directly linked to the leadership styles. My

Psychopathic leaders come under the umbrella of psychopathy. The concept of psychopathy is widely contested from a theoretical as well as a scientific point of view. Though its importance is evident not only in the fields of psychiatry and psychology, but also in other disciplines, such as criminology and management, the concept and use of the word psychopath has a rather long history all of its own, yet, in spite of its history, a good deal of conceptual confusion remains. Many authors have honed in on a very specific type of deviant behavior that at its core is distinctly different from mental illness or psychosis-related behavior. Negative leadership behaviors are known for creating hostile work environments for employees and affecting group

I was asked to write and submit a 4-6 page book summary of the text “Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership” by Gary L. McIntosh and Samuel D. Rima. This book report should summarize the basic purpose of the book, the most important leadership principles contained, and the student’s evaluation of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. The goals of this book are to guide the reader in understanding what the dark side is, assist the reader in identifying your own dark side, and give the reader some specific steps for overcoming the dark side lurking on your success before you unexpectedly get blindsided by it.

Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.