Psychology of Leadership – What Society Needs

by Julian Martin Clarke © 2023

Global society needs consistently responsible “Constructive Leaders”

The combative history of human nature throughout the centuries of conflict both within and between tribes, nations, organisations and indeed groups of any nature which far too rapidly resorted to conflict rather than discussion, negotiation and compromise, would suggest that global society needs to learn how to identify “Disordered Leaders” (with no genuine interest in anyone other then themselves and who much prefer “win-lose” to “win-win”) in advance of trusting them with responsible roles which their extraordinary degree of self-centred irresponsibility, callous coldness and deep untrustworthiness should disqualify them from even consideration for.

As these often “hidden people” are believed by those most expert in this field to be “found in every race, culture, society and walk of life”, one of the most critical matters to appreciate is that as “disordered people” see things differently, experience people differently, perceive many matters differently, think differently, behave differently, react differently, speak differently and indeed inhabit a quite different world from most others in society, it is imperative that they be recognised by others as being different from the norm and hence be dealt with significantly differently.

Indeed neuroscientific research suggests that one of the reasons they behave differently from society’s norm is that their brains differ from the norm….

“Those lacking the core essence of humanity need to be denied the opportunity to allow their inhumanity to negatively impact the lives of others, no matter the arena.”

“They inhabit a different world which others need to understand and adapt to. Until this is understood they will be misunderstood.”

“Prevention is far preferable to the improbability of cure.”

Organisational progress, customer and public service and many “intangibles” including trust, respect, reputation, goodwill and even international cooperation and potentially “world peace”, can all be enhanced when organisations (and nations) better appreciate how to ignore the ICE-COLD nature of those who consistently display overt but self-centred Intelligence, shallow but covertly insincere Charisma, smart talk and smooth Eloquence which will inevitably prove to be quite disconnected with deeds, intentions and actions, past, present or future, with truth the most frequent casualty of their “consistent irresponsibility”, amongst the many traits associated with the maladaptive, remorseless and ruth-less (meaning compassion and sympathy-free) behaviour and mentality devoid of empathy and conscience of “Disordered Leaders who (mal) practice Destructive Leadership”…

… and instead hire, promote, select and elect the most responsible people for the most important roles in local, national and global society, described in this research as “Constructive Leaders”

Global society needs “Constructive Leaders” with a generally positive and even optimistic personality, a genuine interest in other people, more motivated by giving than taking, with a sense of service rather than entitlement, possessing empathy and warm emotions (well capable of love & incapable of hatred, not those who are well capable of hatred & incapable of love), to accept responsibility for its organisations & institutions and “motivate a group of people to achieve common goals” , or what is commonly referred to as “leadership”.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little real value, if none of it is emotional…

This subject matter is further explored in a Chapter in a Springer book Perspectives on Philosophy of Management and Business Ethics entitled “Dispositional Attribution of Corporate Executives” written during 2015 and published in January 2017: Dispositional Attribution of Corporate Executives and a “Capitalism and Ethics” conference presentation which discusses is “Constructive v Destructive Leadership” .

Why do we continue to hire, promote, select and elect (or not) the most inappropriate, untrustworthy and irresponsible people possible for leadership roles, those who psychologists describe as being “consistently irresponsible“, granting them powerful positions of authority which they are mentally incapable of using for the constructive purposes that society expects of them?

The conference presentation features an extreme example of how one leader with a range of Personality Disorders can cause global havoc – Hitler – yet we continue to hire, promote, select and elect people with milder versions of his psychological problems to (mis) lead the businesses, organisations and even nations of our global society.

This situation, which would appear to be far from a recent phenomenon, is likely to continue until society’s decision makers better appreciate what a Personality Disorder actually is and then how to IDENTIFY those more likely to misuse and abuse the power entrusted to them, in turn DENYING them the opportunity of becoming a “Disordered Leader,” given that the consequences are actually quite predictable.

If such people already hold positions of authority over others, who fundamentally are not their concern, this research also explains how other more conscientious people can IDENTIFY AND ADAPT their own behaviour to minimise the degree of harm the Disordered Leader is well capable of causing.

The presentation (like this series of related articles on “Disordered Leadership”) also suggests what global decision makers can do about this “Leadership Fallacy”, given that this sub-group of society are “a class of individuals found in every race, culture, society and walk of life” (Hare, Without Conscience) and are likely to be the most covertly unethical in society.

Despite being more overtly Intelligent, Charming and Eloquent, these mask their more covertly ICE-COLD nature which permits them to behave in a quite ruth-less manner, meaning devoid of compassion, empathy and remorse, with typically demotivational, discouraging and perhaps fearfully destructive consequences, quite the opposite of the “motivating a group of people to achieve common goals” more likely when more responsible and trustworthy people with quite the opposite personality type are chosen for positions of responsibility, far more adept at the fortunately far more prevalent “Constructive Leadership” which global society has never more urgently needed.

Leadership – What Society Needs

There is an expression from the world of finance, especially advocated by professional accountants, being experienced business advisors, that “turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity”.

The wonderful world we share may benefit from differentiating between vanity and sanity, being less attracted by the claims of the vain in favour of the greater merits of the sane, even if less apparently thrilling or exciting and more modest than proud.

Somehow the most cold and self-centred find their way into leadership roles for which they are not best suited, being primarily interested in themselves and satisfying their ego and self-interest, while those far more capable and for many reasons better suited, not least for their abundance of empathy and emotional intelligence, an active conscience and a more genuine rather than superficial concern for the interests and needs of the organisation (or nation), are either not chosen or are less personally ambitious, despite possessing many of the qualities required for successful, motivational leadership.

When the personal motivations of those whose task includes “motivating people to achieve common goals” are examined, they can be of the “dispositional attribution” which shows a far greater interest in others than themselves, well capable of regular praise and encouragement and being generally agreeable, building a predominantly positive organisational culture, in many ways “walking the talk” and setting an admirable example for those they lead which they strive to follow.

Such “Constructive Leaders” also typically want to “do the right thing” to drive the organisation sensibly forward in the right direction and building strong foundations for longer-term success, deflecting praise for achievements to coworkers while accepting personal responsibility for their failings and mistakes, in essence using entrusted power for the purposes intended.

Or they may be of the more self-centred and maybe even narcissistic personality which seeks power for themselves for reasons of personal prestige and financial remuneration, motivated more by salary and pension than satisfying the interests and needs of the organisation and its variety of people and “stakeholders”, assessing situations more from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?” than how to secure both the short-term success and long-term future for the organisation or entity.

When it becomes apparent that the self-interest of “Destructive Leaders” is not only their primary but perhaps even their only interest, those who selected or elected them may begin to regret their decision, especially when they do “anything it takes” to hold on to the position of power they should never have been trusted with and prove to be more discouraging then encouraging and disagreeable than agreeable, preferring being more challenging then cooperative and building a “5C culture” with much of the exhibited sub-optimal behaviour of both management and staff seemingly driven by the invisible but detrimental (5C) “Counterproductively Competitive & Combative Corporate Culture”, which can arise when various forms of conflict, dissension, discouragement and disharmony rather than cooperation, collaboration, encouragement, motivation, discourse and agreement are the covert goals of leaders, who many may not realise may actually have what is known as a Personality Disorder.

Indeed in extremes the behaviour engendered by such people, whose need to personally prevail, “get their own way” and “win at all costs”, irrespective of the consequences, is more akin to a primary school child as they drive the entity in the wrong direction and even towards failure. Even when their organisation has failed, they can still fail to see what they did wrong.

At its most basic, when ME seems more important than WE, this may be an indication of “something wrong”, especially concerning those who in their deliberations and actions can seem to lack a “sense of wrong”.

The challenge for global society is that to many quite normal, decent. kind and considerate people, “Disordered Leaders” can appear at the surface level to be Intelligent, Charismatic and Eloquent, otherwise admirable qualities if they did not mask the fact that they were also deeply emotionally Cruel, Obstinate, Labile and Destructive ( or “ICE-COLD“) by nature.

Indeed as psychology has benefitted from neuroscientific advances, neuroimaging has proved their brains to be different from the norm, well capable of being COGNITIVELY or mentally sharp, incisive and seeming to be being predominantly normal, or “intact”, while simultaneously being deeply EMOTIONALLY “shallow”, or deficient, disordered, cold, callous, abnormal and ruth-less (or compassion-free), in essence lacking the very essence of humanity.

Being capable of being described as a “fearless leader” may not be as admirable as this might once have been considered to be.

Those who thrive on inducing fear and anxiety in others may not be able to experience such emotions themselves, failing to see the RISKS associated with situations, even when alerted to them by more conscientious colleagues, which may explain why they can be so motivated to maximise potential REWARDS, quite inconsiderate of the consequences.

Yet such people are chosen to lead financial institutions and other entities in society which require achieving the right balance between risk and reward if they are to thrive or even survive in the longer term.

When those who do not experience fear and anxiety in the manner that most can are erroneously trusted with responsibility for the lives and emotions of others, when they aren’t even capable of responsibly managing their own, the results arising from their deep inner coldness are not only predictable, but can even be quite catastrophic.

When they seem to feel good from making others feel bad and can be seen to experience some form of thrill from criticising, demeaning and even humiliating others, there is clearly something wrong.

Leadership and Management require those with the ability to see the opportunity for encouragement and who engage in praise for even modest achievements, even when goals are only partially achieved.

Yet somehow society chooses the most arrogant and conceited leaders and managers who seem to thrive on being critical (yet cannot cope with an iota of criticism when directed at them) and derive pleasure from making others feel worse about themselves, who consequently dislike and maybe even hate coming to work and count the minutes until they can go home, especially for the weekend, with the prospect of Monday morning quite daunting.

Although leadership is supposed to be about “motivating a group of people to achieve common goals”, when those cold-hearted and quite ruth-less people with a Personality Disorder are chosen for seniority of position, somehow it can become accepted (if not acceptable) when they diminish and demean other people and in effect demotivate them to fall far short of achieving common goals.

Such scenarios are far too prevalent throughout organisational life, but can be accepted and even tolerated, just because the person or people responsible hold seniority of position, especially if they possess other strengths and talents from which the organisation benefits.

However as many other people are likely to possess these skills, but without their myriad of weaknesses, notably the handicap of “shallow emotions”, or a deep emotional deficit which contributes to they actually wanting to make others uncomfortable and unhappy, does it really make sense that those more adept at damaging rather than building relationships, whose speciality is making enemies out of friends rather than friends out of enemies, slow to praise yet engage in sometimes considerable self-praise, who can be very critical and discouraging yet cannot take criticism, who develop deep grudges against those who they believe have been critical of them, even if this is purely their distorted perception, are well capable of hatred but incapable of loving or being loved rather than those who find it easy to love and impossible to hate, so lacking in empathy and emotional intelligence that they are incapable of appreciating and understanding other people as real people, little different from inanimate objects, so incapable of showing a genuine interest in the interests and needs of others that they can tend to treat them as being quite unimportant and even in a cruel manner, because ultimately they are fundamentally and innately “ruth-less”, or lacking in any ability to be genuinely kind or compassionate and experience or express any sympathy towards other people, all of which contributes to other people observing how they seem to differ from the norm and considering them to be “ice-cold” emotionally.

“Those lacking the core essence of humanity need to be denied the opportunity to allow their inhumanity to negatively impact the lives of others, no matter the arena.”

“They inhabit a different world which others need to understand and adapt to. Until this is understood they will be misunderstood.”

Indeed neuroscientific research suggests that one of the reasons for their many differences is that their brains are different, with atypical neural functioning in brain structures that include the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum (Birbaumer et al., 2005; Rilling et al., 2007; Dolan and Fullam, 2009; Jones, et al., 2009; Harenski, et al., 2010; Finger et al., 2011; Marsh et al., 2011). These disruptions are thought to underlie emotion processing deficits, particularly disruptions in recognising and responding to fear-relevant stimuli such as fearful facial expressions, as well as being associated with an increased willingness to engage in behaviours that cause fear in victims, like threats, bullying and violence (Blair, 2005; Marsh & Cardinale, 2014), all quite the opposite of the behaviour expected of leaders and managers, assumed to be expert at motivating people to operate near their best not intimidate them to perform well short of their true potential.

Neuroscience also suggests that while positivity encourages engagement of the most appropriate brain regions required for cooperation and creativity, various forms of negativity including intimidation, bullying and even terrifying people (which satisfies the bully but scares the bullied), has quite the opposite effect and engages a quite separate, rival, set of neural regions and connections, more associated with the primitive decision to “fight or flight”.

The combative history of human nature throughout the centuries of conflict both within and between tribes, nations and organisations, including the numbers of businesses which failed to survive even a single generation, especially following a change of leadership, indeed groups of any nature which far too rapidly resorted to conflict rather than discussion, negotiation and compromise, would suggest that global society needs to learn how to identify “Disordered Leaders”, with no genuine interest in anyone other then themselves and who much prefer “win-lose” to “win-win”, in advance of trusting them with responsible roles which their extraordinary degree of self-centred irresponsibility, callous coldness and deep untrustworthiness should disqualify them from even consideration for.

Indeed neuroscientific research suggests that one of the reasons they behave differently from society’s norm is that their brains differ from the norm.

At its most basic, Society Needs leaders who are fundamentally agreeable rather than disagreeable and committed to peacemaking rather than troublemaking, motivated to contributing to improving the happiness and welfare of others, and most certainly not those who pretend to be interested in others (when this suits their self-interest) but can covertly be at their happiest making others unhappy and even be unhappy seeing and making others happy, needing to disturb co-operative harmony by some manner of disagreement, conflict or discouragement, including downright humiliation, especially when their belittling and demotivation is undertaken in the company of others, quite the opposite of the “motivating people to achieve common goals” expected of leaders in any role in society.

Those with an emotional vacuum, cold, callous and ruth-less (compassion-free) rather than warm, welcoming with an abundance of empathy and emotional intelligence, who can feel good from making others feel bad, could not be more inappropriate for supervisory, managerial and leadership roles, yet it is such people who are consistently chosen for such roles throughout global society.

There are many reasons for this, including because too few know how to identify those who could have a Personality Disorder, and too many wrongly associate a variety of forms of intimidation as being indicative of “leadership potential” or even “strength of leadership” rather than a deep character flaw, one of the factors this research refers to as “the Leadership Fallacy”.

Many are capable of consistent “Oscar-winning” performances, as their ability to deceive and manipulate can succeed in frequently hiding their inner coldness and self-centred nature, often by way of their “ICE characteristics” of Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence, even if these transpire to be shallow, insincere and untruthful, being expert actors and liars, they manage to fool many of the people much of the time.

Those who become “Disordered Leaders” succeed in wearing a “Mask of Normality”, often only dropped when their self-interest is in anyway threatened, their worst nightmare.

Global society instead needs “Constructive Leaders” with a generally positive and even optimistic personality, a genuine interest in other people, more motivated by giving than taking, with a sense of service rather than entitlement, possessing empathy and warm emotions (well capable of love & incapable of hatred, not those who are well capable of hatred & incapable of love), to accept responsibility for its organisations & institutions and “motivate a group of people to achieve common goals” , or what is commonly referred to as “leadership”.

Indeed for Leadership and Management to further evolve, it requires those whose expertise includes that which leadership is most associated with:

motivation and encouragement to achieve common goals, not engaging in self-satisfying but quite discouraging humiliation, whereby the “Disordered Leader” feels good from making others feel bad,
respect and inclusion rather then disrespect and exclusion,
appreciating the benefits of cooperation and building open, honest and collaborative cultures, not those who thrive on conflict, manipulation, deceit and covertly or overtly building the 5C’s of “Counterproductively Competitive & Combative Corporate Cultures”,
the long-term “vision” to appreciate the critical importance of ongoing, trusting relationships and reputation protection, not short-sighted myopia from those who engage in “winning at all costs” and “anything goes” trust demolition, better described as short-term gain at the expense of longer term pain, et al,
preferably with a demonstrably greater interest in the entity and people being led, than themselves, with
pride in the success of the entity and its people, not personal ego, a sense of entitlement and desire for self-aggrandisement based on a narcissistic believe that the people are there to serve their leader, rather then the role of the leader being to prioritise the interests and needs of the organisation and its people over their own,
because at the end of the day, it isn’t all about them, although some leaders persist in thinking that it is, perhaps proving that as far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little real value, if none of it is emotional.

Organisational progress, customer and public service and many “intangibles” including trust, respect, reputation, goodwill and even international cooperation and potentially “world peace”, can all be enhanced when organisations (and nations) better appreciate how to ignore the ICE-COLD nature of those who consistently display overt but self-centred Intelligence, shallow but covertly insincere Charisma, smart talk and smooth Eloquence which will inevitably prove to be quite disconnected with deeds, intentions and actions, past, present or future, with truth the most frequent casualty of their “consistent irresponsibility”, amongst the many traits associated with the maladaptive, remorseless and ruth-less (meaning compassion and sympathy-free) behaviour and mentality devoid of empathy and conscience of “Disordered Leaders who (mal) practice Destructive Leadership”…

vision to realise how great the group they are responsible for could be, with the
strategic insight to know what direction(s) to take,
perception to not only know how to get there, but also when a change of direction may be most required,
integrity to set the right tone at the top and know how to “do the right thing even when no-one is looking”,
moral compass to guide everyone in the right (moral) direction and astutely avoid short-term gain which could result in longer-term pain,
honesty to speak truthfully, not deceptively, and only make promises likely to be capable of being met,
remorse to be able to know when wrong has or could be done and prevent it happening,
courage to not only avoid wrongdoing but also “own up” and say “sorry” when things do go wrong (as they will), or promises can’t be met, rather than make the mistake of “covering up” and “denying the undeniable”, hoping no-one will ever find out (although they do), with the
creativity to explore new opportunities, even those others have never considered and keep an “open mind” to all opportunities,
(emotional) empathy to understand people in all their humanity, including an
interest in others, and whatever they may be interested in, to encourage them and willingly provide their commitment and support,
perception to offer astute guidance and appreciate the importance of trust and reputation in all aspects of communication and decision-making, prioritising the long term over opportunism,
wisdom to know what new opportunities to explore and what to change and when,
patience not to impulsively over-react to situations as soon as they arise, to wait for results rather than curtail prematurely what has never been tried before, which may transpire to improve, including knowing when the timing may be right to initiate change or introduce new policies,
humility to seek no personal acclaim and (being the opposite of pride) show the ability to admit to error rather than persist with doing the wrong thing,
strength to tackle the issues others might ignore and own up to rather than cover up mistakes or wrongdoing,
persistence to surmount obstacles and “never give up” on worthwhile matters which may be in the longer term best interest of all involved,
resilience to tough out difficulties, remain positive and constructive in seeking to find optimal solutions,
tact to deal with matters diplomatically rather than rudely and crudely, and knowing when saying nothing may be preferable when there may be nothing positive or constructive to say, especially refraining from hasty words now which could cause damage later,
attitude of gratitude to be able to genuinely praise achievements, no matter how modest, and know when to do so, especially when people have tried their best even when the outcome isn’t as good as it might have been,
modesty to deflect praise to others. yet accept responsibility for their mistakes,
emotional intelligence to know how best to deal with the wide variety of people and situations which arise, displaying “ruth” or compassion and sympathy when most required, while always wanting to support and point people in the right direction, with the
charisma which endears people to their leader and makes other people feel important, warmly welcomed and appreciated, aided by the
enthusiastic personality which creates the positive culture and sets the
admirable example which encourages and maybe even inspires everyone to want to follow their leader in top gear, as they build bridges and roads to places that people with less vision and insufficient understanding of the mission never even considered. Together and unified.

Fortunately there are many, many such positive, constructive, enthusiastic, encouraging and “can do” people in many roles at all levels throughout local, national and international society.

Yet, although they set an admirable example for not only those they work with, manage and lead, but many others too, somehow we just don’t seem to hear too much about these role-models, especially not from them, not feeling the need to speak about themselves, just the group they inspire to produce their best, whose collective success built on encouragement, respect, inclusion, teamwork, collaboration and cooperation gives them their greatest personal satisfaction, which they warmly applaud.

Irrespective of size or type of organisation or nature of their specific leadership styles, entities in society led by such selfless, cooperative, encouraging and motivational leaders often appear to be singing off the same hymn-sheet and to be playing to the same tune.

In stark contrast, self-centred leaders do not appear to appreciate the benefits arising from unity as they spread dissent, disagreement and discouragement (which makes them but no-one else feel better about themselves).

Their sheet music, like their disordered and often child-like minds, not only differs from the rest of the band or orchestra but, because they refuse to share the music with others, not unlike a child refusing to let others play with its toys, thrive on confusion and everyone playing to quite different tunes, quite the opposite of what is required of a leader.

Ultimately they are only capable of being a one-man or one-woman band. Yet time after time throughout human history we seem to have we trusted “Disordered Leaders” with responsibility for the lives and emotions of other people, when they cannot even properly manage their own, described by psychologists as “emotionally labile” (moody) and “emotionally shallow” (a polite term for their emotional vacuum and deep inner coldness) which permits them to behave in a quite ruth-less manner, meaning devoid of sympathy and compassion.

Indeed psychiatrists and psychologists suggest that one way to identify some of life’s most cold-hearted (and cruel) people, even if they can seem to be quite witty and charming, can be when they seek sympathy for themselves, even when quite unjustified, believing that every one else is out to get them (one of the signs of “paranoid personality disorder”), which I just describe as “poor me”.

Just as it can be difficult to explain to a self-centred person that they are selfish, as they can be the last to see this for themselves, even when alerted to the trait, it can be impossible to explain to someone lacking in empathy that they lack one of life’s most important valuable assets.

They cannot appreciate something which they have never possessed, allowing them to continue to pursue their self-interest at the expense of others, who they thrive on being critical of despite being unable to accept criticism themselves without significantly over-reacting, as their “different mind” wonders why sometimes the only praise they seem to receive is when they praise themselves, amongst the many “tell-tale signs” of a disordered personality.

Rather than such one-person-band (mis) leaders, instead Society Needs the kind of people who can astutely sense the temperature of the moment and know when best to provide either overt orchestra style leadership or appreciate, like guiding a jazz band or Irish ceilidh music session along the right path, that just being a member of the team, using a few well chosen and encouraging words, while setting a good example for others to follow may be the most apt way of calmly dealing with situations, both good and bad.

No matter how impressive some of their other talents may be, society and its organisations ultimately suffers from appointing leaders with an insatiable personal need to be seen to be the hero or heroine, who proactively seek praise when unwarranted and deflect blame for their many failings to others, eventually driving the musicians who perform for them to seek greater harmony by leaving for pastures new, in effect allowing their rival bands and orchestras to avail of their talents because of the myopia, intransigence and intimidation practiced by the illegitimacy of their self-centred leadership.

Yet we continue to elect far too many such people to leadership positions, both men and women, due to what I refer to as “The Leadership Fallacy” which misinterprets some of their less admirable traits, including their more combative qualities such as fear-inducing intimidation and humiliation, as actually being appropriate to those which a “strong” leader could or should possess, while falling for some of their more overt finer qualities, especially their Intellect, Charm and Eloquence, even if they transpire to be covertly ICE-cold, their Intelligence being quite self-serving lacking any semblance of Emotional depth (or EQ), their Charm proves to be deeply insincere, merely skin deep and predominantly used to engage in the false flattery of those they believe to be (temporarily) useful to them, while their often impressive Eloquence transpires to be utterly meaningless, especially when there is seen to be a deep disconnect between their words, promises, deeds and actions, which can change at a moments notice.

This is contributed to by their quite extraordinary “impulsivity” and inability to seek or take advice or responsibly evaluate the possible outcomes of their sometimes bizarre behaviour and decision-making, not only for others (including the entity which makes the great mistake of employing or promoting them) but even, extraordinarily, themselves, as sometimes they can be the most damaged by their necessity to personally prevail, “get their own way” and “win at all costs”, not unlike primary school children, with whom they have been compared by psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists.

When their minds seem to be most capable of considering “what’s in it for me?” but not evaluating what may be in the best interests for others, when their thinking patterns can seem to be “distorted”, their emotional responses peculiar, including over or under-reacting to quite normal situations and failing to show emotional warmth when this may seem to be the most appropriate, when they struggle to maintain normal relationships with people and especially when they seem to feel good from making others feel bad, mental health professionals may well consider that a “Personality Disorder” may be the reason for the myriad of problems they cause and trouble they create, which may even be amongst their more covert goals in life.

Yet far too often it is such people who charm and deceive their way into positions of responsibility, which their deep and innate irresponsibility should disqualify them from even consideration for.

Being expert actors and extraordinarily deceptive liars (aided by not feeling guilt when “found out” and perhaps not even realising they are lying, such can be their distorted and even “delusional” mindset), they are well capable of fooling many of the people much of the time. Indeed this “ability” can be amongst their most effective “strengths”, as it hides many of their actual weaknesses from others and allows them to operate apparently normally within society despite their fundamental abnormality.

However when they are in due course seen for what they really are, including far less competent than they believe themselves to be, they can prove to be incredibly difficult to remove from positions of power they inevitably abuse, given that they can believe it is their entitlement to do and take what they want, when they want, as those who know them best are more than aware that their self-interest is ultimately their only interest.

“Self-centred” has been defined by Merriam-Webster as “concerned solely with one’s own desires, needs, or interests” and “independent of outside force or influence”.

“Narcissistic Personality” is described as “a pattern of traits and behaviours characterised by excessive self-concern and overvaluation of the self.”

Do these describe characteristics that those appointing others to managerial and especially leadership roles would advocate and actively seek?

Yet far too many leaders, managers, team-leaders and supervisors as well as those with similar titles with responsibility for the lives and emotions of people in all types of organisations worldwide DO display these characteristics, which in some sectors and nations are actually applauded.

While many people can behave in a selfish, difficult, proud and contrary manner occasionally, especially under extreme pressure, to be classified as a “Personality Disorder” the traits need to be “inflexible”, meaning can be repeatedly observed without regards to time, place or circumstance, while also interfering with a person’s ability to function well in society, including causing problems with interpersonal relationships, termed “functional impairment”.

Indeed the four core features common to all Personality Disorders, with two required for diagnosis, are

Distorted thinking patterns,
Problematic emotional responses,
Over- or under-regulated impulse control and
Interpersonal difficulties,

none of which are attributes which society needs in those with responsibility for its institutions and their people, allied to their inability to see anything wrong with themselves and tendency to blame anything and everyone else for their failings and the many problems they create, for which they accept no responsibility.

Yet far too frequently some or all of these are evident in the behaviour of leaders, erroneously associated with strength of character and leadership, rather than weakness of personality and an inability to manage their own emotions, let alone lead other people.

Extraordinarily we trust the coldest and most self-centred people possible – expert actors but ultimately lacking any genuine interest in other people at all, indeed in anyone but themselves, whose often considerable charm is skin deep and lacking any sincerity, whose eloquence can hide a fundamental disconnect between words, deeds, promises and subsequent actions, whose often ample intelligence is misused, being cunningly calculating, self-centred and anything but emotional, indeed those lacking the core essence of humanity, perhaps amongst the most irresponsible people on earth – with responsibility for the lives of employees, volunteers and citizens throughout global society when they hold positions of power, which they inevitably can only abuse as they prioritise competition and conflict over co-operation, disharmony over harmony and themselves over everyone and anything else.

Appreciating that their conscience-free mind may be disordered, thinking “distorted” and emotional depth “shallow”, could be a critical first step on the road to progress, otherwise a frustratingly fruitless exercise.

Any attempts at trying to deal with them “normally” may well be doomed to failure.

Conflict has never been nor ever will be an acceptable alternative to mutually agreeable compromise, although when organisations and nations are led by fundamentally combative people with little real interest in anyone but themselves, disagreement and conflict in their many forms will be inevitable given that they much prefer “win-lose” to “win-win”, whether the matter be trivial or hugely significant.

As it is actually their own challenging behaviour which makes it easier to identify such people for what they really are, covertly or overtly disordered, when other people learn what traits to look for they can do what their “Disordered Leader” cannot – adapt to their peculiarities to diminish the degree of harm such people can do to other people (which they can seem to enjoy, especially when they seek to humiliate and diminish those perhaps much better equipped than them) and the dreadful damage they can do to the levels of interpersonal trust, culture of honesty and integrity and prevailing sense of right and wrong, as well as the organisational (or national) reputation so necessary for continued responsible and rational progress, apparent to almost everyone but themselves.

Society Needs…

Society Needs “Constructive Leaders” who prefer co-operation and collaboration to conflict, dissent and turmoil, harmony to disharmony and win-win to win-lose, ultimately preferring to peacefully resolve differences without resorting to conflict between people, within and between organisations and even war between nations when their leaders have the cold, combative, “must-win” personality and superiority disorder which results in them innately diminishing and disparaging other people and which prioritises themselves and their needs over those of the more peace-loving people they mis-lead.
Society Needs to learn how to identify “Destructive” troublemakers and never, ever give up in their attempts to diminish the real damage they can do to the fabric of group life, whatever the grouping in society may be. Global society needs to better appreciate how to ignore shallow charm, self-centred intelligence, smooth eloquence and smart talk disconnected with deeds and actions, past, present or future.
Society Needs those capable of recognising wrong, including their own faults which they seek to learn from and rectify, who accept responsibility for the errors of those they lead, rather than those who see no wrong in words and actions which others would, do not learn from their mistakes and blame everyone else for their own failings, like the emperor’s new clothes apparent to everyone but themselves.
Society Needs decisive leaders who see inclusive debate and discussion as a constructive opportunity to maximise collective progress, not “my way only”.
Society Needs leaders who understand their words and deeds can significantly influence others so are careful to ensure what they say and do will encourage peaceful cooperation and never breed trouble, strife and dissent, especially between different groups of people.
Society Needs leaders who appreciate that their responsibility is to unite rather than divide the people they are responsible for, including those who have never cooperated before.
Society Needs leaders capable of diminishing not encouraging hatred and making friends out of former enemies, not enemies out of friends.
Society Needs leaders who are peacemakers not troublemakers, encouraging by their words and deeds kindness in lieu of hatred, forgiveness instead of holding grudges, belief in goodness where there is badness, bringing hope where there is doubt and despair, lighting up people’s lives with their positivity and joy not spreading doom, gloom, sadness, despair and darkness, appreciating that it is by showing an interest in others and trying to understand them that people respond positively, rather than being exclusively interested in themselves.
Society Needs leaders capable of considering the consequences of their words and actions, with the self-restraint to know when saying nothing may be more tactful and responsible, especially when they have nothing positive to say.
Society Needs leaders with the self-control which prevents them from acting impulsively and irresponsibly, inconsiderate of any adverse consequences for others, including themselves.
Society Needs balanced leaders capable of balancing the interests and needs of various groups they are responsible for, not consistently favouring some groups over others and even spreading dissent between them.
Society Needs those who appreciate that the richness of their leadership is derived from treating everyone the same, with equal respect not prejudice, while prioritising the most needy, disadvantaged and ignored over the already wealthy, including inspiring those who have never worked to experience the many joys of the workplace.
Society Needs leaders capable of persuading those considering leaving education too early to appreciate the longer term benefits of learning, while creating the opportunities for them to do so.
Society Needs leaders sensitive to the needs of all, capable of favouring the most kind and sensitive over the most cruel and insensitive.
Society Needs leaders capable of suffering criticism silently, perhaps accepting and learning from it, responding constructively not in a manner which causes others to suffer.
Society Needs those capable of hiring people more talented then themselves, rather than only those unlikely to show up their deficiencies. Society Needs those capable of firing those who do wrong, not those who try their best to put the organisation first or speak up against wrongdoing.
Society Needs positive leaders capable of making opportunities from their difficulties rather than negative leaders who specialise in making difficulties from their opportunities.
Society Needs to better appreciate how to identify the kind of people incapable of genuine kindness, if it is not to suffer from their fundamental lack of humanity.
Society Needs leaders who appreciate that their primary responsibility is to act responsibly, preferring humility to pride. There is no humiliation in humility nor any humility associated with humiliation.
Society Needs leaders with the emotional depth required to warmly experience other people in all their humanity, as unique people with their own needs and interests, not coldly as inanimate objects to be vindictively used, deceived and manipulated.
Society Needs visionary leaders with the ability to envision how great the group they are responsible for could be. Society Needs leaders with imagination, as it is those who imagine that make the unimaginable happen.
Society Needs positive leaders with the enthusiastic personality which creates the constructive culture (not ultra-competitive combat zones) which inspires others to contribute their personal best en route to collectively driving the entity along the road of progress from good to great.
Society Needs humble leaders capable of accepting criticism constructively and learning from it, not too-proud leaders who cannot cope and feel the necessity to respond destructively wanting to damage their critics.
Society Needs leaders with the integrity to set the admirable example which encourages everyone else to want to follow, well capable of “doing the right thing when no-one is looking”.
Society Needs courageous leaders who know that “doing the wrong thing when everyone is looking” could never be described as leadership, let alone leadership with integrity.
Society desperately needs leaders who derive their primary satisfaction from making the people they lead feel better, never worse.
Society Needs as its managers and leaders those capable of recognizing wrong, including their own faults which they seek to learn from and rectify, who accept responsibility for the errors of those they lead, rather than those who see no wrong in words and actions which others would, do not learn from their mistakes and blame everyone else for their own failings.
Society Needs those who find it easy to be kind and impossible to be cruel rather than those who find it easy to be cruel and impossible too be kind to be leading its people and organisations.
Indeed even more fundamental, Society Needs as its managers and leaders those who are well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves).
Those who consistently engage in almost unforgivable words and deeds are the very same people who time after time expect to be forgiven for the anger and hatred they practice, preach and instil in others, yet are incapable of forgiving those they perceive to have wronged them and hold deep grudges against, even when they didn’t, finding it easy to apportion blame but impossible to accept responsibility.
Society Needs leaders capable of evaluating the consequences of decisions on the grounds of “how will this benefit the people I am responsible for?” rather than “what’s in it for me?”
Society Needs honest leaders who are team players, bridge-builders and peacemakers not solo playing troublemakers who thrive on deceit, disrespect and disharmony.
Society Needs to learn that those who are always right and never wrong, blame others for their mistakes, cannot forgive and hold deep grudges, who cannot accept responsibility for their own failings and those of the people they lead, who have to “get their own way” and “win at all costs” inconsiderate of the consequences, more interested in themselves than the people they are responsible for, simply do not have what it takes to hold positions of responsibility or be leaders of business or society.
Society Needs to appreciate that when we permit those who are innately more cruel than considerate to achieve their goal of reaching senior positions, we may be succumbing to the misconception that somehow seems to assume or accept that ruthlessness is a valid managerial or even leadership trait.
Society Needs to consider that when it selects and elect those who are more naturally antagonistic, contentious, contrary, controversial, pugnacious, quarrelsome and argumentative rather than agreeable and consensus-seeking it may be mistaking strength of will for strength of character?
Society Needs to wonder when it chooses those who throw temper tantrums when they do not get their own way, who hold grudges and find it difficult to forgive and forget, who are so opinionated that they find it a challenge to accept the suggestions of others and who seem to prefer conflict, trouble and strife to calm co-operation, disputes to compromise and disagreement to agreement, whether it may be appointing children rather than adults to its most senior roles.
Society Needs to strongly consider when time and time again it appoints such spiteful, vindictive, unforgiving, merciless and malicious people to seniority of position, trusting them with important roles despite their deep and utter untrustworthiness, perhaps scared of their retribution if we don’t grant them the power they insatiably crave but ultimately can only abuse; power which their self-centred focus switches to maintaining at any cost, rather than using astutely and constructively for the purpose granted.
Society Needs fundamentally responsible people for its most responsible roles, not the most irresponsible people possible, immune to their inadequacies and unaware of their deficiencies, inconsiderate of the adverse consequences when they inevitably prioritise “winning” over compromise, their self-interest over the firm’s or national interest and themselves over not only others but indeed everyone and anything else.
Society sometime needs to learn the many lessons from the past that Givers, being more interested in others than themselves, make for far better leaders, especially of other people, than those Takers who are fundamentally more interested in themselves than others.

In assessing those being considered for seniority of position, especially those involving significant responsibility, global society needs to better appreciate how to ignore shallow charm, self-centred intelligence, smooth eloquence and smart talk disconnected with deeds and actions, past, present or future.

Doing so permits identification of the kind of untrustworthy, irresponsible, ruthless and tactlessly negative troublemakers incapable of truth, subtlety, compromise, bridge-building, genuine teamwork or kindness, compassion, sympathy, empathy or indeed any form of warm emotions, consideration for the interests and needs of others, indeed anyone other than themselves, or the ability to properly understand people and their emotions, including their own, if it is not to suffer from their preference for cold-hearted meanness, unfairness, injustice, unnecessary conflict and warmongering, many forms of discouragement, disharmony and tactless havoc, having to get their own way and win at all costs, irrespective of the consequences, as well as their low to no integrity, all contributed to by their deep and fundamental lack of humanity.

Their extraordinarily confident and ostentatious sense of entitlement, infallibility, indestructibility and immunity from the consequences of their words and deeds, seems to deny them apparent recognition that those who abuse power, just might lose the power they failed to use for the purpose intended, given that their lack of vision and insight resulted from their myopic inability to see matters from any perspective other than their own, ultimately the only person that really matters.

This can seem to be especially so of those who seem to live in a different world than that inhabited by most others, including those they mis-lead because the authority they are trusted with they inevitably misuse to their own advantage, immune to the consequences for others.

Yet we trust such irresponsible and impulsive people with responsibility for the lives and emotions of others, when they can neither manage nor control their own, given that psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists liken their psychological nature to that of primary school children.

As these often “hidden people” are believed by those most expert in this field to be “found in every race, culture, society and walk of life”, one of the most critical matters to appreciate is that as “disordered people” see things differently, experience people differently, perceive many matters differently, think differently, behave differently, react differently, speak differently and indeed inhabit a quite different world from most others in society, it is imperative that they be recognised by others as being different from the norm and hence be dealt with significantly differently.

Given that the “common denominator” in every business and indeed every organisation is “people”, “as far as leadership concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.”

Global society needs to learn how to identify “Disordered Leaders”, with no real interest in anyone other then themselves, in advance of trusting them with responsible roles which their extraordinary degree of irresponsibility and untrustworthiness should disqualify them from consideration for.

Global society needs leaders who give rather than take pleasure, with empathy and warm emotions (well capable of love & incapable of hatred, not those who are well capable of hatred & incapable of love), to accept responsibility for its organisations & institutions and “motivate a group of people to achieve common goals” , or what is commonly referred to as “leadership”.

“Prevention is far preferable to the improbability of cure.”

Far too many entities select and elect leaders who are visibly Intelligent, Charming and Eloquent on the exterior (despite their interiors being fundamentally ICE-cold and empathy-free), without making any apparent effort to analyse what may be the real personality behind the genuine or fake charm, whether their intelligence has any emotional component or not, whether there may be a deep disconnect between their smart and often apt words, their subsequent deeds or misdeeds, whether they can take the long-term view and act accordingly or are deeply impulsive, inconsiderate of the consequences of their actions, decisions and behaviour, whether their interest in other people is sincere and heartfelt or quite insincere, temporary and as shallow as their emotional depth, contributing to they being interested in no-one but themselves and their true interest being not that of the organisation and its people, rather satisfying what they perceive to be their self-interest, their innately singular goal in life, no matter how well they try to hide this from others, and whether their promises transpire to be genuine or as empty as their compassion-free (or ruth-less) nature.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value if none of it is emotional,

resulting in society’s most empathy-free and emotionally labile, shallow and incontinent being better at making enemies out of friends than friends out of enemies.

Yet these are just the type of people society has been making leaders, in the case of dictators often involuntarily, with quite predictable consequences:

Discouragement, disrespect, deceit, distrust, instability, troublemaking and blame, disruption, disharmony and discord, disunity, havoc and mayhem, disagreement, conflict, control and chaos, intolerance, impatience and grudges, arrogance, meanness and tactlessness, many forms of negativity and unkindness, even subtle or overt cruelty including exclusion, denying people the opportunity to make their contribution to deliberations…

… all quite the opposite of that expected (a) of managers and leaders and (b) when any group of people join together to achieve some common purpose.

Yet global society continues to elect such people to seniority of position in its businesses and other entities, even to head its organisations and governments, often attracted by their (shallow) Charm, (apparent) Intelligence and (verbose) Eloquence, while somehow failing to appreciate what may in fact may be their true (disordered) nature, far more interested in themselves than those they are chosen to lead despite their (skilful) pretence at showing an interest in others including (insincere) flattery (when this most suits them), perhaps ignoring (quite apparent) warning signs when presented, as intimidatory (and even deceitful) traits are far too frequently associated with “dominance” and “strong leadership”, rather than potentially deep character flaws, such as (cold-hearted) deficiencies in key aspects of both humanity and leadership including emotional intelligence, empathy, harmony, guilt, remorse, conscience and integrity, ultimately (given their absolute necessity to “get their own way” and “win at all costs”) preferring “win-lose” to “win-win” and being competitive rather than collaborative, finding it easier to be cruel than kind.

They inhabit a different world which others need to understand and adapt to.

Until this is understood they will be misunderstood.

At its most basic their outlook is exceptionally self-centred (far more concerned with me than we or us) and this guides much of their behaviour. No matter how hard they try to mask their true inner coldness and exceptional self-belief, this surfaces when the opportunity arises, not always at the right time for the organisation.

Despite their other often significant abilities and talents, including Charm, Intelligence and Eloquence, this makes them highly inappropriate for roles which involve responsibility for other people, which is fundamentally just not their concern. No matter how well they pretend to be interested in other people, especially when this most suits them, they aren’t. And probably never will be.

Their response to situations can be so bizarre that this can leave observers so confused that they may have no idea how to respond themselves to their “emotional incontinence and lability”, until in due course observers begin to appreciate how repetitive and hence predictable their difficult behaviour can actually be. Yet as one of their greatest talents can be the ability to act normal, much of the time, especially until their self-interest is challenged, this can make them difficult to spot or properly understand.

With a great deal of patience and perseverance, over time the peacemakers can learn how to adapt their own behaviour accordingly to try and introduce a sense of calm to a wide variety of unnecessarily challenging situations, with the aim of denying the troublemakers the turbulence they insatiably seek, no matter the walk of life they inhabit and are encountered.

Life within and outside organisations would be so much more co-operative and constructive if such people were not involved, especially in senior roles. But the only way to prevent them causing trouble in its many forms is to identify them in advance and then deny them the positions of power and influence which they crave but can innately eventually only abuse.

Because they are often inflexible and struggle to change the way they behave and react to similar situations (“maladaptive”), they actually can be identified. How? By way of their own, sometimes peculiar and often self-centred, behaviour.

A significant global problem though seems to be that too few people outside the arena of psychologists and psychiatrists quite seem to know what to look for to suggest “there might be something wrong here” and especially what “something” may be, possibly in extremis even a “personality disorder”.

A group intimidated into only doing what the dominant leader wants is unlikely to evolve, especially when “getting their own way” is very important to their leader.

If people are afraid to “speak up” and uninspired to suggest a variety of alternative ideas or courses of action, how likely is more visionary progress?

For businesses, other types of organisations and even nations to evolve, they need to be led and managed by the right people; those with a genuine concern for the task, interest in the people involved, desire to make sensible progress and possessing the variety of predominantly constructive talents required for the role.

Perhaps it is assumed that because of the responsible position and title people hold, they do possess all these and many other relevant characteristics. It is certainly not expected that they may be what psychologists refer to as “consistently irresponsible”.

They are trusted because of their position in society and are expected to avail of entrusted power for the purposes intended, not primarily satisfying themselves and prioritising their personal goals and ambitions, including the “getting their own way” most associated with primary school children, with whom “Disordered Leaders” have been likened by psychiatrists and psychologists.

Fortunately the vast majority can be trusted and we hear very little about them, most certainly not from themselves.

However not all leaders and managers are fundamentally responsible and trustworthy and we can tend to hear a great deal about them, both from themselves (concerning their undoubted brilliance) and the (not so brilliant) outcomes and sometimes devastating results arising from the negative impact they have on the entities and even nations they mis-lead.

It is extraordinary the number of organisations who go to great lengths to devise laudable Values Statements, then communicate, advocate and inculcate these Core Values with their coworkers, then undo all this well-intentioned good work by (unwittingly) appointing amongst the most covertly unethical people in society to manage and lead them.

Yet time and time again all such entities, apparently in every nation and quite likely in every sector of society, continue to choose the wrong type of people to lead and manage them, sometimes even the most inappropriate possible, those with a Personality Disorder, knowledge of which would appear to be one of the world’s best kept secrets.

This is partly because most other people just don’t seem to know quite what to look for, including (a) how to identify those who may differ from the norm and ultimately be more “destructive” by nature and also (b) better appreciating the many merits in those who may not flaunt their own abilities yet transpire to be “constructive” and deeply responsible by nature.

At the US IVBEC business ethics conference, held in Dublin in October 2019, I proposed an initial definition of a “Disordered Leader” for discussion and refinement:

“Someone trusted with supervisory, managerial or leadership responsibilities who, due to what may be indicative of a mental and/or personality disorder(s), could be considered to be incapable of consistently responsible, trustworthy, harmonious, prosocial, compassionate and accountable management or leadership with integrity, including prioritising the interests of stakeholders other than themselves, especially when this may impede satisfying their self-interest.”

The fact that the most “ruth-less” (meaning sympathy-free) have been shown to so readily and perhaps unwittingly and naturally engage in high levels of pathological lying and deceit, cunning manipulation and egocentric, callous and impulsive behaviour, characterised by a consistent lack of responsibility, empathy, kindness, remorse and conscience, are also well versed in using their charm, confidence, eloquence and arrogance to hide their true traits even from experienced psychologists, poses many challenges for global society, and has done for millennia, especially when they believe themselves to be “normal” and see nothing wrong with words and deeds which many other people wouldn’t or couldn’t even countenance.

Astute and “Constructive Leaders” well recognise that fear, intimidation and humiliation are invalid implements in their motivational toolkit, even if “Destructive Leaders” use them to damage other people.

With “Constructive Leaders” often seeking no personal acclaim and passing credit to successes to others, while accepting responsibility for the failings of those they lead, and “Destructive Leaders” taking credit for the achievements of others while blaming and “putting down” others for their own failings, ultimately it becomes apparent that there is no humiliation in humility nor humility in humiliation.

At its most basic, “Disordered Leaders” (not shown to be short of self-belief) have no qualms whatsoever telling everyone that they are Michelin Star chefs when they can’t even boil an egg, have won Wimbledon and the Masters when they wouldn’t know how to hold a tennis racquet or golf club, or have won many Formula 1 Grand prix… when in “reality” (not their forte) they may not even have passed their driving test.

Indeed given their “inability to learn from prior experiences” they may not even be able to change gear from the only way they know of behaving and interacting with others (“my way or no way”).

This (extraordinary) inability leads them to make mistake after mistake, then repeat them time after time again as if it were for the first time. Yet this inability is unlikely to be known to many non-psychologists given that most people assume that most other people are actually capable of learning from their prior experiences, especially mistakes.

Even if everyone else is capable of repeating their mistakes, at least they recognise them as being errors and are unlikely to keep persisting in doing something avoidable which does not benefit or flatter them. This though os not an ability which some “Disordered Leaders” possess. For those in their inner circle, everyday can be “Groundhog Day”.

This is one of the many matters which exasperate others who simply believe that they are being “stubborn’, especially when they find it difficult to be compliant with the suggestions of others (even when demonstrably the right thing to do) and prefer to DO THE OPPOSITE of what others recommend (even when demonstrably the wrong thing to do).

Just like lacking the ability to learn from prior experiences is not a facet of life which most people are aware that a minority can lack, the same can apply to a CONSCIENCE, which Prof Robert D Hare refers to in his book “Without Conscience” as “the pesky inner voice that helps us to resist temptation and to feel guilty when we don’t.”

Indeed the absence of a conscience along with “unknowingly lacking a simple warmth, a capacity for true intimacy” contributes to what Prof Hervey Cleckley referred to in “The Mask of Sanity” as those so (perhaps unwittingly) afflicted being “profoundly limited in ability to participate seriously in the major aims of life.”

Psychologist Martha Stout in her book “The Sociopath Next Door” asserts that “1 in 25 ordinary Americans secretly has no conscience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty. Who is the devil you know?”

Stout suggests that “being devoid of conscience is impossible for most human beings to fantasise about… Not to care at all about the effects of our actions on society, on friends, on family, on our children? What on earth would that be like?…

Conscienceless people are nearly always invisible to us… Being natural actors, conscienceless people can make full use of social and professional roles… We believe promises from such people because we assign to the individual the integrity of the role itself.”

While “conscienceless people” may be a minority in society and their precise numbers may vary from society to society, depending on whether it is more individualistic or collective, because the very essence of their ‘being’ can be dominated by a perhaps exclusive pursuit of their self-interest to the detriment of all other factors, allied to the likelihood that they seek the most senior positions in the most lucrative industries, the influence of conscience and guilt-free people could transpire to be disproportionate and their role in ethically challenging situations deeply significant.

The fact that those apparently lacking in the emotions which most people possess (and may take for granted) have been shown to so readily and perhaps unwittingly engage in high levels of pathological lying and deceit, cunning manipulation and egocentric, callous and impulsive behaviour, characterised by a lack of responsibility, empathy and remorse, are also well versed in using their charm, confidence, arrogance, eloquence and acting ability to hide their true traits even from experienced psychiatrists and psychologists (at least in the short-term) poses many implications for not only the direction of business ethics research but also the co-operative and harmonious operations of all societal organisations, not least businesses.

As also does what Stout describes as “their preference for risky situations and choices, and their ability to convince others to take risks along with them”, given what is known to be their inability to experience fear or anxiety in the manner that most people can (due to a dysfunction in and between areas of the brain including the Amygdala and VentroMedial PreFrontal Cortex or vmPFC), neural regions also associated with moral decision-making, which allows them to behave in a fear-inducing manner which many others in society just could not, and certainly not as a matter of course.

Indeed those seeming to lack a “sense of what may be wrong” may well have “something wrong” with them, even if many (due to know fault of their own) fail to appreciate what this may be – a “Personality Disorder” – which (for the moment anyway) can appear to be one of the world’s best kept secrets.

Not only their exceptional “self-centredness” but also their their “emotional lability” (or moodiness and short-fuse) can force everyone else in their circle to perpetually “walk on eggshells”, especially in their presence.

This requirement or necessity is contributed to by a variety of factors (many of which are clearly identifiable behaviours) such as their penchant for criticism and even humiliation, yet “tetchy” inability to take even an iota of criticism themselves without significantly over-reacting, even if none was intended, combined with their reluctance to genuinely praise and encourage others even when most warranted, which can seem to cause them deep discomfort, yet this can be allied to their deep fondness for wallowing in their own self-praise (“wasn’t that a brilliant thing I said or did?”) when others are (incredibly) not persistently praising them, failing to see the world they inhabit in quite the same way that almost everyone else does, one of the primary indications of a “Personality Disorder”.

This SBT or Sad But True scenario is far too prevalent in far too many organisations and groupings of all types and sizes worldwide, with quite predictable consequences.

Perhaps because of a general lack of awareness of what constitutes a “Personality Disorder”, somehow many others in society (initially) continue to fall for what this research refers to as their “ICE characteristics” of “Intelligence, Charisma and Eloquence”.

This can be despite:

their (possibly delusional yet clever) words lacking any connection with real intent, action or even reality,
their charm transpiring to be skin-deep, grandiose, insincere and perhaps even insecure, especially when their extraordinary DISLOYALTY to anyone but themselves surfaces, and when
their intelligence transpires to lack any semblance of a genuinely emotional element or interest in anything or anyone but themselves,

given their fundamentally “ICE-cold” nature, lack of warm, caring, sharing emotions and anything passing as EMPATHY, which permits them to act in a quite “RUTH-LESS” manner, which actually translates as “sympathy-free”, not known to be that which most people best respond to.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.

Why do we continue to trust those with responsibility for the lives and emotions of others, when they cannot even seem to manage their own?

Indeed for some in society, the question needs to be asked whether self-interest is a rational choice or a “state of mind”, a cognitive prerogative which appears to impulsively over-ride all other mental processes, irrespective of the consequences for other people, the entity (mis) led and (extraordinarily) even themselves?

They drive their entities (businesses, governmental, educational, sporting, religious and indeed all areas of human activity) at full speed, taking short-cuts only they can see down cul-de sacs or one-way streets in the opposite direction from everyone else, accelerating through red lights and pedestrian crossings in uniquely designed vehicles from a specialist “megalomania” manufacturer whose initially apparently exciting and dynamic (but ultimately disappointing and over-rated) model range includes “selfish, difficult and proud” (offering personalised registration plates “SDP 001”), “delusional”, “impulsive”, “deceitful”, “combative”, “maladaptive”, “irresponsible”, “tactless”, “warmonger”, “motor mouth” and (their best sellers) “untrustworthy” and “troublemaker”, with their recently revamped top model now renamed from “parallel world” to “paranoid” and its supercharger replaced by a self-charging hybrid which seamlessly switches between “apparently normal”, “shallow charm” , “deeply divisive” and “dangerously destructive” modes, without any apparent warning to passengers, other road users and often even the “SDP” driver themselves, especially owners of the exclusive “impulsive” model.

All versions of these “special purpose vehicles” feature tunnel vision (with no need for windscreen-wipers), darkened windows so no-one else can look in and understand who (or what) is driving, if anyone actually is, lacking a reverse gear, neutral, park, mirrors, brakes, bumpers/fenders, warning lights, indicators (allowing the drivers to change lanes without advance notice), adaptive cruise control (as their drivers are “maladaptive”), with the optional “emotional heater” stuck on cold, typically driven by the most dangerous drivers on the (overheating) planet at night with no lights on, ignoring the warnings of their far more astute and emotionally intelligent passengers and driving instructors (before they are consigned to the boot/trunk for their disagreement and criticism), which inspires “Disordered Leaders” to do the opposite of what their advisers suggest while severely criticising their character, often quite fictitiously, for the sheer thrill of the experience, totally unconcerned whether they crash and burn the entity they were mistakenly trusted with leading, once they “get their own way” and “win at all costs”, which can be significant for all others involved.

Although the “Disordered Leaders” regularly tell people loudly (indeed anyone who will listen, as they like talking about themselves, their favourite person) they have won many grand-prix and are multiple world champions, they probably haven’t even passed their driving test or rules of the road, given that the only rules they adhere to are their own, typified by “me first”. They may even have failed their test many times, as they do the people and organisations which trust them to provide responsible leadership, which they are innately incapable of providing.

While they believe they are the most extraordinarily talented person ever born, those who cross their paths and have no option but to work with or for them, wish and pray they never had been.

When others realise what a mistake they have made in appointing them, they can cause even more damage when there appears to be no limit to the extent they will go to maintain their power, which they see as their personal entitlement.

The only “crock of gold” they become associated with is the signifiant “golden handshake” they extract from those far more responsible people who cannot wait to be rid of them so they can begin to pick ip the pieces after their destructive tenure.

Even if the public never got to hear about the antics and exploits, including manipulation, deceit and disorder, with reputation fortuitously unimpaired, the organisation will nevertheless require a great deal of effort from those highly responsible and deeply “constructive” colleagues who had the courage to remain, if it is to be even capable of being restored to the level it was at before falling into the unsafe hands of its charming but “destructive” former leader.

Other organisations are not so fortunate. With trust broken and reputation in tatters, when it no longer appeals to those they need it to exist, notably (potentially disrespected) customers or clients who take their “business” to the “competition” and vote with their feet or wallets to go elsewhere, the entity either fails or suffers the ignominy of changing its name, hoping this might stave off the impending disaster.

It can of course survive and maybe even thrive again, but most likely only when led (or rescued) by those this research refers to as “Constructive Leaders” with the abilities and conscience so lacking in their “Disordered Leader” who practiced “Destructive Leadership”, who may well remain emotionally detached from the damage wrought and maybe even havoc they have just inflicted.

After wrecking one entity, “Disordered Leaders” can move on to cause initially quite subtle and then increasingly more covert havoc elsewhere, appearing at first to have many of the the right credentials although this transpires to be a sham, given that their greatest talent is acting, deceiving, manipulating and fiction-spinning, while pretending to be competent, responsible, rational, truthful and normal, which they totally believe themselves, although no-one else who has experienced their relationship-damaging, trust-destroying, reputation-impairing, self-centred, emotionally labile and delusionally “Destructive Leadership” would or could concur.

Extraordinarily many organisations, misled by their shallow charm, smart words and false promises, disconnected from reality or subsequent action, continue to trust those incapable of successfully managing their own emotions with responsibility for the lives, welfare and emotions of others.

But as they are IDENTIFIABLE, prevention is preferable to the improbability of cure.

Due to their “maladaptive” nature, including the inflexibility of their mindset, to those who understand them well, their apparently peculiar, irrational and bizarre behaviour, not focused on “doing the right thing” for the organisation (or nation) they mis-lead, becomes quite predictable, which means when their traits are more universally understood and appreciated (the primary goal of this research), they CAN be denied the power and influence they will inevitably mis-use, irrationally in a manner which they (perhaps delusionally) perceive to benefit themselves and facilitate satisfying their main goal and only true passion in life – their self-interest.

This is especially so when their victory (even in trivial matters) both advantages themselves and disadvantages others, given that they greatly prefer “win-lose” to the “win-win” outcomes most leaders aspire to achieving.

Their polar opposite in almost every respect – “Constructive Leaders” – recognise that when both parties are satisfied with the outcome arising from any situation, this is more likely to result in healthy and ongoing relationships, perhaps of white a long-term nature involving a significant degree of both “repeat business” and the “word of mouth referrals” that all successful business require, which are most certainly and in due course very evidently NOT the concern of “Disordered Leaders” especially when they impulsively seek “Instantaneous Personal Gratification” from any given situation, being more motivated by “win-lose” than the “win’win” outcomes sought by more innately rational people, whatever their role in society may be.

Throughout human history society seems to have mistaken confidence, charm, arrogance and apparent intelligence, displayed by way of eloquent “talk of integrity”, for strength of character, and misinterpreted intimidatory traits for strength of leadership, when in reality such fundamentally weak and perhaps childlike bullies may possess neither good character nor genuine managerial or leadership ability.

Intimidation and aggression produce fear, anxiety and discouragement, which prevent our minds from thinking positively and creatively.

Neuroscientists explain that when people are satisfied, content and indeed happy, they avail of one set of brain regions which allows them to be at their best and most creative, seeking cooperation and wanting to fully engage, while when they are scared, fearful or unhappy, they avail of a different and rival set of brain regions (only one of which can appear to be active at any given time) more likely to bring out the worst in them, the response triggered when they are disrespected rather than encouraged by others.

Hence the importance of leaders and managers behaving in a predominantly positive manner – cajoling, encouraging, motivating and even inspiring those they have responsibility for, even when they have not quite performed to their potential, which those with ample “emotional intelligence” are often very well equipped to both realise and practice.

Yet those who put-down, humiliate, disrespect and bully others can somehow be associated with “strength” rather than “weakness” of both leadership and character, perhaps even a “PERSONALITY DISORDER”.

Any attempts at trying to deal with them “normally” may well be doomed to failure.

At the US IVBEC business ethics conference, held in Dublin in October 2019, I proposed that the steps the rest of society needs to take to protect itself from such leaders include:

IDENTIFY these abnormal people, by way of their own behaviour, “Destructive Leadership”, as being different from the norm,
STOP them achieving positions of influence & responsibility throughout global society, or if already in situ
LEARN how to behave differently towards them (“denying narcissistic supply”),
ADAPT to (not) respond to their sometimes extraordinary actions & reactions (evident due to their “maladaptive” inflexibility),
MINIMISE the damage & havoc they will inevitably create, and preferably replace them with far more responsible people who do meet the “Constructive Leadership” criteria, knowing they will “do whatever it takes” and go to any lengths to maintain the power they should never have been trusted with in the first place.

When salient advice to those who have to deal with such people includes:

BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE of what they say, as they can be deeply deceitful, take pleasure in lying, do not mind when they are caught doing so and may not even realise they are lying;

DO THE OPPOSITE of what they want, as this can often be the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, more likely to achieve personal satisfaction than be “the right thing” for the group they mis-lead;

ADVISE THEM THE OPPOSITE of what you want them to do, as being “perversity personified” they don’t like taking advice and will tend to do the opposite of what others ask them to do, “contrary” by nature;

NEVER CRITICISE THEM as, despite being masters at dishing out criticism and many other forms of rebuke and disrespect to others, they can’t deal with an iota of criticism themselves, and are likely to over react to any (real or imagined) in a totally disproportionate, angry and even “histrionic” manner; so in such scenarios others learn to SAY NOTHING their “Disordered Leader” could find the opportunity to disagree with, let alone critique, or indeed anything they may perceive to be anyone doubting their undoubted (in their own mind) “brilliance”;

Others learn to PRAISE THEM PROFUSELY as not only do they need, seek and crave praise, and can tend to praise themselves when others fail to do so, yet find it hard to genuinely praise others, especially when most warranted, which also contributes to “sycophantic” behaviour amongst followers and nominal “management team” members; praising in an insincere manner is usually to gain some advantage but in this case it can be to avoid rebuke or worse, potentially being excluded or fired for the crime of proffering a different suggestion or opinion from that of their “Disordered Leader”, in such cases why bother with having a “management team” at all – except to do what they are told?

Ensure the GREAT IDEA is seen to be theirs, otherwise it won’t be actioned, as they need to take credit for it and deny praise to those most responsible;

BE PEACEMAKERS AND REMAIN CALM when they try to stir up trouble, saying and doing nothing in response to their regular provocations, not rising to the many challenges they pose, baits and traps they set, especially for those who do not yet appreciate they seem to thrive on disagreement, dissent and many forms of disharmony;

BE TACTFUL AND KIND WHEN THEY ARE CRUEL AND UNCARING and (unlike them) hold no grudges or hatreds nor seek no revenge (even for trivia), as being “ruth-less” (meaning “sympathy-free”) and making others unhappy can seem to make them happy, while seeing others happy can make them unhappy, making them want to disturb whatever satisfaction and pleasure others are enjoying, although not always in their presence, when others have to be “on edge” and WALK ON EGGSHELLS, so they learn

DO NOT DISTURB THOSE WHO MAY THEMSELVES BE DISTURBED, even if they believe their own behaviour is normal, there is nothing wrong with them at all, nor with their mindset, their way of thinking and the myriad of problems (including “interpersonal difficulties”) they cause and challenges they create are the fault of others, who they blame at every opportunity;

PREDICT THE PREDICTABLE as although many believe their behaviour to be bizarre and abnormal (which it is), given that they can be “maladaptive” (inflexible), “labile” (moody) and fail to learn from their mistakes, over time those closest to them realise how predictable they can be and hence learn how to avoid whatever “triggers” their boorishness and necessity to control, which otherwise may be “uncontrollable”;

DO NOT FEAR THOSE WHO DO NOT EXPERIENCE FEAR as when others realise they thrive on trouble, seek reward inconsiderate of risk, actively seek arguments and are not scared by confrontation (as they thrive on conflict which they prefer to cooperation and would rather see people “at each others’s throats” than getting on fine and collaborating well), they will no longer be scared by their antics and learn to expect their provocation, making it easier to “turn the other cheek”, do not respond and just say nothing and walk away from potential trouble, denying them “narcissistic supply” and the oxygen they need to “fuel their fires of dissent” and create the disorder, disharmony and even havoc they insatiably seek;

DO NOT EXPECT THEM TO BE LOYAL as they are only capable of loyalty to themselves and, if the whim takes them, can be exceptionally disloyal even to their most patient, tactful and loyal followers, changing from (false) praise one day to the deepest and most savage form of “CHARACTER ASSASSINATION” the next, often quite deceitfully and “delusionally” given that they have a major problem separating fact from fiction, which is why not one word they utter can be believed, unless subsequently independently verified;

REMAIN POSITIVE AND DO NOT EXPECT ENCOURAGEMENT as they thrive on many forms of negativity, criticism and even humiliation, in effect deep discouragement and demotivation, although encouragement and motivation are widely agreed to be amongst the most critical roles of leaders to achieve common goals, not just to satisfy the personal ambitions, whims and grudges of self-centred leaders;

PUT THE ORGANISATION (OR NATION) FIRST and prioritise what may benefit the “stakeholders” such as customers, employees, suppliers, local communities, the environment (and citizens, all not just some), separating these from what may be mal-practices and policies more likely to personally benefit the finances, ego or pride of self-centred leaders or sometimes entire management teams;

DO RIGHT WHEN THEY DO WRONG and appreciate “THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY TO DO A WRONG THING”, hence doing what the “Disordered Leader” cannot: safeguard the TRUST and REPUTATION others know to be important but they fail to appreciate, especially when they SEE NO WRONG in their own words and deeds, notably when these seem more focussed on rebuke, revenge, retaliation and their personal necessity to impulsively “get their own way” and “win at all costs, irrespective of the consequences”, not unlike the most troublesome of primary school children;

The necessity for others to AVOID TROUBLE by being SYCOPHANTIC does not auger well for organisations making the best progress possible based on pooled ideas, informed discussion, healthy debate, rational decision making considerate of the interests and needs of the variety of “stakeholders” affected and how they may be impacted by the possible outcomes of their decisions, nor for the many forms of cooperation and collaboration required for sensible progress to follow; indeed it makes “management teams” almost redundant…

there is clearly something very wrong, especially in those who seem to lack an internal sense of wrong and whose “vision” is focussed not on the constructive and harmonious future of the entity (or any grouping in global society they mis-lead), rather on themselves and satisfying their self-interest, primarily considering issues from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?”

None of these are traits or behaviours which people would advocate in supervisors, team leaders or managers, so why can they be so prevalent with (fortunately only) a minority of “leaders” that many seem to accept them as being part and parcel of “senior management”?

None of these are acceptable. They never have been and they never will be.

Indeed they are indicative of one simple fact – the business, organisation, entity (or even nation) is led by the wrong person – more capable of doing harm than good, damaging rather than building relationships and more likely to (perhaps irreparably) impair trust and imperil reputation, especially when they prioritise themselves over those they are tasked with leading and fail to appreciate that this is not why they were trusted with such an onerous responsibility.

At the end of the day, it isn’t all about them, although they persist in thinking that it is.

This can be so even after they have been removed from the positions of power which they could have used constructively for the purposes intended, but did not and could not.

For many in society self-interest is just one matter to weigh up when decision-making, which some are better at evaluating or discounting than others. Indeed for many years I have advocated that, before they finalise a decision, management teams step back and identify to what degree their self-interest (monetary, prestige, promotional opportunity et al) may have impacted on their planned decision and, when notionally removed from the equation, consider whether they would still take the same decision.

If so, they can be even more satisfied that they are doing the right thing for the entity which employs them and the key “stakeholders”, or the people and groups of people affected or impacted directly and indirectly by the decision or resulting action.

If not, they may need to further deliberate, notably taking the longer-term perspective including considering the likely reputational impact and which “stakeholders” may benefit or suffer as a result, while discounting what may then be better seen as short-term opportunism, especially if their decisions and actions may risk damaging trust and reputation if more widely known.

It is extraordinary the number of poor or wrong decisions people and organisations make in the expectation that “no-one will find out” – until others do find out (perhaps due to conscientious whistleblowers ).

This can especially be the case when the decision was forced on others by those this research refers to as “Disordered Leaders” who practice “Destructive Leadership”, or bullies for short, who intimidate their people to the degree that the “management team” fails to function as a “team” at all, indeed may even become redundant as a decision-evaluating entity, especially when the members believe they have no option but to sycophantically follow the lead and opinion set by their “selfish, difficult and proud” boss, notably when the interests of the organisation (or nation) become secondary to satisfying the self-serving whims of the “Disordered Leader” (eg Hitler).

Being “found out” produces the challenging decision whether to “own-up” or “cover-up” and risk further reputational damage, which could so easily have been avoided had the time been taken to properly consider the issues and what may be the real motivations behind the decision(s). (The 15 ways to Communicate in a Crisis are explained in this case study of the mishandled Hillsborough disaster or Ireland’s Crisis which necessitated involvement of the IMF and EU when the elected leaders couldn’t or wouldn’t provide the leadership required).

However, for this small (“disordered”) subsection of global society, incapable of “doing the right thing”, which across all sectors of all nations holds a disproportionate number of senior positions requiring responsibility and accountability, their self-interest is their overarching and perhaps sole priority and the lens through which they view all situations, notably from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?”, which contributes to they being amongst the most irresponsible and least accountable people possible and extraordinarily inappropriate for any seniority of position, no matter the nature of the entity or role.

Charles Dickens may have concluded “A Tale of Two Cities” with

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

but in considering “A Tale of Two Leaders” it is far, far better that organisations, entities and nations choose “Constructive Leaders” over “Disordered Leaders” as the “Destructive Leadership” they malpractice may well satisfy their dysfunctional desires but is unlikely to allow those unfortunate to work with or for them any form of rest of body, mind or spirit and may well damage their well-being.

When “Constructive Leaders” retire or move to pastures new, perhaps the best thing they can do than they have ever done before is to choose the right type of person as their successor to continue their good work and set them up for success, not the failure which some “Destructive Leaders” can do.

There is also something clearly wrong when a leader wants his or her successor to fail, hoping this will better reflect on their prior far better leadership. How selfish and self-centred can someone get? In such situations this is further proof that they themselves were the wrong person, being more interested in self than the organisation and its variety of “stakeholders”.

That is why I strongly argue that, at its most “basic”, GIVERS being “more interested in others than themselves” make for far, far better leaders and managers than TAKERS “more interested in themselves than others”, no matter how tremendous their other qualities.

Yet if this is so “basic”, why do so many organisations (and nations) continue to get leadership and management selection so wrong, with consequences which can be harmful and damaging both for individual people close to the situation and ultimately to the entity or nation itself, especially when they go to great lengths to maintain the power they have already abused and should never have been trusted with in the first place? (Charm, Intelligence and Eloquence – CIE or ICE – can mask more self-centred and damaging personality character traits, at least for a while, as we will see).

It is a far, far better thing to do to be able to “IDENTIFY AND DENY” than “FAIL TO IDENTIFY AND DENY THERE IS A PROBLEM” – meaning identify such irresponsible people by way of what they struggle to change (their own inflexible and quite predictable behaviour) and deny them the positions of responsibility they are ill equipped to perform in the manner expected of them by society, than let them assume positions of power which they will invariably abuse for personal advantage or repute, yet go to great lengths to maintain and cause even more damage once “found out” to be selfish and inept, given the difficulty and indeed improbability of them ever being referred for psychological assessment or assistance nor their cooperating if so required, as they may see it like many other facets of life to be a “game to be won” and, anyway, given their sometimes gargantuan ego and considerable but unfounded self-belief, in their deluded mind they are not the person with the problem, everyone else is, so are unlikely to improve or be “cured”.

Those who have had to deal with such people know it would have been far better for everyone (else) involved if they had never been appointed to a position of responsibility in the first place, one of the reasons for my engaging in this research and body of writing, of which these are just some extracts.

If I have experienced such people and matters over fifty times during my own career, how often do other people experience such situations too but, like me for 25 years, not quite realise what they may be dealing with – someone with a “Personality Disorder” – or in essence, a disordered personality or disturbed mind who sees matters and experiences people quite differently from most other people in society? Hence “prevention is far preferable to the improbability of cure”.

A well known and highly respected US business ethics professor described this in 2016 as an “incredibly important issue” and “the future of business ethics”.

I believe this to be a matter of deep significance not only for society but maybe even humanity, if the most inhumane are not to be permitted to persistently prevail over the most humane and cause a wide variety of damage to people’s welfare, interpersonal trust and organisational and even national reputation.

Which is perhaps why Socrates, slightly paraphrased, likened trust or reputation to a fire – far easier to keep lit than relight if allowed to be extinguished.

Yet the reputation of the body which employs them seems to be far removed from the priorities of those for whom impulsively satisfying their self-interest (without on occasions any apparent rational thought) can seem to be their primary motivation.

At the end of the day “me” is more important to this cohort than “we”.

Because it became evident to me that the damage done to people and the institutions of society both by (a) the minority of “disordered” people and (b) the lack of appreciation of what constitutes a “Personality Disorder” by the majority of “responsible” people, appears to be so great, this IS an issue which needs to be seriously addressed at every level of local, national and international society, if sensible, rational and harmonious cooperation and progress is to be permitted, maintained and prioritised.

Indeed after 25 years of personally failing to properly understand those I can now describe as “disordered people’, these are amongst the reasons I decided what seems like a lifetime ago back in 2013 to start dealing with this issue myself by starting to research and write about this scenario which seems to be an integral part of human history, to the detriment of society when people who innately seem to prefer conflict to cooperation are permitted to prevail.

Given the considerable impact leaders can have on many aspects of organisational and even national life, from highly positive and constructive to deeply negative and destructive, John Milton’s astute observation in 1667 that “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven” could be as apt today, describing the impact of strong personalities on the prevailing culture of not only the organisations they both lead and mis-lead, but even the nations.

While many leaders may be well capable of making a heaven of hell, others are more naturally disposed to making a hell of heaven. Employees unfortunate enough to work in “Counterproductively Competitive & Combative Corporate Cultures” may well describe the resulting environment as “Paradise Lost”.

Intolerance of low integrity by leaders of high personal integrity with a strong conscience ensures unethical acts are not condoned and are unlikely to be repeated given the more constructive, cooperative, honest, harmonious and less adversarial culture such leaders engender throughout their organisation, being based on positivity, praise and encouragement rather than negativity, critique, fear, discouragement and blame.

However the acceptance of low integrity by leaders of a lesser calibre ensures instances are not only permitted but probably encouraged and hence more likely to recur by the more combative, fearful and destructive nature of the culture prevalent within their organisation.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.

The ability to “recognise, understand and manage our own emotions” while simultaneously being able to “recognise, understand and influence the emotions of others” (or “emotional intelligence”) is important in every area of life, especially when “social influence” is required to both “motivate a group of people to maximise their efforts towards achieving a common purpose” (leadership) and “coordinate, control and administer tasks to achieve a goal” (management).

For many people at many levels throughout organisations, especially large, disparate entities, their immediate manager, supervisor, or team-leader to them is their “leader”, also requiring the skills associated with encouragement and motivation and never discouragement and demotivation.

Indeed one of the unwritten “constructive” tasks may be identifying those at lower levels, indeed at all levels, who seem to have the talent, ability and “vision” to see the big picture and what may need to be done to better achieve the progress which the most negative and self-centred may choose to deny them.

The most visionary leaders recognise that they need to share their “vision” for the entity with everyone and inspire them to contribute towards achieving it, not only with their endeavours but also with their own ideas, which unless sought and encouraged may never surface or be actioned.

Another “big secret” in organisational life is that those who perform much of the day-to-day work know much better ways to do things, but are too seldom asked. This is yet another reason why “organisational cultures” benefit from being open and honest with people at all levels being appreciated, encouraged and rewarded, not least by a “well done” and “thank you”, especially from someone much higher up the ladder.

Yet too many organisations, divisions, departments and units are mis-led by those with a personality which prefers discouragement to encouragement and criticism to any form of praise, compounded when they are “takers” more interested in themselves than others” and need to be praised themselves, although returning this can pose them a great difficulty, regularly criticising but incapable of receiving an iota of criticism without an anger outburst.

When the wrong people with the wrong personality are in positions with responsibility for other people, the outcome can be inevitable no matter the role or level within the organisation – demotivation, discouragement and sub-optimal performance even of the very best – those I describe as “Corporate Saints” who continue to cheerfully provide great service to all involved and often inspire people with their positivity, despite being given little reason to do so by their actual manager.

Indeed it is such wonderful people that more visionary leaders recognise, support, include and promote, knowing that they bring many qualities to the group at large – as well as their technical expertise and interest in other people, their enthusiasm and positivity can inspire any group to better perform even if they are the most junior member of the team.

Yet there are others in society with the opposite “disposition” who would take pleasure in denying such “fantastic” people the opportunity to make a far better contribution, more “destructive” than “constructive” in nature.

This distinction needs to be better understood if organisations in particular and society in general is to make more positive progress, which I offer some opinions and suggestions about, based on a decade of specific research and decades in industry with hundreds of organisations.

The ability to encourage, motivate and even inspire others requires an expertise in understanding and appreciating people and promoting the interests and needs of the entity and its people, which goes well beyond “self-promotion”.

The ability to rationally consider issues from a variety of perspectives and potential outcomes, short and long-term, then choose the most advantageous for the entity requires true character and integrity, tact and patience, which goes well beyond “self-interest” and “impulsivity”.

The ability to lead organisations and manage departments and divisions also requires those so trusted to be able to separate right from wrong, fact from fiction and see the “reality” of situations.

Those who seem to lack a sense of wrong need to be recognised as having something wrong with them, especially when this includes seeing nothing wrong with their own words and behaviour when others involved couldn’t even contemplate let alone countenance them.

The ability to seek and listen to advice from a variety of quarters requires the opposite of the “pride” associated with the arrogant and stubborn, who believe they are always right and everyone else wrong, making the “management teams” they disrespect almost redundant as a forum for discussion, debate and informed decision-making when guided by “Constructive”, rather than intimidated by “Destructive Leaders”, whose priority is “getting their own way”.

Not everyone though shares these abilities, even if they are adept at giving the impression that they do and are consequently trusted with responsible positions for which their deep irresponsibility and untrustworthiness should disqualify them, with entirely predictable consequences.

Their expertise at “acting” and “giving a good impression” can soon be dropped when they or their self-interest are challenged, when their behaviour can only be described as “challenging” (if not “childlike”).

Leading an entity or managing a “division” does not require the manager to act in a “divisive” manner, preferring conflict to cooperation and disharmony to harmonious progress, yet this can seem to be not only the main ability but primary goal of far too many leaders and managers throughout global society.

A highly-competitive or even “toxic” organisational culture is most likely to be due to managers and/or leaders with one or more “Personality Disorder(s)”, also an indication when people believe “there is something wrong here but we can’t quite put a finger on what this may be”.

Yet we trust “Disordered Leaders” with responsibility for the lives and emotions of other people, when they cannot even properly manage or control their own emotions.

While many people in society feel good from making others feel good, what needs to be better and indeed more globally appreciated is that there may be something wrong with those who themselves feel good when they make others feel bad.

Those who themselves lack humanity and seem to inhabit a DIFFERENT WORLD from the rest of humanity, need to be denied the opportunity to damage the far better world that everyone else inhabits.

Society Needs leaders well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving – anyone but themselves.

Time after time we choose such people for senior roles for which they are deeply, utterly and fundamentally ill-equipped.

Even after the organisations mis-led by “Disordered Leaders” have collapsed (perhaps with a track record of failure than building ventures capable of long-term, sustainable success and growth), with many people’s lives adversely affected, trust in tatters and reputation beyond repair, these emotionally labile individuals, because that is what they are, not team-players, can still wonder what they did wrong, finding it easy to apportion blame but impossible to accept responsibility for their many failures, apparent to almost everyone but themselves.

When will we learn that “enough is enough” and learn from the many disasters – physical, emotional and financial – which arise from the “Destructive Leadership” most associated with “Disordered Leaders”?

Being sympathy-free (“ruth-less”), insensitive to the interests, needs and emotions of others, yet highly sensitive to any form of criticism or rebuke, producing a totally disproportionate response, feelings of hatred towards those who may have offered them tactful advice or constructive criticism, and the imperative of having to retaliate and extract revenge, even for trivia, are not qualities which endear leaders to those they lead, or indeed to anyone else.

Intimidation can never be acceptable, especially when it is seen as a routine part of the fabric of life, whatever the grouping in society may be.

Senior people out of touch with the raison d’être of the entity they are supposed to be serving, not predominantly themselves, and indeed why they are there in the first place, should never be permitted to become untouchable.

When will key decision-makers realise that those who actively seek personal gain and acclaim may least warrant it, while those who desire little or no attention for themselves or their achievements may indeed be the most praiseworthy and the most likely to offer the most astute guidance and the best equipped to provide the most appropriate flexibility of leadership with integrity to deal with the many situations which inevitably will be faced?

Those who consistently engage in almost unforgivable words and deeds are the very same people who time after time expect to be forgiven for the anger and hatred they practice, preach and instil in others, yet are incapable of forgiving those they perceive to have wronged them, even when they didn’t.

No matter the walk of life, we expect the managers and leaders of our society, from business to government and sport, to bring people together by way of co-operation, collaboration and consensus-finding, praise and encouragement, not drag them apart with insulting and combative words and deeds, seek conflict at almost every opportunity, behave impulsively, impetuously and be moody (“labile”) rather than cool, calm and collected, as they innately prioritise their own self-interest and divide rather than unite the people they are supposed to be leading and setting an admirable example for, breeding hope not fear.

Those only capable of appreciating and valuing themselves do not have what it takes to successfully manage and lead other people.

Indeed there must be something wrong with those lacking a sense of wrong, especially when this only consists of believing they are always right and everyone else wrong.

Just because “Disordered Leaders” cannot seem to learn from their mistakes (a mental impairment recognised by psychiatrists and psychologists), doesn’t mean the rest of society shouldn’t from theirs, notably when deeply irresponsible and untrustworthy people are appointed to significant positions of responsibility, beyond the limitations of their personality.

Do we never seem to learn?

Maybe it is now opportune that, collectively and globally, society does, given the absolute predictability of the consequences when those with the wrong personality, when cruel the most inappropriate possible, are chosen for positions for which they are extraordinarily ill-equipped, which eventually becomes apparent to almost everyone else, except themselves, given that they believe there is nothing wrong with them.

As people with a Personality Disorder rarely see themselves as being different or as being the problem, as they blame all their faults and failings on anything and everyone else, this places the onus to be “responsible” and “constructive” on those who, out of necessity, spend an inordinate amount of their time dealing with the whims of their unbalanced and perhaps “Disordered Leader”.

Now that I can associate many of my worst experiences in business with what I describe as “Destructive Leaders” and many of my best with the fortunately far more plentiful “Constructive Leaders”, I feel a responsibility to share what I have learned so some unfortunate experiences may transpire to be fortunate, as it becomes increasingly apparent how damaging “Disordered Leaders” can be, no matter what area of life they inhabit.

At the US IVBEC business ethics conference, held in Dublin in October 2019, I proposed that the steps the rest of society needs to take to protect itself from such leaders include:

IDENTIFY these abnormal people, by way of their own behaviour, “Destructive Leadership”, as being different from the norm,

STOP them achieving positions of influence & responsibility throughout global society, or if already in situ

LEARN how to behave differently towards them (“denying narcissistic supply”),

ADAPT to (not) respond to their sometimes extraordinary actions & reactions (evident due to their “maladaptive” inflexibility),

MINIMISE the damage & havoc they will inevitably create, and preferably replace them with far more responsible people who do meet the “Constructive Leadership” criteria, knowing they will “do whatever it takes” and go to any lengths to maintain the power they should never have been trusted with in the first place.

Even after their organisation has collapsed with many people’s lives adversely affected, these “emotionally labile” individuals, because that is what they are, not team-players, can still wonder what they did wrong, finding it easy to apportion blame but impossible to accept responsibility.

At that conference, rotated annually between the three East Coast USA Vincentian universities and now also the former Vincentian All Hallows College in Dublin, I proposed the following initial definition of a “Disordered Leader”:

“Someone trusted with supervisory, managerial or leadership responsibilities who, due to what may be a personality/mental disorder(s), could be considered to be incapable of consistently responsible, trustworthy, prosocial and accountable management or leadership, including prioritising the interests of stakeholders other than themselves, especially when this may impede satisfying their self-interest.”

Having been exposed to over 50 highly challenging people during my own career, who may be capable of being diagnosed with a “Personality Disorder” (in the unlikely even that any ever receive psychological assessment or treatment), a situation I failed to properly comprehend for many years in industry, just believing them to be exceptional “selfish, difficult and proud”, I can testify what a great challenge those with such a mindset can pose to everyone else with no option but to deal with them.

One solution is to learn what behavioural traits to look for, preferably in advance of granting seniority of position to those who seem to inhabit a different world from everyone else.

Indeed the four core features common to all Personality Disorders, with two required for diagnosis, are

Distorted thinking patterns,
Problematic emotional responses,
Over- or under-regulated impulse control and
Interpersonal difficulties,

none of which are attributes which society needs in those with responsibility for its institutions and their people. What is a Personality Disorder?

Yet far too frequently some or all of these are evident in the behaviour of leaders, erroneously associated with strength of character and leadership, rather than weakness of personality and an inability to manage their own emotions, let alone lead other people.

One of the definitions of a “Personality Disorder” is “pervasive patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and the self that interfere with long-term functioning of the individual and are not limited to isolated episodes.”

Those with “shallow emotions” who experience other people no differently than inanimate objects – such as shopfront mannequins – can perceive or misconceive many areas of organisational and national life being like a “game”, including business, politics and government.

It is all about the conquest, winning and possession of what they desire, being better and having more than those they see to be a rival (who frequently are not), with other far more important factors not nearly as relevant as they should be in their perception and deliberations.

Hence what I refer to as the “Triad of the Dark Triad”:

“Getting their own way”,

“Winning at all costs, irrespective of consequences for others”, and

“Evaluating matters from the primary perspective of “what’s in it for me?”

becomes more critical for them than in the minds of most other, more “normal” people.

Lacking the vision required of leaders, but being incessant pity-seekers (best described as “poor me”), they nevertheless somehow manage to see persecution where there is none, or none intended, just different opinions which in the minds of most normal people are a healthy part of deliberation and debate, the give and take which results in the most sensible path to progress by way of decisions which weigh up risk and reward and try to consider and balance the interests of the most appropriate “stakeholders”, or the most relevant groups of people involved or impacted by the decision, not the self-interest and pride of the leader.

While other people may consider there is something wrong, this belief may not be shared by those who consistently cause trouble for their often beleaguered colleagues.

People with many of the Personality Disorders just do not believe there is anything wrong with them, so see no need to change nor seek treatment, which they may not even cooperate with in the unlikely event that treatment transpires. Those with “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” and related disorders may not because they feel superior to others. Their inferiors are the real problem.

Those with “Paranoid Personality Disorder” also feel there is nothing wrong with them, although others may see them as being excessively suspicious and unnecessary hostile. In their mind, their suspicions of others are quite justified. It is these other people who are the real problem and they are the reasons for the degree of moderate to significant dysfunction, havoc and even mayhem which their mis-management and mal-leadership inevitably brings.

Characteristics such as these should disqualify such people from consideration for senior roles, but incredibly (meaning “hard to believe”) these traits are evident amongst people holding significant positions throughout society. One reason is too many other people (especially those with the right credentials for seniority) just do not seem to know what traits to look for, primarily to identify them to deny such people they power they need and demand but are incapable of using for the purpose intended, then become difficult to replace as they prioritise maintenance of the power they crave over all other considerations, irrespective of the cost to others.

The other main reason it becomes important to be able to identify such “disordered” people is to realise that trying to deal with them “normally” is likely to result in abject failure and a variety of countermeasures will instead need to be tactically employed in dealing with them, to diminish the damage they can do not only to the culture of their organisation (or nation) but also to the lives and emotions of those who have no choice but to work with or for them.

At the end of the day when people learn what traits to look for, the “disordered people” themselves facilitate this task of preventing them from becoming “disordered leaders”, because they actually “give the game away” themselves by way of what they cannot hide or change – their own behavioural traits.

This can take some time to notice and appreciate. Indeed it took me over 25 years in industry, working with hundreds of organisations, before a coffee with a psychologist led to my recognising that I had actually worked with or for over 50 such people and how similar much of their behaviour actually was, although they worked in different sectors, nations and even continents.

“Self-centred” has been defined by Merriam-Webster as “concerned solely with one’s own desires, needs, or interests” and “independent of outside force or influence”.

“Narcissistic Personality” is described as “a pattern of traits and behaviours characterised by excessive self-concern and overvaluation of the self.”

Amongst the traits associated with “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” are:

Long-standing pattern of grandiose self-importance and an exaggerated sense of talent and achievements
Exhibitionistic need for attention and admiration from others
Belief that they are special and most others are inferior, not worthy of being associated with them
Sense of entitlement and expectation of special treatment from others
They believe they are normal and all the problems and challenges they create are the fault of situations or other people (who they find it easy to blame)
Cannot accept responsibility for their innate irresponsibility
Need for praise from others
Need to belittle those they perceive (often wrongly) to be rivals, critics or they believe disagree with or disrespect them, attacking and slandering their good name, often quite fictitiously/delusionally, while falsely assassinating their character
When not being praised by others they can praise themselves, sometimes extravagantly, including for achievements only they recognise
Behave arrogantly with a conceited, pretentious & pompous manner
Boastful of their talents or achievements, even if greatly exaggerated or totally fictitious, only present in their own version of reality, the unique world they live in
Active imaginations especially about themselves and rules to be obeyed (their own not society’s)
Huge belief in their invulnerability and ability to “get away” with anything
Tendency to fantasise about success, power, brilliance or beauty
Expect to be recognised as superior, even without commensurate achievements
Find it easy to be “ruth-less”, meaning free of sympathy/compassion
Envious of others or belief they may be envious of them
Insist on being and having the best of everything
Others need to “walk on eggshells” in their presence given their volatility
Need unquestioning compliance from others and may not be able to cope with non-compliance or criticism, as they can be “thin-skinned” and easily slighted
Total disregard for the emotions of others, which they may not be able to experience, or wish to damage, due to an inability to empathise with the feelings of others
Manipulate and take advantage of others to get what they want
Interest shown in other people only while they are deemed to serve a useful purpose, otherwise they can be ignored, discarded or even verbally attacked and disparaged
People can be coldly experienced, no different from inanimate objects (such as shopfront mannequins)
Other people exist to be used to satisfy their insatiable personal needs
Otherwise they have no intrinsic value as people, nor any interests or needs worthwhile knowing, as ultimately they just do not matter
Despite their constant need for praise, they struggle to genuinely praise others, preferring to find reason or fault, even when praise may be most warranted
Thrive on criticism but can’t cope when this is directed at them; warranted or not, always without merit in their mind given their huge self-belief
Grossly over react to anything they perceive to be criticism, even if there was none or no critique was intended
Blame other people, events or situations for their own errors, inadequacies or failings, perhaps by way of “projecting” these on to others rather than “facing facts” and trying to deal with their personal issues themselves; until aware of their tendencies, third parties are more likely to believe their criticism of others, not realising they may be some (perhaps only) form of recognition of their own failings
“With prejudice” well describes those who hold deep and long-lasting grudges and seek revenge and retaliation, even for trivial reasons such as others merely suggesting or proffering a different opinion from theirs
They can derive more pleasure from disrespecting than respecting others, especially those who dare to criticise them
Poor at regulating their emotions, so can be moody (“emotionally labile”) and temperamental, with anger always lying just beneath the surface, ensuring others tread very carefully in their presence and do not say or do anything which differs from their opinion or could even be remotely perceived as criticism or an alternative opinion
Impatience or temper tantrums when criticised or don’t receive special treatment.
React with cold indifference or feelings of rage or emptiness in response to criticism, indifference or defeat
Cold when others would expect them to be warm
Disinterested or no genuine interest in other people or their interests, needs and achievements, including in situations when others would expect them to be interested
Create a wide variety of interpersonal problems (probably better appreciated by the others involved) including when they require others to be subservient and sycophantic
Can treat others with contempt and hatred for little apparent reason, preferring intimidation to encouragement, making others wonder what they may have done to incur their hatred and wrath (perhaps very little) and requirement to extract deep revenge
Much of their behaviour can be seen to promote themselves and put-down, discourage, disparage and even humiliate others
Struggle to change or adapt their behaviour
Struggle to learn from their mistakes, which they can regularly repeat even when alerted by others to them; what may appear to be “stubbornness” (a refusal to respond to the requests of others) in such situations may in fact be an inability to learn from their prior experiences
They cannot properly understand other people and never will, but a major problem for society is that they think they can, unaware of their own emotional and other deficiencies
Even after their organisation or entity has collapsed, with many people’s lives adversely affected, they struggle to consider they may have been at fault or what they did wrong
Those without a sense of wrong must have something wrong with them
Making others feel bad can make them feel good
They seem to get a special kick from openly disagreeing with and publicly putting down others, even if quite wrong to do so
Those who have been in relationships with narcissists, professional or personal, say amongst the worst aspects is their disloyalty, only capable of loyalty to themselves, deriving pleasure from both disparaging others and promoting themselves while fictitiously slandering those they may be expected to be agreeable with and loyal to
Given their own fundamental inability to change, the onus to tactfully adapt to the many challenges they present lies with everyone else involved for any semblance of harmonious normality to be feasible, as they see nothing wrong with themselves and blame anything and everyone else for their many failings
Those astute, insightful and peacemaking colleagues capable of adapting their own behaviour need to respond daily to diminish the degree of harm and havoc these inveterate troublemakers and skilled but often charming liars invariably and innately bring to ANY group situation
Given they can seem to live in a world all of their own, in which they are the most extraordinary person ever born and everyone else significantly inferior, all their assertions and declarations will necessitate independent third party verification
The most apt advice, especially when they promote themselves and criticise, disparage and even damage the reputation of others, often quite falsely, may be to FIRST BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE of what they say or assert (which may be closer to reality or the truth of any situation) until this can be verified, as otherwise they just cannot be believed at all; if this advice sounds bizarre, it is because their words, deeds, behaviour and indeed mindset can seem irrational if not bizarre when compared with the rationality of others. VANITY MAY NOT EQUATE WITH SANITY.

None of these traits are those which anyone would advocate in a leader.

Yet time after time some or many of them are present, proving how frequently other people in society simply choose those with the wrong personality type for management or leadership of other people, either charmed or intimidated (or both) into appointing them before the gravity of this mistake in due course becomes more apparent. This is then compounded by the extent they will go to to maintain the power they should never gave been granted, having no qualms about damaging other people, their reputation and that of the organisation itself en route.

Ultimately they are more likely to do more harm than good to the entity they mis-lead and the people they disrespect, those they should be setting an admirable example for.

Yet such situations are entirely avoidable because at the end of the (excessively long) day their behaviour is entirely predictable.

Fortunately it is their very predictability and inability to amend their own behaviour which allows “us” an insight into the very different world “they” inhabit, but this predictability only becomes apparent when other people first learn what traits to look for, then act on this knowledge by denying such fundamentally irresponsible people any (significant) position of responsibility.

Smart words do not make for smart leadership when there is a deep and fundamental disconnect between words, actions and reality.

This can be especially so when leaders do not seek or listen to the astute and perhaps conciliatory advice likely to be available from their more collegiate colleagues and they show no apparent remorse nor learn from the experience when the results of their angry and impulsive behaviour, necessity to hold grudges and seek revenge, even for triviality, disadvantage other people (including those they are supposed to be leading and setting an example for) and damage relationships which someone else will subsequently have to re-build, or at least try.

Perhaps throughout human history, society would appear to have mistaken charm, intelligence, smooth talking, arrogance and even callous ruthlessness for “managerial ability” due to a misconception associated with appointing highly self-centred people to leadership positions, consistently mistaking outwardly dynamic displays of confidence and eloquent talk of integrity for strength of character and intimidatory traits for strength of leadership, when in reality such fundamentally weak and perhaps childlike people may possess neither good character nor genuine managerial or leadership ability.

Children describe such traits as bullying, so why does adult society find intimidation acceptable in its managers and leaders, including in those who psychologists liken to primary school children?

It should go without saying that people like feeling appreciated and valued, yet too many managers and leaders do not make other people feel important.

When the only people they value and appreciate are themselves, the organisation or indeed any grouping or entity they are in charge of is likely to face problems it would not if it were instead managed and led by people with a different personality or “dispositional attribution”.

In stark contrast with situations involving inclusion, persuasion and respect, a group intimidated into only doing what the dominant leader wants is unlikely to evolve, especially when “getting their own way” is very important to their leader.

If people are afraid to “speak up” and uninspired to suggest a variety of alternative ideas or courses of action, how likely is more visionary progress?

Intimidation and aggression produce fear, anxiety and discouragement, yet somehow people who regularly rather than exceptionally put-down, humiliate and disrespect others can extraordinarily be associated with “strength” of management or leadership rather than weakness of character and indeed perhaps even a “Personality Disorder”.

Personality Disorders can vary from being shy, timid, anxious and afraid to face life to supremely self-confident and arrogant with little regard for other people, perhaps even taking pleasure from being cruel, lacking warm emotions and maybe believing that others are “ganging up” and “out to get” them.

The key issue for everyone else, including most in society unfamiliar with the “extra-ordinary” world of “Personality Disorders”, is that they actually do inhabit a quite different world, although they may not realise this themselves.

The world they inhabit is the only one they know, incapable of experiencing life in the manner that everyone else can.

Despite the problems such people create throughout society from impaired relationships and damaged reputations to business failures, chaos and even wars, which throughout history they may not only have started but then perpetuated, being troublemakers not peacemakers, the concept of “Personality Disorders” needs to become more widely appreciated to better understand “difficult” people and their initially bizarre, but in due course entirely predictable behaviour, to sufficiently realise that their motivations differ from those of most “normal” people.

Surface level appeal can transpire to be shallow, like the emotions of the most charming who ultimately can disappoint, especially when they favour short-term expediency, narrow-minded popularism, their own ambitions, giving the impression of doing right rather than doing it and taking credit for the achievements of others, given that their peculiar sense of right and wrong is limited to believing that they are always right and everyone else wrong and can see no wrong in their own words and deeds when these fall far short of what society would expect of them.

Yet we appoint such people to lead our businesses and nations.

At the end of the day, it isn’t all about them, although they persist in believing that it is, often appearing to be unaware of their inadequacies and immune to the real damage they do, given the opportunity.

The gaelic expression “mé féin” or “me myself” is not that which should be associated with leaders.

Indeed so many of the world’s problems, little and large, local and international, could so readily be prevented, or constructively solved, if collectively we better appreciated how to choose the right people with the right intentions and the most appropriate personality for the responsible roles we trust them with, not the most irresponsible, untrustworthy and destructive people possible, with entirely predictable and inevitable consequences, not their concern or responsibility, as they always find someone or something else, or both, to blame, criticise, disparage and diminish, without remorse, as they deny the undeniable and defend the indefensible.

So why can we not predict the predictable?

People with identifiable Personality Disorders can be “found in every race, culture, society and walk of life”, so one of the most critical matters to appreciate is that as “Disordered Leaders” see things differently, experience people differently, perceive many matters differently, think differently, behave differently and inhabit a quite different world from most others in society, it is imperative that they be recognised by decision-makers as being substantially different from the norm, being consummate actors hiding their true selves much of the time, hence need to be dealt with significantly differently, including denying them positions of power which they can only abuse, if they are no longer to be permitted to continue to damage the world that everyone else inhabits.

Because “Destructive Leaders” do inhabit a different world, the rest of the world would benefit from appreciating the importance of being able to identify them, to deny them the opportunity of damaging the world in which many others, including “Constructive Leaders”, do their best to live in collaboratively and harmoniously, in the company of many other decent, kind and encouraging people, with a genuine interest in both other people and whatever they may be interested in.

Those who see nothing wrong in words, deeds and actions which many others couldn’t even countenance, who seem to operate within their own parameters of what many be right and wrong, especially when others may see these as being confused and bizarre but they believe to be entirely normal and the way they have always lived life and dealt with other people, may indeed have something wrong with them.

It is critically important to stress that Psychiatrists (medical doctors) and Psychologists caution against “amateur” diagnosis of people who may occasionally display some of the more adverse traits discussed here. It is when these traits are pervasive and occur frequently or persistently that a diagnosis of Personality Disorder may be appropriate.

Although people with Personality Disorders can vary from being very shy, insecure, depressed and scared of life to those quite different, being excessively confident, arrogant, believe they are special and do not appear to fear anything or anyone, a significant problem for society is that many who may have one or more of the recognised Personality Disorders (past and present) do not believe their is anything wrong with them, especially when they attribute all their own problems and those they cause for others to everyone except themselves.

Such people may go through their entire lives causing difficulties and in extremes even havoc, especially for others, yet may either not be suspected by others as having a Personality Disorder (given the widespread societal lack of awareness of what actually constitutes a Personality Disorder and such Disordered individuals) or may never actually be recommended for treatment by expert mental health professionals.

It is not just the general public who lack knowledge of what constitutes a Personality Disorder, but General Practitioners or Family Doctors who may have greater appreciation of people with depression or anxiety than the level of deceit and manipulation and many other traits associated with some of the disorders, which can make such “charming liars” exceptionally convincing to the extent that it may be their victims who may not be believed when they try and raise the many challenges they create with their own local doctor.

This though is rectifiable by way of Continuing Professional Development which, given the challenges such almost invisibly disordered people create for society in general and difficulties they cause other people and relationships in particular, could be one of those areas which medical students will need to be trained in and practicing medics learn more about as they keep up to date professionally.

Some disordered people may even try and treat psychological assessment and treatment like another game to be played, not being convinced they need to be treated, only complying if they consider doing so may be in their self-interest, such as gaining early release from prison, or they are given no alternative. But as many do not engage in overtly anti-social behaviour they may never be evaluated psychologically nor arrested for their more subtle mis-deeds, no matter how much damage they do to both people and organisations, whether subtle and covert or tactlessly brazen and overt.

Nevertheless, whether their behaviour ever contributes to an actual professional diagnosis of a Personality Disorder or not, none of the more negative traits we outline here, especially those which may be damaging to other people, are those I associate with people I describe as “Constructive Leaders”, who I strongly argue make for far more effective, and safer, leaders throughout global society, for many, many reasons.

Fortunately though many of the traits which may assist Psychiatrists and Psychologists come to a diagnosis, whatever it may be, are clearly identifiable by other people, whether they currently attribute them to the possibility of a Personality Disorder or not.

Indeed given the deeply deceitful and manipulative nature of “Cluster B’s” in particular, well capable of arguing they are normal and it is other people with the problems, including those they badmouth and slander, it is actually third party descriptions of their actual behaviour that can greatly assist mental health professionals form their own opinions and diagnosis.

Ultimately those who abuse power, lose power. This though is not always the case, as for this peculiar and identifiable minority of society, maintenance of power becomes their primary goal, irrespective of the consequences for anyone or anything else, sometimes even at great cost to themselves and their own reputation. Remaining in power can often come at great cost to other people, as well as trust and reputation. None of these are their concern, especially for those who believed the power they “achieved” was their right for them to use as they, and only they, saw fit, notably to satisfy themselves, their considerable ego, pride and many forms of personal advantage, which those close to them will realise sooner or later is all they really care about.

Even if they manage to pretend to be interested in others, when this suits their purposes, saying whatever it takes to convince them they are supportive of them and their interests and needs, those who know them well will appreciate that they are fundamentally only interested in themselves and satisfying their personal needs, and any impression they give to the contrary when “crunch comes to crunch” will prove to be pure pretence.

Even after the organisation which a “Disordered Leader” led, badly, has collapsed with many people’s lives adversely affected, if not ruined (before good people help other good people rebuild them), this minority of society can still wonder what they did wrong. In their distorted and disordered mind, probably nothing.

Their ability to “deny the undeniable”, fail to accept responsibility for the sometimes devastating results which arose from their fundamental irresponsibility, including their extraordinary ability to confuse fact with fiction and blame anyone and everyone else for their many failings, fail to see these for what they were, even when advised by close associates, as they continue to “defend the indefensible” and self-proclaim their (undoubted) brilliance, is perhaps unparalleled in human history, to which they have contributed so much harm, havoc, disharmony, conflict and damage, which may even have been their covert goal as it is on such devastations they can seem to derive their greatest pleasures.

Advantaging themselves can seem to give them even greater pleasure when this has also disadvantaged others. Hence they prefer “win-lose” to “win-win” and see harmonious cooperation and compromise as “failure” and any form of victory over others – physical, financial, emotional and mental – as “success”.

How sad, bad and mad they must be.

Yet because of such people holding senior roles across society, especially in business, “win-lose” rather than “win-win” practices are somehow associated by too many with conducting business “successfully” rather than “unsuccessfully”. The next generation, even those of less combative disposition themselves, having been set the wrong example by their “must-win” bosses begin to believe that disrespect, dishonesty and conflict are preferable to respect, honesty and cooperation

This is especially so when applauded by their (cruel) boss for causing disagreement, trouble and strife, while criticised, diminished and even humiliated for being agreeable and building harmony and satisfaction, the cornerstone of ongoing rather than one-off relationships and continuing success.

How wrong they are to believe that cutting off the possibility of conducting future business with those disadvantaged or even cheated can be “successful”, almost inviting them to “bad mouth” rather than speak well of those they ar unlikely to want to “do business” with ever again.

Any experienced Marketing professional will explain it is so much easier to provide outstanding service to the customers or clients the organisation already has, than attract new people to its products and services, especially in “competitive” marketplaces.

It is “more successful” to “compete” by way of offering more attractive and perhaps better priced products and services than the competition, than “be competitive” meaning aggressive, rude, disrespectful and even intimidatory with people both internal and external to the organisation.

While it does not take a business degree to appreciate that arguing with potential customers can be counterproductive and of dubious short-term benefit, causing unnecessary aggression with coworkers can be just as short-sighted. Current or future customers do notice when people they expect to do business with treat them well, with respect, but colleagues disrespectfully, and may be well entitled to bring their custom elsewhere instead.

“Constructive Leaders” appreciate the importance of “word of mouth referrals” and that it is preferable that these be positive than negative. “Destructive Leaders” evidently do not.

Kicking others down (and when they are down), actually or metaphorically, can seem to give them their biggest kicks in life.

While those who do so physically can be imprisoned, those who do so more overtly, including financially and emotionally, by and large do not, carrying their many personal “victories” over others with them to their graves.

Over the last twenty years I have had reason to enquire of a number of CEOs “would you like the word “ruthless” engraved on your tombstone?”, about the only occasions I ever heard such people speechless.

Perhaps it is this “cold hearted, mean, ruthless and exceptionally self-centred streak” which has proved the ruination of many good and bad people throughout human history and led William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, 1599) to write that “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones”, “I can see his pride peep through each part of him” (Henry VIII, 1613), and “my pride fell with my fortunes” (As You Like It, 1600), to which Charles Dickens added “but struggling with these better feelings was pride.” (Oliver Twist, 1839).

For many years I attributed the poor decision-making and disrespect of others typical of such people to be due to “pride”, although I now believe the reason to be far deeper and more fundamental – a Personality Disorder – which seems to have been an integral part of the “human nature” of a minority who may have caused havoc and trouble – for others – for millennia.

Abraham Lincoln observed during his 1860 Cooper Union Address that: “human action can be modified to some extent but human nature cannot be changed”, an observation which may have contributed to John Stuart Mill (1867) believing that “bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing”.

When will enough be enough?

When those who have to deal with those who seem to believe they are the greatest person ever born, would privately prefer they had never been born, there is clearly something wrong and people may well wonder how they were ever trusted with leadership roles when they transpired to be so untrustworthy.

Just because “they” can’t seem to learn from their prior experiences and mistakes doesn’t mean the rest of the world shouldn’t from theirs, especially when making the greatest mistake possible by choosing the wrong people for the most important roles, those more interested in “me” than “we” and for whom serious matters become a “game” to be played between “them” and “us”, preferring “win-lose” to “win-win”.

Indeed there is clearly something wrong with those who seem to lack a sense of wrong and their “ability” to engage in “moral reasoning”, or discern right from wrong in many situations, would appear to be no better than that of primary school children.

How “great” can they really be if those who know them well believe them to be quite childlike in nature, having to “get their own way” in every situation and “spit the dummy” or greatly over-react when they don’t, yet their shallow emotions, indeed emotional impoverishment, cold-hearted and ruth-less (sympathy-free) meanness, dearth of empathy, lack of guilt, remorse, fear, compassion and interest in other people (indeed in anyone other than themselves) and inability to love and be loved, contributes to their extraordinarily believing that discouragement, fear, intimidation, disharmony and conflict is preferable to encouragement, praise, harmony and cooperation?

“As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.”

There is more than sufficient evidence available to suggest what makes for effective and ineffective leaders, notably those more capable of being constructive than destructive, preferring harmonious cooperation to disharmonious conflict and building rather than damaging relationships, being empathatic and generous peacemakers who make friends out of enemies rather than cold-hearted and mean troublemakers who make enemies out of friends, while making the people they lead feel better, never, ever worse.

Extraordinarily, as the arrogant are often promoted over the modest, the many successes of lower profile leaders, collaborative, tolerant, kind and altruistic peacemakers more proud of the achievements of their people and the progress of their organisation than their own vanity, who seek little publicity for themselves, thoughtful not impulsive, experts at praise and encouragement who avoid humiliation and discouragement, need no longer be one of the world’s best kept secrets as they bring integrity, inspiration, vision, wisdom, cooperation and safety, not to be taken for granted, as they make sensible, just, rational and considerate decisions which balance risk and reward.

Yet we continue to select and elect the most arrogant and conceited to senior positions in society, roles for which they transpire to be incredibly poorly equipped, with quite inevitable and predictable consequences.

Anyone who has been unfortunate to have worked with or for such people (as I have with over 50 of them during my own career), will know that they can suddenly be incredibly disloyal to even their most loyal followers and supporters, who can even be totally excluded, disregarded and discarded (almost at a whim, being deeply impulsive and self-serving), especially when the “Disordered Leader” no longer sees them as being useful or serving a purpose towards they gaining some form of personal advantage.

Yet these are the kind of people society has been making leaders for centuries, perhaps bullied, intimidated and blackmailed or fooled and cajoled (in the short term) by their misguided “ICE-cold” characteristics of Intelligence (focused on satisfying themselves yet anything but emotional), apparent but shallow Charm which can rapidly turn to anger and rebuke, and Eloquence (which will transpire to be lacking any connection between words, promises and actions) into giving them positions for which they will prove to be incredibly ill-equipped, well beyond the limits of their personality, arrogance and over-confident self-belief, as evidenced by the number of business failures, collapsed organisations, ruined lives and conflict and wars between nations which they have been personally responsible for, although will not and cannot accept any personal responsibility themselves.

With French author Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr writing in 1849 “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” or “The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same”, no matter how much the world we share changes, as it has considerably over the last century in particular, and recent decades in terms of almost instantaneous communication, some things will not, notably the negative impact those I describe as “Disordered Leaders” will continually have on the rest of global society until decision-makers learn a little more about the extraordinary world of “Personality Disorders”.

While I failed to understand the mindset of the most destructive people I had met (or “encountered”) during my own varied and fascinating career, which led me to start studying psychology, neuroeconomics and neuroscience from 2010, it wasn’t until a psychology lecturer and practicing psychoanalyst answered the question I had pondered for a few decades in industry “how can someone damage someone in business, without scruples” with “Julian, have you never considered Narcissistic Personality Disorder?” that I experienced my “Road to Damascus” moment and started researching a group of Personality Disorders which did seem to explain those who had no qualms whatsoever about engaging in “wicked” behaviour, yet remained unconcerned with the consequences for anyone or anything else.

Despite at that time attending (and organising) international business ethics conferences and events for a decade, it wasn’t until that coffee while organising a conference in Dublin in 2013 entitled “Corporate Conscience” that I began to attribute not only all my worst experiences in business but also many conflicts and failures in business and society, from small and local to major and international, to a group of people with a very peculiar mindset which the psychological profession describe as a “Personality Disorder”.

I wrote my first chapter on this in 2015, published early 2017, and am now at the stage of my research and writing that I feel a responsibility to share what I have learned with everyone else, so those charismatic but deceitful and self-centred people, who practice what I refer to as “Destructive Leadership”, can be denied the positions of influence and power they will inevitably abuse, given their innate quest for personal advantage, irrespective of the consequences, while contrasting many of their negative behavioural traits with the positive mindset and behaviour I associate with those I describe as “Constructive Leaders”, who most certainly can be trusted with managing and leading global society’s businesses, other organisations and even its very nations themselves.

Indeed one of the many positives arising from researching and writing about amongst society’s “worst” people, who should not be trusted with a corner newspaper stand let alone anything larger, is that it makes you appreciate the behaviour, traits and probably far more kind and generous mindset associated with the vast majority of global society who could be described as amongst its “best”, especially those who would seek no such acclaim for themselves.

I describe this majority as being “GIVERS” more interested in those they lead than themselves, who can be far better trusted with positions of responsibility in society, certainly more trustworthy and responsible than “TAKERS” who are fundamentally not only more interested in themselves than those they lead, but indeed anyone else.

Given that “Disordered Leaders” who practice “Destructive Leadership” seem to inhabit a DIFFERENT WORLD from the rest of humanity, seeing matters and situations DIFFERENTLY from most others (uniquely from their own persecutive), experiencing other people DIFFERENTLY (coldly as if they were inanimate objects and are there to be used for their personal advantage, then discarded), and even recall situations DIFFERENTLY from anyone else involved (given that they confuse fact and fiction and then genuinely believe the fiction to be fact), these deeply untrustworthy and highly irresponsible people cannot be trusted with any positions of responsibility.

Their abnormality, no matter how well they manage to disguise this from many people much of the time, will inevitably result in harm to other people, broken interpersonal relationships and potentially untold damage to the fabric and culture of the organisations or entities which mistakenly hire, select, elect or promote them to positions beyond the limitations of their personality.

If whatever reputation remains is to be restored, organisational or sometimes even national, and the finer aspects of life including hope, kindness and respect for the importance of all people, no matter who they are and what they do, are to be both appreciated and prioritised, as they all matter, it is imperative that those who themselves lack humanity and seem to inhabit a DIFFERENT WORLD from the rest of humanity, are denied the opportunity to damage the far better world that everyone else inhabits.

At the end of the day those I refer to as “DISORDERED LEADERS” demotivate and discourage people from producing their best. They may even want to bring out the worst in others as they try to turn people against each other.

Meanwhile “CONSTRUCTIVE LEADERS” naturally praise, encourage, include, motivate and even inspire other people. In so doing they build teams, associations, partnerships and engender co-operation, especially between those who never collaborated before as, being PEACEMAKERS, they use their skills to build bridges and find consensus, including in situations when this may have seemed to be quite impossible. They find ways to find “win-win” outcomes from which all parties involved believe they have benefitted.

Yet we continue to choose as leaders those TROUBLEMAKERS who thrive on conflict, disharmony and in bringing out the worst in others, who have to “get their own way” and “win at all costs”, thrive on winning at the expense of others, preferring “win-lose” outcomes.

Then regret the predictable consequences.

When will we learn?

How many more business scandals, corporate failures and conflicts between nations do we need before we appreciate the benefits arising from “CONSTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP” and appoint more such people to senior positions in society, purely on merit irrespective of gender or race (see the next article “Leadership – Great Men and Women”) and deny those who malpractice “DESTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP”” no matter their level of surface appeal, given that they are actually highly irresponsible and thrive on being deeply divisive?

In essence they are the polar opposite of that advocated and researched in the many “Leadership Theories”, all of which describe the predominantly positive role which the leader plays in motivating both individuals and groups to achieve their collective goals.

Perhaps “Great Leaders” see the potential in those they are tasked with leading, want to see this fulfilled and do wherever it takes to do so, knowing that not only do those individuals benefit personally and professionally, but so too does the group at large, requiring a genuine interest in other people and a desire to see them be satisfied and to succeed, all contributing to collective progress.

None of the acknowledged “Leadership Theories” suggest that the role of the leader is to prioritise themselves and their self-interest over their organisation, followers and indeed all other stakeholders, nor that one of their primary functions is to demotivate, belittle and humiliate, indeed quite the opposite.

Yet this is what too many managers and leaders actually do and why I felt compelled to write about this, having worked with and for far too many people more interested in themselves than those they are supposed to be setting an admirable example for, yet who they criticise, diminish, demean and discourage when all the research at its most basic suggests they should be encouraging and motivating, and maybe even inspiring, to produce their best.

Society Needs leaders who derive their primary satisfaction from making the people they lead feel better, never worse.

Although happiness is not advocated as preferable or admirable by any of the Leadership Theories, perhaps because it is such a basic assumption that no researchers thought it necessary to state something so fundamental, some managers and leaders deriving their pleasure from making others unhappy is an unfortunate “situation” which many followers could suggest is far too prevalent throughout global society and something this paper was written to address, or redress.

With most people in society being happy when making others happy, there are a minority who derive deep satisfaction from making others unhappy and this should disqualify them from supervisory, managerial and leadership roles throughout global society, no matter the nature or location of the organisation or entity.

At its most basic, Society Needs leaders who are happy making others happy and not those who may be at their happiest when making others unhappy. Yet this is precisely what motivates too many managers and leaders within far too many of global society’s organisations, a matter which many of their their co-workers are likely to fail to understand. Let me at least try.

Society Needs leaders well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves) which also describes a minority of “Disordered Leaders”.

While I strongly argue such people should not be afforded the opportunity to become supervisors or team-leaders, let alone managers and leaders, incredibly (meaning hard to believe) far too many are permitted to reach seniority of position in far too many organisations, in every sector in every nation, with entirely inevitable and predictable consequences.

Yet extraordinarily we trust the coldest and most self-centred people possible – expert actors but ultimately lacking any genuine interest in other people at all, indeed in anyone but themselves, whose often considerable charm is skin deep and lacking any sincerity, whose often ample intelligence is misused, being cunningly calculating and anything but emotional, indeed those lacking the core essence of humanity, perhaps amongst the most irresponsible people on earth – with responsibility for the lives of employees, volunteers and citizens throughout global society when they hold positions of power, which they inevitably can only abuse as they prioritise competition and conflict over co-operation, disharmony over harmony and themselves over everyone and anything else.

Appreciating that their conscience-free mind may be disordered, thinking distorted and emotional depth shallow, could be a critical first step on the road to progress, otherwise a frustratingly fruitless exercise.

Any attempts at trying to deal with them “normally” may well be doomed to failure.

When those unable to control their own emotions are accompanied by a necessity to “control” other people and situations, especially when their need to control becomes uncontrollable, they cannot be trusted to be in charge or control of other people at all, in any shape or form.

As troublemakers like these would appear to have been disturbing harmony and ruining people’s lives in whatever area of activity that have been mis-trusted with leadership throughout human history, most notably conflicts and wars between tribes and nations and now also businesses and other organisations, perhaps their troubled mindset, ruth-less (sympathy-free) approach to other people and exclusive interest in themselves and satisfying their own insatiable personal needs, which they innately bring with them to every area of their lives, should be referred to as “the not so new abnormal”?

Talking the talk is no substitute for actually being capable of walking the walk. Those “charming liars” who suffer a deep disconnect between their talk, deeds and reality, confuse fact and fiction, struggle to differentiate between right and wrong, seem more interested in themselves than others, thrive on humiliation and see humility as weakness and ruthlessness as strength, should no longer be seen as strong and effective leaders, rather weak, childlike and ineffective.

When other people consider “there seems to be something wrong here but we’re not quite sure what this may be” they may well be dealing with someone with one or a combination of the various Personality Disorders.

At its most basic, much of the “business ethics” debate discusses why fundamentally good people do something wrong, usually under some form of pressure.

However unfair, unethical and even quite cruel acts may also be performed by people who may themselves be fundamentally bad, doing what comes most naturally to them, causing harm to others, from which they can derive a morbid kind of pleasure, especially when they diminish others and promote themselves, but who have developed a well-practiced expertise at portraying themselves as being good people.

Most of the time.

Then someone crosses their path or challenges their self-interest when their true nature and covert characteristics may be exposed. Their thinly veiled lack of concern for others, camouflaged emotional poverty, hidden hatreds, cloaked or even absent conscience and other previously concealed attributes and clandestine traits are no longer obscured by their charming veneer and disguised by their “mask of sanity” which often consists of some combination of what I refer to as their ICE characteristics – “Intelligence, Charisma and Eloquence” – which goes some way towards hiding their fundamentally ice-cold nature which permits them not only to be “ruth-less”, meaning “sympathy-free”, but even derive their own happiness from making others unhappy.

Surely discouraging, fearful and even distressing environments are a severe indictment on management of such organisations. So why do some leaders appear more encouraging, welcoming, cooperative and conscientious than others?

Why do some leaders inculcate admirable standards of honesty and integrity amongst their coworkers, while for others “doing the right thing” is unimportant and may even be frowned upon?

Why do some leaders not seem to be able to do what most can – value, appreciate and encourage people – and maybe even want to make them feel unappreciated, disrespected and discouraged, given that being ultra-competitive and “winning at all costs” can be seen to dominate proceedings throughout the organisation, most certainly not a “fun” place to work?

If three significant yet deeply related facets of leadership are (a) motivation of followers to (b) cooperate with each other to (c) achieve organisational goals, why does global society persist in selecting or electing leaders who seem to

(a) thrive on diminishing, humiliating, discouraging and hence demotivating others, (b) prefer conflict to cooperation and disharmony to harmonious collaboration, while (c) appearing to be far more interested in achieving their personal goals, than those of the business, organisation or even nation they are mistakenly chosen to (mis)lead, yet (d) be well capable of hiding their true motivations and indeed persona from most of the people, most of the time?

The answer in brief is that such people may have one or more of a group of “Personality Disorders” which, given the number of such people evidently leading the businesses, entities and even nations of global society, must be one of the world’s best kept secrets.

Fortunately working with or for such people, especially the most challenging TAKERS, those “more interested in others than themselves” makes most people more appreciative of the vast majority of people who are GIVERS, “more interested in other people than themselves”, who display many of the characteristics which my research attributes to CONSTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP involving rational, sensible, honest decision-making prioritising the interests and needs of the organisation and its people, advantaging as many “stakeholders” as possible.

Perhaps we take such people for granted when they inspire their people to produce their best, but not in comparison with the traits associated with DESTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP which we will first have a look into, especially when mal-practiced by those I refer to as DISORDERED LEADERS, well capable of masking their true nature.

Here are a few more extreme examples of the behaviour associated with a variety of Personality Disorders:

For instance why do some seem to live in another world, experience people differently , recall situations differently from others present, seem to have a distorted view of other people and a need to disparage them in both public and private, in effect demotivate those they as leaders are supposed to be motivating?

Why does hatred of other people seem to come so easily, even if for little or no apparent reason? Despising coworkers who have done no harm to them or others, indeed may have been remarkably tactful, patient, understanding, considerate and kind to them in the midst of their troublemaking?

Do we accept intimidation of others too readily in business, even misconstrue it as some form of “strength of character or leadership” rather than a fundamental character flaw and misunderstanding of the role of management and abuse rather than use of power?

When some engage in what children call “bullying” regularly, the question needs to be asked whether some people in society really feel good from making others feel bad? Can or should such people be trusted with positions (at any level) involving responsibility for other people?

Indeed could they be fundamentally “childlike” by nature, with their ability to engage in “moral reasoning” (tell right from wrong in particular situations) considered by psychologists and sociologists to be at a similar level to primary school children?

Do some derive their pleasure from damaging the good name of others, even if their accusations are absolutely fictitious and from a deeply imaginative and perhaps confused mind? Do some mistake fact and fiction, especially the fiction they spin themselves as their version of events, even if totally untrue?

What is “delusional”? When does this become “psychosis?”

Some of this behaviour is associated with two (related) Personality Disorders in particular, notably when they engage in a “distortion campaign” and “character assassination” of other people for reasons which others would suggest were either trivial, minimal or even non-existent. But when they do so, who will know who or what to believe? Is there “no smoke without fire”?

Most people assume assertions people make may be either true or have some foundation in fact. This may not be the case though with some of these people with a Personality Disorder, whose own version of events can differ totally from that of others present at the same meeting or event, only to change ten minutes later, revert to the original “story” the next day, then be reinvented to something quite different the next time asked, perhaps even believing they are being “persecuted” just because others merely disagree with their opinion on a matter, itself indicative of another (third) Personality Disorder.

When salient advice in such situations is FIRST BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY MAY SAY as this may be closer to “reality”, DO THE OPPOSITE of what they want,
and ADVISE THEM THE OPPOSITE of what you want them to do, as they may be more likely to want to do the opposite of what others advise them, PRAISE THEM PROFUSELY and NEVER, EVER CRITICISE them, there is clearly something very wrong, especially in those who may lack an internal sense of wrong.

Society really needs to better appreciate that people who seem to lack a sense of wrong may actually have something wrong with them, especially those for whom making others feel bad, can make them feel good, quite the opposite of what is expected of managers and leaders, no matter the size, nature or location of the entity.

Those with regular involvement with such people in due course realise that when dealing with those who may be deeply disturbed, there is nothing to be gained from disturbing them in any shape or form.

This is especially so if any sense of serene and composed “normality” is to be permitted, even if just for a while, until they are next provoked, whether the provocation is real or imagined.

In company with such people, who seem to think differently, see things differently and experience people differently, indeed seem to have problems dealing with and relating to people, preferring conflict to cooperation, disharmony to harmony and winning to compromise (prioritising win-lose to win-win), many others may even need to ask themselves “what is normality?”

Others having to “walk on eggshells” in and around them just proves how inappropriate they were for senior roles in the first place.

Most people can probably retire from any walk of life without ever properly understanding the most “selfish, difficult and proud” (SDP) people they had met, or perhaps encountered to their detriment, during their own (hopefully otherwise satisfying) career.

As it took me over 25 years in industry before I began to properly understand selfish, difficult, perverse, proud and contrary troublemakers who seemed to like taking the alternative view to others and doing the opposite of what others suggested or advised, irrespective of any adverse consequences for other people or the entity they led, let me share a little with you of what I have learned since I started studying Psychology a decade ago and Personality Disorders in particular from 2013, following a coffee with a psychology lecturer and practicing psychoanalyst while planning a business ethics conference in Dublin entitled “Corporate Conscience”.

At that time I (naively) thought that everyone actually had a conscience, was interested in other people and actually wanted the group they were a part of to make the best and most harmonious progress possible.

Not so.

Indeed I will propose that it is this covert cohort of (often Intelligent, Charming and Eloquent) people who may be responsible for some of the most challenging and even unconscionable words, deeds and acts possible, all of which global society generally deems to be unacceptable, whether in a small private group like a club or society, or that which results in conflict within and between businesses or even wars between nations… being at heart troublemakers rather than peacemakers, fundamentally cold, mean and self-centred rather than warm, kind and with a decent interest in people other than themselves, all ultimately unreliable and irresponsible rather than generally reliable and responsible.

Yet we appoint far too many such people to positions requiring reliability, consistency and responsibility, and also let them (incredibly, meaning hard to believe) manage and lead other people, businesses, organisations and nations… with inevitable and indeed quite predictable consequences.

This is especially so when they innately prefer confrontation, conflict, confusion and turning coworkers against each other and friends into enemies. to that which I expected of leaders. notably building relationships, teams, associations and partnerships which ultimately are cooperative, mutually beneficial and permit not only sensible and rational progress but may even result in improved relations between those who had not previously cooperated, in effect turning former enemies into friends rather than former allies into adversaries as a result of their generally adversarial approach.

While these characteristics may appear to be quite apparent, much of the time such people manage to hide their true characteristics, especially when they charm others and pretend to be interested in other people, although deeply self-centred.

At least in their case though there can transpire to be a consistency in their apparent inconsistency, which makes them easier to “IDENTIFY AND DENY” them positions involving power they can only abuse, but only when others learn what traits to look for, one of the reasons I embarked on this project in 2013.

Just like they fail to understand other people, indeed may be incapable of ever doing so, I failed to properly understand what “made these people tick” throughout much of my own career. Now that I better understand what may be their mindset and motivations, I feel a responsibility to share this with others to diminish the degree of harm and havoc this irresponsible group of people are well capable of causing to the entities they mis-lead and the lives of those unfortunate to work with or for them.

I have drawn many quite practical conclusions from a combination of both my own research since 2013 as well as many challenging experiences with over 50 “SDP” leaders during my own career (with over 333 organisations on all continents, bar Antarctica).

Here are just a few:

Those without an apparent SENSE OF WRONG may actually have something wrong with them.
Forewarned is forewarned. This cohort of people actually CAN BE IDENTIFIED in advance of giving them the opportunity to mismanage people, badly lead organisations, make difficulties from their opportunities rather than opportunities from their difficulties and generally cause trouble in society, by way of what they struggle to change – their own behaviour.
If only more people knew precisely what to look for they could adapt their own behaviour to diminish the damage such people can cause or, better still, deny them the positions of power they desperately seek but can only and inevitably abuse.
Ultimately GIVERS being “more interested in others than themselves” make far better managers and leaders, especially of other people, than TAKERS who are fundamentally “more interested in themselves than others” and
As far as LEADERSHIP is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional…

I refer to a few more observations, suggestions or conclusions later entitled “what society needs” because unless everyone else, being fundamentally responsible and interested in other people and the organisation which employs them, can learn how to IDENTIFY AND DENY such people both in advance of trusting them with positions of responsible or spotting them when they already hold such positions, the degree of either covert or overt trouble they will cause and conflicts they will start and then seek to perpetuate rather than diminish, is hard to quantify, seeing as they thrive on stoking the fires of dissent and rabble rousing, from internal disputes to war between organisations and even tribes (historically) and nations, leaving the challenging task of peacemaking and bridge-building to others.

At its most basic, the outlook of “Destructive Leaders” is primarily focussed on “me” not “we” or “us” and this guides much of their behaviour. Until this is understood they will continue to be be misunderstood.

Yet we let such charming but challenging and intimidatory people manage and lead our businesses, charities, NGOs, public sector bodies, educational, religious and sporting organisations (et al) and even the nations of our global society, which as a result inevitably and quite predictably become more combative and divisive then necessary.

Business and indeed global society instead needs “Constructive Leaders” with the vision to realise how great the group they are responsible for could be, the insight to know how to get there, integrity to set the right tone at the top, moral compass to guide everyone in the right direction, creativity to explore new opportunities, (emotional) empathy to understand people in all their humanity, interest in others to willingly provide support, perception to offer astute guidance, wisdom to know what to change and when, humility to admit to error rather than persist with doing the wrong thing, courage to tackle the issues others might ignore, tact to deal with matters diplomatically, modesty to deflect praise to others yet accept responsibility for their mistakes, emotional intelligence to know how best to deal with the wide variety of people and situations which arise and bring people along in the right direction, with the enthusiastic personality which creates the positive culture and sets the admirable example which encourages and maybe even inspires everyone to want to follow their leader in top gear.

There are many such people in many roles throughout international society, but we just don’t hear too much about them, certainly not from themselves.

What we do not need are “Destructive Leaders”, so short-sighted they can only see matters from their own perspective and so pre-occupied with finding every opportunity to personally prevail that they instead drive down cul-de-sacs which only they believe are the right direction, ignoring the advice of their management team who end up as mere passengers, then are too proud to engage the non-existent reverse gear, so crash and burn not only the entity they mis-lead but perhaps its reputation too.

Fortunately there are far fewer such people in the world, but unfortunately far too many in senior roles throughout global society, mis-leading businesses, other entities and even nations, promoted beyond the capabilities of their personality (although a secret to them, if no-one else).

But we hear far too much about them, especially from themselves, as they loudly promote themselves, overstate their abilities, exaggerate their achievements and fail to appreciate their failures, inabilities and perhaps even disabilities, while demoting, diminishing and demolishing the abilities and reputations of people far more talented than they, with many more credentials to provide the responsible leadership required, which becomes all the more apparent when mis-led by the arrogant, delusional and self-centred.

The “Constructive Leaders” they criticise and belittle have the last laugh when they overtake them and not only remain in the fast lane but construct new roads where no-one thought possible, possessing the imagination and enthusiasm to collaborate with all involved, building the required bridges to make the most appropriate progress, given that their mindset is innately win-win and they treat everyone else with the degree of respect which makes them feel appreciated, included and part of the team, no matter their role.

The divisively negative impact of “Destructive Leaders” who at their core are selfish, difficult, proud, hateful, mean-hearted, lacking in empathy and emotional depth, well capable of holding long-standing grudges (whether warranted or not), spreading malicious rumours designed to damage the reputation of those they see as opponents or rivals (even if not) or have merely disagreed with them publicly, adept at covering-up and passing the blame for their mistakes to others while failing to encourage those well worthy of praise and ignoring those they do not deem to be sufficiently important or influential; experts at disrespect, discouragement and disloyalty and thus damaging relationships and breeding distrust, may suggest that ruthlessness, meaning an inability to be sympathetic, kind and express remorse, perhaps with a tendency toward being intimidatory, needs to be further recognised not as a personal strength and managerial requirement, as some mistakenly perceive it to be, including by those “Disordered Leaders” who derive satisfaction practicing it or by those adversely influenced by the wrong role-models, rather should be increasingly associated with a self-centred weakness of character, a cold, calculating, impersonal, devious, destructive, manipulative and possibly disordered mindset, as well as an unnecessary and inappropriate implement in the toolkit of successful leaders, who are well capable of taking difficult decisions without being innately cruel or unsympathetic.

The contagiously positive impact of “Constructive Leaders” who in essence are generous of spirit, most certainly not mean-hearted, well capable of owning up to mistakes, forgiving those who may have wronged them and moving on from such experiences, experts at appreciating and acknowledging the value of other people by way of praise, encouragement, loyalty and showing an interest in them and hence building trustworthy relationships, may suggest that warm emotions including kindness, compassion and the ability to love and be loved, alongside empathy and interest, are most certainly not a weakness, but a strength required in leaders, needed to permit them to properly, purposefully and constructively evaluate options and make fair, just and balanced decisions, with integrity and the selfless courage to “do the right thing when no-one is looking”, modestly avoid self-publicity and short-term expediency or narrow-minded popularism in favour of the longer-term benefit of those they were chosen to lead, not prioritising themselves and their self-interest and approaching all matters from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?”

The world needs to decide which it needs.

If our world is to be more cooperative and caring rather than unnecessarily combative and uncaring, we no longer need irresponsible and self-centred leaders who struggle to be agreeable and encouraging, thrive on disagreement and dissent, even subtle or more overt havoc and turmoil, believe they are better than everyone else and fail to realise that disharmony in its many guises, especially intimidation and fear, can not only be extraordinarily counterproductive but deeply divisive and destructive.

Those who select or elect such challenging people may eventually regret choosing those who may themselves be incapable of experiencing regret, the kind of people who do not know what kindness really is and consistently seek “win-lose” to “win-win” outcomes, irrespective of the situation, as they seem to create difficulties from their opportunities rather than opportunities from their difficulties.

Society does not need to be led by those “charming liars” who can be exceptionally deceitful and manipulative, with their version of the “truth” quite different from that of many others. What other people are adamant to be their “lies” they may genuinely be absolutely convinced to be true, first replacing fact with imaginative fiction. then believing their own version to be true. Extraordinarily, if challenged “Disordered Leaders” just change their story as if no others ever existed, which does not seem to cost them a bother at all, leaving others bemused, perplexed and perhaps even doubting reality if not their own sanity.

Those who seem to lack the imagination and “vision” required to successfully lead and indeed transform their organisations (and nations) seem to lack no imagination when it comes to exaggerating or even inventing their own abilities and achievements.

Salient advice is to “First Believe The Opposite” of what they may say and only believe their assertions when these can be corroborated by impartial third parties or documentary evidence. When their possibly delusional imaginations appear to be running riot, it is important to realise that in their distorted mind these could well be facts not fiction. While others may see these as lies and deceit, they may genuinely believe them and see nothing wrong with pure invention.

Delusions are “an often highly personal idea or belief system, not endorsed by one’s culture or subculture, that is maintained with conviction in spite of irrationality or evidence to the contrary” with examples including “delusions of being controlled, delusions of grandeur, delusions of persecution” and “delusional jealousy” which can involve being “constantly on the watch for indications that this belief is justified, manufacturing evidence if it is not to be found, and completely disregarding facts that contravene the conviction.”

The reality is that those who seem to be out of touch with reality may actually live in a different reality, indeed a quite different world from most others.

Unable to accept criticism, disproportionate responses can include deep hatred and holding of long-standing grudges, not only attacking their accuser but also engaging in a campaign of invention and “distortion”, being “the conscious misrepresentation of facts”, and “character assassination”.

Distortion can be “any inaccuracy of perception, cognition, memory, and so forth” and/or ” either the unconscious process of altering emotions and thoughts that are unacceptable in the individual’s psyche or the conscious misrepresentation of facts, which often serves the same underlying purpose of disguising that which is unacceptable to or in the self.”

Character Assassination is described as “the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person”.

Their extraordinary sense of invincibility and their delusional self-belief convinces them that they can do (and get away with) anything they want, even if fundamentally ill-equipped for many of the tasks they are mistakenly trusted with, including responsible, constructive and visionary management and leadership.

Invincibility is “a belief in one’s uniqueness and invulnerability, which is an expression of adolescent egocentrism and may extend further into the lifespan”.

At the end of the day though, it isn’t all about them, although they persist in believing that it is, often appearing to be unaware of their inadequacies and immune to the real damage they do, given the opportunity.

The key issue for everyone else, including most in society unfamiliar with the “extra-ordinary” world of Personality Disorders, is that they actually do inhabit a quite different world, although they may not realise this themselves, which can make them dangerous when permitted to hold positions of significant responsibility in the world that everyone else inhabits.

A highly-competitive or even “toxic” organisational culture is most likely to be due to managers and/or leaders with one or more of the “Cluster B” Personality Disorder(s).

Yet we trust “Disordered Leaders” with responsibility for the lives and emotions of other people, when they cannot even properly manage their own.

Society Needs leaders well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves).

Time after time we choose such people for senior roles for which they are deeply, utterly and fundamentally ill-equipped.

Fortunately it is their very predictability and inability to amend their own behaviour which allows “us” an insight into the very different world “they” inhabit, but this predictability only becomes apparent when other people learn what traits to look for…

Those whose vision is limited to their own perspective, evaluating matters by primarily considering “what’s in it for me?”, are incapable of providing a worthwhile vision for the entity they lead nor inspiring those they lead to follow their unworthy example.

Other people need to be warned not to allow themselves to fall for their external charisma which may transpire to be skin-deep, especially when one day they engage in false flattery of others for the purpose of personal advantage, which can rapidly turn the next day to the most severe character assassination and slander of the same person, just because they disagreed with their (bizarre) point of view.

In their (disordered and distorted) mind at least, the only person that matters is themselves, incapable of seeing the merits in others, except as rivals to be defeated and fired rather than appreciated and hired.

Fractious people thrive on friction and extraordinarily even fiction, which they can confuse with the actual facts.

Yet we mistakenly trust the most delusional with responsibility for the lives and emotions of others, when they cannot even successfully manage their own.

Their way of thinking can be grossly distorted and their lives fraught with interpersonal difficulties, which like their many faults and errors they consistently blame on others as they accept no responsibility for the many problems they create, especially as they lack the ability to learn from their mistakes which they are well capable of regularly repeating.

Groundhog Day can be every day for those who have no option but to share their working or personal lives with such people, who should not be trusted with managing a street corner newspaper stand let alone an organisation of substance or (perish the thought) a nation with responsibility for all (not just some) of its people.

Their necessity to “prevail” at all costs, maximised when this is at the expense of others, preferring “win-lose” to “win-win”, irrespective of the consequences for others and extraordinarily even themselves, results in their praising and promoting themselves while criticising, disparaging and humiliating others.

Unable to accept criticism, disproportionate responses can include deep hatred and holding of long-standing grudges, not only “attacking their accuser” but also engaging in a “campaign” of invention and “distortion”, being “the conscious misrepresentation of facts”, and “character assassination”, described as “the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person”.

While some can have fantasies of unlimited power or brilliance, this can also involve confusing fact with fiction and being absolutely convinced about their version of events, even if they bear little resemblance to reality.

Whether this be “delusional” or “psychotic” is a matter for experienced psychiatrists or psychologists to consider, if such people ever become their patients or at least have their behaviour documented for assessment, highly unlikely unless coworkers are able to identify their challenging behaviour and distorted thinking as possibly being indicative of one or more of the “Personality Disorders”,

Although “Disordered Leaders” may see nothing wrong with themselves or their own words and deeds, perhaps the way they have always behaved, others may recognise there to be something deeply wrong, especially in those who seem to lack a sense of wrong themselves and see nothing wrong with treating those they are supposed to be considerate of and even inspiring to produce their best, very disrespectfully, making colleagues deeply fearful of the words, actions and reactions of their very peculiar leader.

With greater knowledge and appreciation of “Personality Disorders” in general and what behaviour in particular may be indicative, such situations could be:

(a) avoided by way of “IDENTIFY AND DENY” such people the power they will inevitably abuse, believing it is there to satisfy themselves not the entity and its people, and/or

(b) minimised by diminishing the degree of resulting damage by way of “IDENTIFY AND ADAPT” to the many challenges such people pose, as others out of necessity may need to significantly adapt their own words and behaviour to reduce or limit the degree of harm if not havoc such people are well capable of bringing to any group or organisational context.

Their many forms of wrongdoing may be very apparent as being “wrong” to almost everyone else involved, except themselves, especially when they seem to derive some form of pleasure from the degree of disorder they bring and disrespect and conflict they engender between people who should be respectful of each other and prioritising cooperating to achieve their common goals.

When the priority of the colleagues or coworkers “common goals” become instead diminishing the harm done by their “Disordered Leader” to the entity itself, rather than collaborating to achieve the goals it was established to achieve, there is very clearly “something wrong” even if they may not quite realise what “this” may be.

“This” can often be an indication of a “Personality Disorder”, appreciation of which no longer needs to be a “best kept secret” if the safety and security let alone the improbability of constructive progress are to be safeguarded by the many responsible people employed, who spend or waste an inordinate amount of their time catering to the whims of their potentially “Disordered Leader(s)”, an avoidable distraction from the role they are actually employed to perform, all the more reason to appoint “Constructive Leaders” even if some may initially seem to be less exciting or dynamic.

Perhaps people at all levels of an organisation may only sufficiently appreciate the many merits of highly responsible “Constructive Leaders” when they have had prior experience with deeply irresponsible “Destructive Leaders”? This may be especially so when the former replaced the latter and faced the hurdle of cleaning up the mess and many problems created by their predecessor, some of whom can go on to cause similar problems and further challenges, if not outright havoc, in other organisations, even if this may take them a few years to appreciate if not understand.

It is for such reasons that some of my key proposals (amongst many others) in such situations include:

Prevention is infinitely preferable to the improbability of cure
Society Needs to IDENTIFY AND DENY people likely to abuse power entrusted to them and IDENTIFY AND ADAPT to their peculiar behaviour to diminish the harm they can do to both people, organisational and even national life
Society Needs those with empathy well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves), who experience others as objects not people, to accept responsibility for its organisations & institutions
“Givers” more interested in others than themselves are better equipped for responsible leadership than “Takers” more interested in themselves than others, and
As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.

At the end of the day, “Disordered Leaders”, when permitted to (mal)practice “Destructive Leadership” following being wrongly chosen for senior roles in the organisations (and even the nations themselves) of our consequently less harmonious, collaborative and peaceful global society, need to be prevented from damaging the very fabric or “CULTURE” of the organisation (or nation) let alone its REPUTATION and the many relationships normally built on TRUST, which once damaged may pose their successor (if the entity actually survives their leadership) significant challenges in trying to restore.

Perhaps that may be why Socrates likened such matters to a fire – easy to keep lit but difficult to relight when permitted to be extinguished – perhaps by those whose “extraordinary expertise” includes lighting fires of dissent rather than building bridges between people and groups, prioritising some over others rather than treating all as being equally important, making enemies from friends rather than friends of enemies and generally making difficulties from opportunities rather than creating opportunities from difficulties, especially from the many challenges they create themselves, a task out of necessity delegated to their far more responsible but perhaps confused and beleaguered colleagues.

It is they, who have to deal with the on an often daily basis, who may best need to recognise and appreciate that:

These people are very DIFFERENT from normal
They appear to see & perceive things DIFFERENTLY,
Experience things & consider matters DIFFERENTLY,
Treat other people DIFFERENTLY,
Behave very DIFFERENTLY from most people in society,
But may not see themselves as being DIFFERENT,
So all others need to do what they most struggle to do – adapt their own behaviour – to behave, act, react & especially think very DIFFERENTLY in & around them,
notably patiently, calmly, kindly, astutely & predictively,
to DENY them the trouble they seek in many situations,
if any semblance of “NORMALITY” is to be permitted…no matter the walk in life.

For instance, people with “Paranoid Personality Disorder” (from “Cluster A”) feel suspicious of others, especially when their mistrust is unfounded and seem to be imagining threats, including in trivia.

“Paranoid Personality Disorder” is characterised by:

“(a) pervasive, unwarranted suspiciousness and distrust (e.g., expectation of trickery or harm, overconcern with hidden motives and meanings);

(b) hypersensitivity (e.g., being easily slighted or offended, readiness to counterattack); and

(c) restricted affectivity (e.g., emotional coldness, no true sense of humour).”

The associated traits include

Believing that others are using, lying to, deceiving, exploiting or harming them, without any real evidence.
Have persistent suspicions, without justified reason, that others have hidden motives or are out to harm them (in other words, experiencing persecutory delusions).
Perceive attacks on their character that aren’t apparent to others.
Believing their reputation or character are being attacked by others, without objective evidence.
Doubt the commitment, loyalty or trustworthiness of others; believing others are exploiting or deceiving them.
Looking for hidden meanings in gestures and conversations and misinterpreting ambiguous or benign and innocent remarks of others as hurtful or threatening.
Be cold and distant in their relationships with others and might become controlling and jealous to avoid being betrayed.
Overly controlling in relationships in order to avoid being exploited or manipulated.
Hypersensitive to criticism, take criticism poorly and can significantly overreact to perceived criticism.
Quickly becoming angry, argumentative, defensive, stubborn, jealous and hostile. Can engage in outbursts of anger in response to perceived deception.
Secretive and reluctant to confide in others or reveal personal information because they’re afraid their confidence will be betrayed and the information will be used against them.
Be unforgiving, holding grudges and seeking retaliation, even if unwarranted.
Can tend to hold negative views of other people. Having trouble working with others.
Not see their role in problems or conflicts, believing they’re always right.
Having trouble seeing why their behaviour might be a cause for concern.

Yet we make such people leaders, so much so that some may even consider aspects of these traits acceptable or “part and parcel of senior management”.

What are the implications for society if some such disordered people managing and even leading organisations and nations may be incapable of reasoning morally beyond the stage associated with primary school children, and are mistakenly chosen for leadership roles when they lack the fundamental ability to manage even their own emotions, let alone accept responsibility for the welfare of those they are tasked with leading, their organisation or nation and its responsible and constructive role in society?

Perhaps throughout human history, society would appear to have mistaken charm, intelligence, smooth talking, arrogance and even callous ruthlessness for “leadership ability” due to a misconception associated with appointing highly self-centred and combative people to leadership positions, consistently mistaking outwardly dynamic displays of confidence and eloquent talk of integrity for strength of character and intimidatory traits for strength of leadership, when in reality such fundamentally weak and perhaps childlike people, lacking empathy and any real emotional depth, may possess neither good character nor genuine managerial or leadership ability.

Despite the major problems such people create throughout society, from impaired relationships and damaged reputations to business failures, chaos and even wars, which throughout history they may not only have started but perpetuated, being Troublemakers not Peacemakers, the concept of Personality Disorders needs to become more widely appreciated to better understand “difficult people” and their initially bizarre, but in due course entirely predictable behaviour, to sufficiently realise their motivations differ from those of most “normal” people.

This is especially so of those ruth-less people, meaning sympathy-free, who struggle to hide their deep disinterest in the ideas, interests, needs and emotions of those they mis-lead, who given their lack of warm emotions and dearth of humanity they may experience little different from any range of inanimate objects.

They cannot properly understand other people and never will, but a major problem for society is that they think they can, unaware of their own emotional deficiencies which contribute to their struggle to learn from their prior experiences, especially mistakes, or adapt their behaviour as situations change.

Yet we seem to keep making such people managers and leaders of entities throughout global society, unaware of or inconsiderate of the quite inevitable consequences, not those generally associated with management and leadership.

Given their own fundamental inability to change, the onus to tactfully adapt to the many challenges they present lies with everyone else involved for any semblance of harmonious normality to be feasible.

Other people need to be warned not to allow themselves to fall for their external charisma which may transpire to be skin-deep, especially when one day they engage in false flattery of others for the purpose of personal advantage, which can rapidly turn the next day to the most severe character assassination of the same person, just because they disagreed with their (bizarre) point of view.

In their (disordered and distorted) mind at least, the only person that matters is themselves, incapable of seeing the merits in others, except as rivals to be defeated and fired rather than appreciated and hired.

Unable to accept criticism, disproportionate responses can include deep hatred and holding of long-standing grudges, not only “attacking their accuser” but also engaging in a “campaign” of invention and “distortion”, being “the conscious misrepresentation of facts”, and “character assassination”, described as “the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person”.

While some can have fantasies of unlimited power or brilliance, this can also involve confusing fact with fiction and being absolutely convinced about their version of events, even if they bear little resemblance to reality.

Personality Disorders can vary from being shy, timid, anxious and afraid to face life to supremely self-confident and arrogant with little regard for other people, perhaps even taking pleasure from being cruel, lacking warm emotions and maybe believing that others are “ganging up” and “out to get” them.

They believe other people (who they blame) are responsible for the problems they create throughout society, especially for other people but also for themselves, yet may not have sufficient emotional depth to realise that they have even created them.

People like feeling appreciated and valued, yet too many managers and leaders do not make others feel as important as they should.

While many people in society feel good from making others feel good, what needs to be better and indeed more globally appreciated is that there may be something wrong with those who themselves feel good when they make others feel bad.

Intimidation and aggression produce fear, anxiety and discouragement, which prevent our minds from thinking positively and creatively.

Yet those who put-down, humiliate, disrespect and bully others can extraordinarily be associated with “strength” rather than “weakness” of character, perhaps even a “Personality Disorder”.

At the end of the day “Disordered Leaders” demotivate and discourage people from producing their best. They may even want to bring out the worst in others as they try to turn people against each other, rather than praise, encourage, include, inspire, build teams and engender co-operation.

Yet we continue to make such people leaders when they may even want the people they led to fail so they can be demeaned and humiliated.

Talking the talk is no substitute for actually being capable of walking the walk, especially in the minority of society with whom there would appear to be a deep disconnect between their talk, deeds and reality.

When they cannot seem to be able to evaluate the potentially adverse consequences of their highly impulsive actions and decisions nor accept responsibility for these consequences and blame others for their failings, they need to be denied the opportunity to be so irresponsible.

Those who say one thing today and another tomorrow, then deny both and the next day do something quite different, need to be considered as unsafe to run a corner newspaper stand let alone a nation, a multinational corporation or financial institution, especially when they do not appear to experience fear in the manner many can and may be incapable of sufficiently evaluating the balance and compromise required between risk and reward which ensures longer-term safety and survival are regarded as being as important as short-term financial gain.

Those lacking in empathy, guilt, remorse, fear and warm emotions need to be denied the opportunity to do what they do best – disagree, discourage, disrespect, disregard, disparage, humiliate, demotivate and be disruptive and disloyal – given that ultimately the only loyalty they are capable of is to themselves.

Those dysfunctional people who thrive on disharmony and display distorted thinking patterns, are moody, labile and temperamental with problematic emotional responses and over- or under-regulated impulse control, especially when these result in interpersonal difficulties, are far more likely to cause harm than do good when mistrusted with positions of responsibility their personality limitations prohibit them from performing in the manner society expects of them.

Leadership is supposed to be a highly progressive and constructive process, yet we continue to select or elect fundamentally regressive and indeed quite destructive people to lead our organisations, entities and nations, somehow mistaking conflict and exclusion to be an acceptable alternative to cooperation and inclusion, with decision makers perhaps being both charmed and bullied into misinterpreting aggression and intimidation as a satisfactory and even admirable alternative to praise and encouragement.

Those whose expertise includes denying the undeniable and defending the indefensible need to be denied the opportunity to create situations which they will later deny as either not having happened, defend as having been appropriate when actually deeply inappropriate or pass the buck as having been someone else’s fault.

Talking the talk is no substitute for being capable of walking the walk.

The greatest talent of those with a disconnect between talk, deeds and reality can be an ability to frequently mask their total lack of consideration for the interests and needs of others and their necessity to dominate, control and damage them emotionally.

While we can see what they cannot, especially when they confuse fact with fiction, hold grudges and seek revenge, why are we so blinkered that we allow them to mis-lead the organisations and even nations of our global society?

When “Destructive Leaders” surprise us with their incompetence, inability to be loyal to anyone but themselves and transpire to be more self-centred than selfless and cruel than kind, we need never again be surprised.

Forewarned is forearmed.

While many others involved with the same situations may be absolutely sure what people may have said or done, Disordered and perhaps Delusional Leaders may see matters quite differently, usually in a manner which makes them seem better and others worse or which improves their role and denigrates the role of others, such as when they say “I said” or “I did” when others know it was actually they who said or did those admirable things which their leader is taking the credit for.

This is quite the opposite manner in which they act to their many failings, which they always seem to find some other “scapegoat” to blame.

While other people may see the extraordinary assertions, exaggerations and fiction spun by Disordered Leaders as lies and deceit, the leader’s potentially delusional perception of life and inability to properly understand other people may contribute to they genuinely believing what they say, even if others believe these to be “lies”, as they may see nothing wrong with pure invention, reinforcing the opinion that they can seem to live in a different world from almost everyone else.

Might there be something wrong with those who see no wrong in being untruthful?

Might there be something wrong with those lacking a sense of wrong, especially when this only consists of believing they are always right and everyone else wrong?

These characteristics alone should automatically disqualify such irresponsible people from positions of responsibility throughout global society. Instead they too often seem to rise higher in organisations than their abilities warrant, more likely to cause harm than do good both for the organisation (or nation) and it’s other far more trustworthy people.

How can they be “IDENTIFIED AND DENIED” the positions of power they can only abuse?

At the end of the day when people learn what traits to look for, the “disordered people” themselves facilitate this task of preventing them from becoming “Disordered Leaders”, because they actually “give the game away” themselves by way of what they cannot hide or change – their own behavioural traits.

Fortunately it is their very predictability and inability to amend their OWN BEHAVIOUR which allows “us” an insight into the very different world “they” inhabit, but this predictability only becomes apparent when other people first learn what traits to look for, then act on this knowledge by denying such fundamentally irresponsible people any (significant) position of responsibility.

Not always known for reflection before speaking or acting, “Disordered Leaders” can appear to behave in a rash, hasty and incredibly impulsive manner. They can act spontaneously based on what seem to be whims and an impulse to satisfy “what’s in it for me?” (appearing to bypass all other mental functions and activity), in a manner that many would later regret, although for them any form of remorse or repentance can be very rare.

When Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote “Sorry seems to be the hardest word” they could have had such self-centred people in mind, because they can find it almost impossible to apologise, even when demonstrably wrong.

Apologies, regrets, gratitude, praise, encouragement and indeed any forms of kindness and compassion may be seen by this emotionally impoverished and mean-hearted minority of society to be signs of weakness, rather than the strength of character associated with their total opposite, “Constructive Leaders” who can be at their happiest seeing and making others happy, rather then the incredible (meaning hard to believe) mindset of “Destructive Leaders” who may not only be unhappy seeing others happy but can be at their happiest when they have said or done something to make others unhappy.

Anyone expecting praise, encouragement and a simple “thanks” from such people are likely to be very disappointed. Indeed those who know them well appreciate that their version of gratitude is when they refrain from the criticism they normally thrive on.

Those with an “attitude of ingratitude” just do not have what it takes to motivate people to produce their best, indeed they may in due course be seen to actually want to bring out the worst in others and turn people against each other, rather than inspire collaboration and cooperation, quite the opposite of the behaviour and outcomes expected of supervisors, team-leaders and managers, let alone leaders.

Indeed it may be those who selected them for seniority of position who could be deeply remorseful about selecting those who may neither be able to experience remorse nor admit to guilt themselves, especially as in their own eyes they are never wrong, even if they were not also too apparently “proud” to admit to any form of error, which they always “manage” to blame on others. Perhaps this is the type of “management” they excel at, given their ineptitude in so many areas associated with astute management; indeed they can’t even seem to be able to manage their own emotions let alone those of others.

All such characteristics (amongst many more) make most other people respect the multitude of far finer qualities this research associates with “Constructive Leadership”, practiced by people with far greater emotional depth and indeed significant Emotional Intelligence, not least a genuine interest in other people and the organisations they lead, both (being so significantly intertwined) they want to succeed and excel, never fail or perform below their potential.

Which is why I strongly argue that:

“As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional”.

But is “pride” the real problem with “Destructive Leadership”, or could it be something deeper and indeed more sinister and dangerous?

What might actually “be wrong” with such “SDP” (“Selfish, Difficult and Proud”) people?

What is it which means they should not and cannot be trusted with positions of responsibility, which their actual personality limitations prevent and prohibit them from performing in the manner expected by the rest of society (perhaps unknown to themselves, given they can believe they are the “masters of the universe” when others, personally known and not, liken to them to primary school children)?

For many years I (naively) thought the reason for such visibly counter-productive behaviour was “pride” (and of course it is) but now that I believe traits such as these may be indicative of a far deeper malaise in the mind of those more likely to be troublemaker than peacemaker, I believe I have a responsibility to share what I have learned with other people, so you too can appreciate how best to minimise the hefty havoc and degree of destruction such people can craftily create, often managing to blame others for their disruption and chaos, with too few realising who the real culprits may actually be due to the (overt or covert) “web of deceit” they wickedly weave.

Shakespeare and Dickens were not the first to recognise such traits in the (imaginary) villains of their literature, no doubt based on real people they had experienced or observed, with the behaviour I associate with “Destructive Leadership” indeed being remarkably similar to that which the Judea-Christian Psalms and Proverbs written two to three millennia ago refer to as “wicked“.

The fact that some lacking in the emotions which most other people possess have been shown to so readily (and perhaps unwittingly) engage in high levels of pathological lying and deceit, cunning manipulation and egocentric, callous and impulsive behaviour, characterised by a lack of responsibility, empathy and remorse, are also well versed in using their “ICE” characteristics of Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence (associated with their supreme confidence and arrogance) to hide their truer traits even from experienced psychiatrists and psychologists, has many implications for the organisations, entities and structures of global society, past, present and especially future, which they can have an extremely adverse impact on, but only if permitted by everyone else.

This makes it imperative that the vast majority of fundamentally responsible people better learn how to identify the innate irresponsibility of this covert but often charming minority of society so they can (a) be denied the positions of power which they can only abuse, satisfying themselves at the expense of others, and (b) diminish the degree of subtle or overt difficulties and challenges they create (for others) in the organisations or entities inadvertently foolish enough to hire, select, elect or promote them, most likely because they just didn’t quite know what to look for and how to identify them for the “charming liars” they actually are.

These exceptionally “proud” and negative people are often well capable of giving a positive impression socially, can seem to be charming and lively entertainers with a great sense of humour. One “giveaway” though is when much of their humour seems to be based on making fun of others, but they dislike and maybe cannot cope with being the butt of jokes themselves.

Society Needs those who both say what they mean and do what they say they will, as can be expected of “Constructive Leaders”, but this is not the case with “Destructive Leaders”, indeed quite the opposite as not one word they say can be trusted.

So another “giveaway” is when they seem to be adept at “talking the talk”, but in due course close associates may begin to realise that there may not only be a deep disconnect between their talk and their deeds, between what they say and what they actually do, which can sometimes change even within the same hour, but also that they may be incapable of “walking the walk”, except if it happens to briefly coincide with satisfying their self-interest.

“Talking the talk” is only likely to result in their “walking the walk” if this coincides with they believing this will allow them to “get their own way” and “win at all costs”.

Indeed another “tell tale sign” can be when the seem to be oblivious to the consequences of their words and actions on other people, the entity they (mis)lead and (even more extraordinarily) even themselves, such is the childlike nature of their exceptional impulsivity.

Another quite apparent matter – but like the many others, only apparent when everyone else involved learns what to look for – is that they believe themselves to be entirely “normal” (defined later) as they take responsibility for achievements (even if they played no role in them) while blaming and even attacking others for their many faults, failings and mistakes, one of the reasons why “a lack of accountability” is one of the valid criticisms of the organisations and entities they (mis) lead.

When will we learn? At least we are capable of doing so, although this can be quite a challenge as the world of those with a Personality Disorder very much remains a “secret” to many who have to suffer their distorted thinking and blunted if not deficient emotions. One of the most peculiar aspects of some disordered personalities is their extraordinary inability to learn from their prior experiences,

This explains why every day can appear to be “Groundhog Day” to their close associates, given their disordered tendency to repeat the same mistakes time and time again, frustrating those who believe they have “reasoned” with them and curious why they seem to be so “stubborn”. Of course they are this too, thriving on doing the opposite of what others request of them, but there can also be another reason – their brain is just not configured to learn from prior experiences and adapt accordingly in the future, which is why one of the traits of ALL personality disorders is being “maladaptive” – or struggling to change or adapt to different situations and circumstances as they change.

Of course learning how they typically behave allows OTHERS TO ADAPT (out of sheer necessity) to suit their peculiarities, given that in die course with familiarity these can become ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE.

The necessity to “ADAPT AND DENY” them (a) the trouble they insatiably seek, (b) the power they will inevitably abuse (c) the harm they can do to interpersonal relationships and (d) the damage they can do to the very fabric of the organisation, its culture, which they will inevitably make far more competitive than necessary, is all the more critical at times of key decision making, as unrestricted and unrestrained they may even threaten the future of the entity.

Their lack of guilt and remorse, and properly reasoned insight, means that even after their entity has collapsed, with many other people’s lives adversely affected, they can still wonder what they did wrong, blaming everyone and everything else

Indeed those without a ” sense of wrong” may well have something wrong with them.

A further “insight” can be their deep disinterest in and total disregard for other people, allied to the huge opinion they can seem to have of themselves and their own abilities, even if quite excessive and well beyond their actual talents.

While this can be readily identified in due course (especially by those most emotionally intelligent) as other people and their interests and needs are just not their concern at all, an even deeper and more perceptive “giveaway” can be the extraordinary situation when sometimes it can be they themselves who can appear to be the most disadvantaged and even damaged by their own words and (mis) deeds.

Astute observers may see this as a reflection of their emotional poverty and sheer and utter impulsivity, recognising that they may best be employed as individuals not team-players, nor in any positions of responsibility for other people.

A more overt “indication” can be that it will take very little for them to be extremely disloyal to even their most loyal supporters, as the only loyalty they seem to be capable of is to themselves.

They can also be very opinionated, yet rarely seek the opinion of others.

While many manage others by way of respect, inclusion and well-explained delegation, allowing the freedom to show initiative while offering their support when required, others prefer exclusion of those who would expect to be included, fail to support those they covertly want to fail and must be in control of almost every situation, with another “warning sign” being when their necessity for control can seem to be so uncontrollable that other people remain quite silent and keep their ideas and opinions to themselves as ultimately they have learned only the leader’s ideas and opinions count.

Indeed one wonders why in such situations they bother having a “management team” at all, except to do what they are told, take responsibility for everything which goes wrong and incessantly and sycophantly praise and admire their “Disordered Leader”.

Any attempts at trying to deal with them “normally” may well be doomed to failure.

When salient advice to those who have to deal with such people includes:

BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE of what they say, as they can be deeply deceitful, take pleasure in lying, do not mind when they are caught doing so and may not even realise they are lying;
DO THE OPPOSITE of what they want, as this can often be the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, more likely to achieve personal satisfaction than be “the right thing” for the group they mis-lead;
ADVISE THEM THE OPPOSITE of what you want them to do, as being “perversity personified” they don’t like taking advice and will tend to do the opposite of what others ask them to do, “contrary” by nature;
NEVER CRITICISE THEM as, despite being masters at dishing out criticism and many other forms of rebuke and disrespect to others, they can’t deal with an iota of criticism themselves, and are likely to over react to any (real or imagined) in a totally disproportionate, angry and even “histrionic” manner; so in such scenarios others learn to SAY NOTHING their “Disordered Leader” could find the opportunity to disagree with, let alone critique, or indeed anything they may perceive to be anyone doubting their undoubted (in their own mind) “brilliance”;
Others learn to PRAISE THEM PROFUSELY as not only do they need, seek and crave praise, and can tend to praise themselves when others fail to do so, yet find it hard to genuinely praise others, especially when most warranted, which also contributes to “sycophantic” behaviour amongst followers and nominal “management team” members; praising in an insincere manner is usually to gain some advantage but in this case it can be to avoid rebuke or worse, potentially being excluded or fired for the crime of proffering a different suggestion or opinion from that of their “Disordered Leader”, in such cases why bother with having a “management team” at all – except to do what they are told?
Ensure the GREAT IDEA is seen to be theirs, otherwise it won’t be actioned, as they need to take credit for it and deny praise to those most responsible;
BE PEACEMAKERS AND REMAIN CALM when they try to stir up trouble, saying and doing nothing in response to their regular provocations, not rising to the many challenges they pose, baits and traps they set, especially for those who do not yet appreciate they seem to thrive on disagreement, dissent and many forms of disharmony;
BE TACTFUL AND KIND WHEN THEY ARE CRUEL AND UNCARING and (unlike them) hold no grudges or hatreds nor seek no revenge (even for trivia), as being “ruth-less” (meaning “sympathy-free”) and making others unhappy can seem to make them happy, while seeing others happy can make them unhappy, making them want to disturb whatever satisfaction and pleasure others are enjoying, although not always in their presence, when others have to be “on edge” and WALK ON EGGSHELLS, so they learn
DO NOT DISTURB THOSE WHO MAY THEMSELVES BE DISTURBED, even if they believe their own behaviour is normal, there is nothing wrong with them at all, nor with their mindset, their way of thinking and the myriad of problems (including “interpersonal difficulties”) they cause and challenges they create are the fault of others, who they blame at every opportunity;
PREDICT THE PREDICTABLE as although many believe their behaviour to be bizarre and abnormal (which it is), given that they can be “maladaptive” (inflexible), “labile” (moody) and fail to learn from their mistakes, over time those closest to them realise how predictable they can be and hence learn how to avoid whatever “triggers” their boorishness and necessity to control, which otherwise may be “uncontrollable”;
DO NOT FEAR THOSE WHO DO NOT EXPERIENCE FEAR as when others realise they thrive on trouble, seek reward inconsiderate of risk, actively seek arguments and are not scared by confrontation (as they thrive on conflict which they prefer to cooperation and would rather see people “at each others’s throats” than getting on fine and collaborating well), they will no longer be scared by their antics and learn to expect their provocation, making it easier to “turn the other cheek”, do not respond and just say nothing and walk away from potential trouble, denying them “narcissistic supply” and the oxygen they need to “fuel their fires of dissent” and create the disorder, disharmony and even havoc they insatiably seek;
DO NOT EXPECT THEM TO BE LOYAL as they are only capable of loyalty to themselves and, if the whim takes them, can be exceptionally disloyal even to their most patient, tactful and loyal followers, changing from (false) praise one day to the deepest and most savage form of “CHARACTER ASSASSINATION” the next, often quite deceitfully and “delusionally” given that they have a major problem separating fact from fiction, which is why not one word they utter can be believed, unless subsequently independently verified;
REMAIN POSITIVE AND DO NOT EXPECT ENCOURAGEMENT as they thrive on many forms of negativity, criticism and even humiliation, in effect deep discouragement and demotivation, although encouragement and motivation are widely agreed to be amongst the most critical roles of leaders to achieve common goals, not just to satisfy the personal ambitions, whims and grudges of self-centred leaders;
PUT THE ORGANISATION (OR NATION) FIRST and prioritise what may benefit the “stakeholders” such as customers, employees, suppliers, local communities, the environment (and citizens, all not just some), separating these from what may be mal-practices and policies more likely to personally benefit the finances, ego or pride of self-centred leaders or sometimes entire management teams;
DO RIGHT WHEN THEY DO WRONG and appreciate “THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY TO DO A WRONG THING”, hence doing what the “Disordered Leader” cannot: safeguard the TRUST and REPUTATION others know to be important but they fail to appreciate, especially when they SEE NO WRONG in their own words and deeds, notably when these seem more focussed on rebuke, revenge, retaliation and their personal necessity to impulsively “get their own way” and “win at all costs, irrespective of the consequences”, not unlike the most troublesome of primary school children;
The necessity for others to AVOID TROUBLE by being SYCOPHANTIC does not auger well for organisations making the best progress possible based on pooled ideas, informed discussion, healthy debate, rational decision making considerate of the interests and needs of the variety of “stakeholders” affected and how they may be impacted by the possible outcomes of their decisions, nor for the many forms of cooperation and collaboration required for sensible progress to follow; indeed it makes “management teams” almost redundant…

None of these are acceptable. They never have been and they never will be.

At the end of the day, it isn’t all about them, although they persist in thinking that it is.

This can be so even after they have been removed from the positions of power which they could have used constructively for the purposes intended, but did not and could not.

For many in society self-interest is just one matter to weigh up when decision-making, which some are better at evaluating or discounting than others. Indeed for many years I have advocated that, before they finalise a decision, management teams step back and identify to what degree their self-interest (monetary, prestige, promotional opportunity et al) may have impacted on their planned decision and, when notionally removed from the equation, consider whether they would still take the same decision.

If not, they may need to further deliberate, notably taking the longer-term perspective including considering the likely reputational impact and which “stakeholders” may benefit or suffer as a result, while discounting what may then be better seen as short-term opportunism, especially if their decisions and actions may risk damaging trust and reputation if more widely known.

(The 15 ways to Communicate in a Crisis are explained in this case study of the mishandled Hillsborough disaster or Ireland’s Crisis which necessitated involvement of the IMF and EU when the elected leaders couldn’t or wouldn’t provide the leadership required).

However, for this small (“disordered”) subsection of global society, incapable of “doing the right thing”, which across all sectors of all nations holds a disproportionate number of senior positions requiring responsibility and accountability, their self-interest is their overarching and perhaps sole priority and the lens through which they view all situations, notably from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?”, which contributes to they being amongst the most irresponsible and least accountable people possible and extraordinarily inappropriate for any seniority of position, no matter the nature of the entity or role.

Given that their:

cognitive or mental priority is “getting their own way” and “winning at all costs, irrespective of the consequences” for other people, their organisation (or nation) and (incredibly) even themselves (as they can transpire to be the most damaged by their errors of judgement),
such is the degree of their “impulsivity” which (especially when their self-interest is challenged) prevents them from properly evaluating situations, failing to properly weigh up the merits, demerits or likely consequences of alternative courses of action, or indeed even evaluate matters from any perspective other than their own,
not concerned whether their actions or decisions may be “right or wrong in specific situations” (“moral reasoning”), as when their self-interest is concerned their priority and concern can seem purely to be that they are right and others wrong, which can make it difficult (at first) for others (who may consider them to be totally wrong, yet feel powerless to rectify the matter) to try and understand the rationale for their peculiar decision-making, which can run contrary to the best interests of the body which employs them, given that their motivations and perceptions differ from most other people in society;
when combined with their “vindictive” nature (holding long-term grudges for short-term trivia), seeking to extract revenge against those they perceive to be rivals or critics (even if not),
given they can also be “paranoid” and believe others to be conspiring against them,
they do “whatever it takes” to damage their “opponent’s” reputation, even entirely fictitiously (termed a “distortion campaign” or “character assassination”), which many unaware of their traits may believe,
given their tendency to exaggerate both their talents and achievements (highly imaginatively, including pure invention) and
the wrongs they perceive others to have done to them (even if they haven’t, sometimes quite the opposite as they actually may have been trying to help or be kind to them), and
their quite different worldview (termed “distorted thinking patterns”) of (a) situations (as if there were no other perspective other then their own, notably “what’s in it for me?”),
(b) of people in general, with “shallow emotions” or, “lacking empathy”, coldly, callously and “unemotionally” (lacking the warm emotions which permits most people to understand and respond appropriately to the feelings and emotions of others),
instead experiencing other people as if they were no different from “inanimate objects” (treated like “possessions” no different from their phone, car or home) and
(c) of colleagues/coworkers and other “stakeholders” in particular (who exist to be used, manipulated and deceived) and
not only their inability to separate fact from fiction, especially when the fiction is one they invented or spun themselves (perhaps “delusional” if not “psychotic”),
but also their exceptional talent at “deception”, including pure delight in lying (not bothered at all by being “found out”, when they just change their story, confusing other people further),
part of the thrill or excitement they get from “fearlessly” engaging in “risky behaviour”,
and engaging in other forms of “anti-social behaviour”, often damaging to others,
being fundamentally only interested in themselves, which they can succeed in masking from many people, most of the time,
until others challenge them or their self-interest (which can be fatal for any relationship) when their charm can be dropped and their true “self” revealed,
which due to their “poor behaviour controls” can rapidly change to impatience, intolerance and temper, especially when they perceive the person’s purpose has been served,
or they have disappointed them in any way, or spoken favourably of people they dislike or hold a grudge against (the list of people they hate can be a long one),
or others simply disagree with them in any shape or form (their arrogance hides a very thin skin) as they cannot cope with any form of critique,
or alternative opinion from their own, despite thriving on being critical of others,
or of other people getting the attention they believe should be uniquely theirs (which can produce a “histrionic” over-reaction),
as given their “gargantuan ego” and “sense of entitlement”, they believe that only they should be the “centre of the universe” and everyone else exists to serve their needs,
their moodiness (or “emotional lability”) which forces those in their circle to “walk on eggshells”,
the personal pleasure they derive from embarrassing, ridiculing, belittling, disparaging and humiliating others (as making others feel small helps them feel big),
their unsurpassed expertise at demotivation is quite the opposite of what is expected of leaders, especially when they exclude the most capable people for petty reasons,
given that they derive pleasure from making others miserable,
can be happy making others unhappy and be unhappy seeing others happy, which they can then seek to disrupt,
it should not be a surprise when they actively seek conflict and engender the “Five C’s” of “Counterproductively Competitive and Combative Corporate Cultures”,
seemingly unaware of the benefits of cooperation except when manipulating others to assist satisfying their self-interest,
only capable of seeing matters from their own extraordinarily self-centred and myopic perspective, seeking or demanding “my way only”,
failing to appreciate that inclusive debate and discussion is a constructive opportunity to maximise collective progress,
while being so disagreeable by nature, not only cause trouble even in situations when this would seem to be improbable or even impossible,
but seek to perpetuate and deepen the conflicts they have (often unnecessarily) created,
without any semblance of guilt or remorse or sense of wrong (which delegates out of necessity the role of both rational and moral reasoning as well as peacemaker to those unfortunate to work with or for them),
which permits them to behave in an unconscionable manner, without any semblance of conscience (notably when it comes to satisfying themselves),
which many can perceive to be quite childlike behaviour,
as their “emotional state” and “ability to engage in moral reasoning” has been likened to that of primary school children, having to “get their own way” in everything, satisfy themselves and throw a childlike tantrum when they don’t,
even whinging or almost crying when they don’t get what they want,
as “seeking sympathy” can be one of their priorities and a tool they use in relationships,
although they themselves (being cold, impersonal and “lacking warm emotions” especially genuine kindness) deny others the sympathy or compassion that may be warranted in situations, allowing them to be “ruth-less” or sympathy-free,
as for some their challenging behaviour begins during their childhood,
especially when they engage in cruelty, subtle and covert or demonstrable and overt,
unnecessarily damaging rather than building relationships, both interpersonal and between institutions, organisations and even nations,
inconsiderate of the implications for anything or anyone else (not their concern, although it should be), not least damaged trust and eroded reputation;
being experts at making enemies of former friends rather than friends of enemies,
preferring to to unite rather than divide the people they are responsible for;
despite being absolutely insensitive to the interests and needs of others,
they can be incredibly sensitive to personal criticism, leading to an excessive (perhaps “histrionic”) over-reaction,
their necessity for constant praise (despite denying others praise and credit when most warranted),
even praising themselves when others make the mistake of not doing so,
their ability to take credit for the achievements of others, while
accepting no responsibility for their many personal failings,
which they “project” and blame on everyone and anything else,
as they find it easy to hate and impossible to love, be loved, or be genuinely kind and considerate of the interests and needs of others,
treating many life situations like a “game” to be won,
including the mind games they also delight in playing with other people,
facilitated by their often considerable “charm” (utilised when people serve a useful purpose to them, in which case they may be temporarily treated quite well),
even if their charm can seem to be quite insincere, “glib, superficial” and purely used to get something they want or gain some form of advantage, rather than be out of a genuine interest in other people, something they are quite incapable of,
especially when their necessity for “control” becomes uncontrollable, and
their extraordinary sense of invincibility and their delusional self-belief convinces them that they can do (and get away with) anything they want,
even if fundamentally ill-equipped for many of the tasks they are mistakenly trusted with, evident to almost everyone except themselves, believing themselves to be experts in areas which they know little or nothing about,
all of which contribute to their extraordinary degree of irresponsibility, lacking a sense of wrong, while invariably believing themselves to be “normal”,
with the myriad of problems they create being due to situations and other people who they then may get to hate and need to attack in some manner,
failing to appreciate that when they try to damage the character of others, that it can be their own which can become most doubted, being absolutely lacking in integrity, tact, patience, remorse, empathy, compassion or anything remotely associated with warm emotions, modesty, humility, modesty or conscience,
initially appearing to have many of the the right credentials although this transpires to be a sham, given that their greatest talent is acting, deceiving, manipulating and pretending to be competent, rational and normal, which they even totally believe themselves, although no-one else who has experienced their self-centred and delusionally “Destructive Leadership” would or could concur,

there could not be a group of people more inappropriate for supervisory, managerial or (perish the thought) leadership roles in any organisation or institution of global society, especially our nations.

So many of global society’s problems, challenges, disasters, conflicts and wars, past and present throughout human history, would appear to have arisen because we have trusted this small subgroup of society, warmongering troublemakers who thrive on perversity, conflict, disagreement, disrespect and disharmony (upset with harmonious collaboration), being innately overtly and covertly dysfunctional, emotionally shallow (cold, callous and calculating), labile (moody) and unstable, for the lives and emotions of many others, when they cannot even successfully harness or manage their own.

Such a mindset and behaviour forces too many colleagues to waste far too much of their time dealing with their leader’s idiosyncrasies than doing the job they are employed to do – responsibly and constructively managing their organisation – benefitting ALL the “stakeholders”, not just the impulsive needs and personal ambitions of their self-centred, unbalanced, moody, temperamental and “Disordered Leader”.

An even more important “danger sign” is when they cannot see themselves as being the problem – everyone else is.

More apparent can be their particular expertise at blaming others for their own failings rather than accept the responsibility themselves. As a result, when such people lead organisations a “blame culture” can develop and ultimately less progress be made than in more open environments when people’s creativity rather than fears can be prioritised, especially when they feel appreciated, motivated and even inspired rather than diminished, unappreciated and ultimately demotivated.

It is perhaps only truly exceptional people who can continue to consistently produce their best when they are frequently disrespected and disparaged and rarely praised or encouraged.

That is why for a few decades my informal label for such wonderful people has been “Corporate Saints”, given that they have the extraordinary ability to keep providing top class service to coworkers, customers and indeed all other “stakeholders no matter how badly treated they may be themselves by those who may not deserve the title of “manager” or “leader” given their propensity for many forms of discouragement than motivation.

Their most unappreciated workers, who often “keep the show on the road” and maintain the happiness, enthusiasm and commitment especially of fellow employees, customers and suppliers who their arrogant boss treats disrespectfully, frequently seem to do so in a good natured manner and with a sense of humour, while simultaneously “managing upwards” and keeping their “Disordered Leader” on an even keel.

They may even protect colleagues from their de jure superior’s necessity to criticise, diminish and control, while remaining positive and managing to encourage others despite receiving little real encouragement themselves. In many respects the “Corporate Saints” provide the required qualities so lacking in their “Disordered Leader”, whose behaviour is so counterproductive that it runs quite contrary to that expected from managers and leaders at all levels within organisations, evident to everyone but themselves.

Those with regular involvement with such challenging people may in due course realise that when dealing with those who may be deeply disturbed, there is nothing to be gained from disturbing them in any shape or form.

Those who have been on the receiving end of their callousness soon appreciate that it is far better to be their friend than enemy, as the retribution they seek can be totally out of proportion to any wrong they believe may have been done to them, even if there was none at all.

A further “giveaway” is when they seek to damage and destroy the character and reputation of good people, for any reason at all including merely disagreeing with them on something trivial, or failed to praise them even when quite unwarranted.

When they seem to hold deep “grudges” for little real reason or for far longer than the situation warranted, other people can also doubt their suitability for positions of responsibility.

Indeed the responsibility to be responsible when associating with amongst the most irresponsible people in society falls on those who are themselves deeply responsible, notably those with the qualities associated with “Constructive Leadership” which can be most tested when dealing with such innate troublemakers.

Learning how not to disturb those who may be emotionally disturbed (as well as being easily disturbed) becomes particularly critical if any sense of serene and composed “normality” is to be permitted, even if just for a while, until they are next provoked, whether the provocation is real or imagined.

Others having to “walk on eggshells” in and around them just proves how inappropriate they were for senior roles in the first place.

Fortunately identifying and appreciating such people for what they really are – cold, mean, cruel, deceitful, dishonest, ruthless and self-centred – makes it easier to seek and appreciate quite the opposite in those who CAN be trusted to responsibly manage and lead the organs and institutions of global society.

How can they be identified?

Being “maladaptive” they can actually be spotted by way of what they struggle to change – their own inflexible behaviour – which is why during 2015 and 2016 I identified “400 behavioural traits of narcissistic leaders” as well as “125 ways everyone else can behave to diminish the harm they can do”.

At its most basic, Society Needs those who:

are well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving or being loved
find it easy to be kind and compassionate (when so required) and impossible to be cruel, rather than those who find it easy to be uncaring and even brutal or vicious, impossible to be considerate and sympathetic (even when most required), yet can seek pity for themselves
who thrive on praise and encouragement and only criticise constructively when required, rather than those who struggle to praise (anyone but themselves) and constantly criticise, even when praise would be warranted, yet cannot seem to cope with criticism of themselves (real or imagined)
who make friends out of former enemies, rather than enemies out of friends
who are far more adept at peacemaking than troublemaking and at
building rather than damage relationships

for positions of responsibility, especially those involving the lives and emotions of others, rather than those really only interested in themselves who prefer discouragement, disrespect and even humiliation to praise, gratitude, encouragement and motivation.

Although these are generally associated with successful management and leadership, never their opposites, somehow people who themselves feel good from making others feel bad are too frequently chosen for managerial and leadership roles across international society.

Sometime global Society Needs to learn the many lessons from the past, from corporate scandals and collapses to conflicts within and between organisations and wars between nations, that “Givers”, being more interested in others than themselves, make for far better leaders, especially of other people, than those “Takers” who are fundamentally more interested in themselves than others, more likely to be irresponsible than responsible as they prefer to divide, conquer, discourage, demotivate and create conflict than encourage, inspire, motivate and seek harmonious cooperation, ultimately more adept at doing harm than good and be destructive rather than constructive as they put themselves and their insatiably impulsive and highly personal self-interest before the interests and needs of those that they are erroneously tasked with leading.

If only society better knew how to identify such people for what they really are, denying them positions beyond the limitations of their personality and diminishing the degree of harm and even havoc they are well capable of both inflicting on others and thriving on when mistakenly chosen for responsible roles, despite their fundamental irresponsibility, the wonderful world we share really could be a better place – for everyone else except themselves.

What should we be looking for instead in those people of integrity we actually can trust with positions of responsibility in society, no manner the nature or location of the entity or organisation?

What does society need in its managers and leaders?

This is something I have been considering all my organisational life and researching in particular since 2013, when planning a business ethics conference entitled “Corporate Conscience” in Dublin a psychology lecturer and practicing psychoanalyst replied “Personality Disorder” when I posed the question “how can someone set out to harm another in business, without scruples?”

What I wasn’t quite expecting then, what seems like a lifetime ago in 2013, was to discover that some in society lack what many would call a conscience, are incapable of learning from their prior experiences (especially mistakes which they repeat), seek praise but cannot genuinely praise, when not being praised by others tend to praise themselves, invent and exaggerate their abilities and achievements, constantly criticise others but cannot take an iota of rebuke themselves, see criticism when there may be none or none intended, are so lacking in warm emotions that they experience other people no different than “shopfront mannequins” and are so self-centred that they have little real interest in other people at all, who are there to be used, denigrated, bad-mouthed and manipulated and they actually believe they understand, but don’t and indeed never can and probably never will.

Yet we trust such untrustworthy people with organisational and even national leadership, with responsibility for the lives and emotions of our people, when they cannot even manage and control their own, nor accept responsibility for their failings and those of whom they mis-lead, preferring to blame everyone and anything else, rather than saying “sorry” try to turn the tables by “attacking their accuser”, rather than forgiving and “moving on” hold grudges and act (almost) unforgivably, rather than offering sympathy act mercilessly yet seek pity for themselves, while seeming to live in another world in which they are the best, everyone else the worst, are out to “get them” and no-one else really matters anyway, while also invariably “denying the undeniable” and “defending the indefensible”.

So why can we not “predict the predictable”?

Let me share some of my findings, given that I now recognise I have both worked with and for over 50 people well capable of being diagnosed with a “Personality Disorder” who I refer to as “Disordered Leaders”.

For many years I have been asked by business school and other university students “do you not have to be ruthless to be successful in business?”

For decades I have replied “of course not, as business success requires co-operation rather than unnecessary conflict and motivation not discouragement, as people contribute cooperatively, produce their best and indeed their minds are at their most creative when they feel appreciated and their work is respected, no matter their role, especially when the environment or culture is harmonious and welcoming rather than deeply combative, unharmonious and distrustful, notably when coworkers are at each other’s throats rather than cooperating to achieve whatever the common purpose of the entity may be…

… There is little to be gained from the Five C’s – “Counterproductively Competitive & Combative Corporate Cultures” – except satisfying the ego of those who personally thrive on fear, intimidation, humiliation, blame, critique, discouragement and many other forms of negativity, rather than the praise, encouragement and positivity which results in a committed, motivated and maybe even inspired workforce, who genuinely want to do their best to contribute and co-operate and look forward to coming in to work, rather than perform well below their true potential out of fear of retribution, with the highlight of their excessively long working day being going home after an unnecessarily arduous and dissatisfying experience.”

For many years I recognised such an unsatisfactory, distrustful, quite unproductive and indeed counterproductive scenario to be prevalent in far too many businesses and other organisations, without fully appreciating why this was the case. Now though, armed with better appreciation of what constitutes a “Personality Disorder” and those I refer to as “Disordered Leaders” who practice “Destructive Leadership”, I would add:

“It is not that you have to be ruthless to be successful, rather that some people who happen to derive business “success” happen to be innately ruthless by nature, finding it easy to be cold, discouraging, disrespectful, combative and even hateful, holding grudges, preferring conflict to cooperation and ultimately being far more adept at cruelty than kindness and criticism than genuine praise and encouragement. When such “ruth-less” people achieve apparent “business success”, at least in terms of their seniority of position and personal wealth, if not trust, respect and reputation, they set quite the wrong example for those who work with or for them as they may tend to begin to wrongly believe that seeking “win-lose” involving outright victory for one party over another is preferable to some form of “win-win” outcome, especially when this involves some form of compromise, as the “loser” is unlikely to ever want to do business with the “winner” ever again, nor pass on the “word-of-mouth referrals” which most businesses require from satisfied customers if they are to grow and thrive…

… To ruthless people, business becomes a game to be won involving many short-term victories, both with colleagues and competitors, lacking the integrity, insight, empathy and ultimately vision to appreciate that it is by way of co-operation and harmony that successful relationships are developed rather than destroyed, as without successful two-way relationships involving respect and trust between all involved, longer-term “success” will be impossible, the absence of which are more likely to result in organisational failure and maybe even personal bankruptcy…

… Even after their organisation has collapsed, with many people’s lives adversely affected, these “emotionally shallow and labile” people, because that is what they are, self-centred individuals not team-players, can still wonder what they did wrong, finding it easy to apportion blame but impossible to accept responsibility…

… “If integrity is associated with “doing the right thing when no-one is looking”, then “doing the wrong thing when everyone is looking” could never be described as leadership, let alone leadership with integrity”…

… Given that motivation is widely agreed to be one of the primary tasks of both managers and leaders, co-operation and compromise achieves far more than unnecessary conflict, even if the most self-centred troublemakers fail to recognise this…

… As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or not value, if none of it is emotional”.

Those who feel the need to diminish and humiliate others need to be denied the opportunity to do so, especially in any form of official capacity.

They simply lack the most basic and essential requirement to both manage and lead other people – the ability to genuinely praise, encourage, motivate and inspire others to contribute the most and want to produce their best.

Rational managers and leaders recognise that motivation does not involve discouraging, humiliating and demoting others while praising and promoting themselves.

Constructive Leaders are well capable of recognising that openly recognising and acknowledging the importance of others, no matter their position or role, is more likely to encourage them to actually want to contribute and cooperate.

Yet those who seek acclaim for themselves but are disinterested in others can fail to appreciate why they fail to be appreciated, other than by the most sycophantic, especially when they promote themselves and fail to appreciate others.

A secret which seems to be withheld from the most arrogant in society, especially when they incessantly seek the acclaim of others even when most unwarranted, is that those with a touch of humility make for far more popular if not also more trustworthy and effective leaders, than those with a significant dose of personal pride.

Leaders who seek no real attention for themselves yet are hugely committed to achieving for their people and organisation, often gain the respect of all or most involved.

There is no humiliation in humility nor any humility associated with humiliation.

When modest people fail or fall on difficult times, people can be openly sympathetic towards them and be more inclined to lend them a hand, but when the most arrogant fail, often for reasons they will never be capable of understanding, many others may be covertly delighted, especially those they disrespected and took advantage of during their temporary period of ascendancy.

For over 20 years, despite working with many organisations, I just considered such people to be “Selfish, Difficult and Proud” and maybe “Perverse, Contrary and Disagreeable” too. Then organising a business ethics conference in Dublin entitled “Corporate Conference” in 2013 led to a coffee with a psychology lecturer and practicing psychoanalyst who explained Narcissistic Personality disorder to me, in response to my longstanding but previously unanswered query “how can someone harm someone in business without scruples’?

I immediately realised this was the answer I had been seeking both all my career and during a decade attending and then speaking at international business ethics conferences, so started researching the extraordinary world of Personality Disorders there and then in 2013.

It has been an extraordinary feeling to recall adverse experiences and to realise that many of the traits which contributed to being cheated, deceived or diminished in both private and public were those associated with people capable of being diagnosed by psychiatrists and experienced psychologists with one or more of the Cluster B Personality disorders, especially Borderline Personality Disorder, as Malignant Narcissists and/or with Psychopathic/Sociopathic tendencies, which go well beyond the more basic definition of Anti-Social Personality Disorder.

Many are far too subtle and cunning to be ever seen or caught engaging in more overt antisocial behaviour, preferring their deceit, manipulation, humiliation and “getting their own way” to be more covert, quite invisible except to those who have made the mistake of crossing their path or threatening their self-interest.

As already mentioned, at its most basic, much of the “business ethics” debate discusses why fundamentally good people do something wrong, usually under some form of pressure. Unethical acts may also be performed by people who may themselves be fundamentally bad, doing what comes most naturally to them, causing harm to others, but who have developed a well-practiced expertise at portraying themselves as being good people. Most of the time. Then someone crosses their path when their true nature and covert characteristics may be exposed. Their thinly veiled lack of concern for others, camouflaged emotional poverty, hidden hatreds, cloaked or even absent conscience and other previously concealed attributes and clandestine traits are no longer obscured by their charming veneer and disguised by their mask of sanity.

I now recognise that I have worked with or for over 50 business people, men and women, capable of being diagnosed with one or more Personality Disorders, although I doubt very much that any of them have ever been examined by a mental health professional let alone received expert assistance such as with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Dialectical Behavioural Therapy.

That is one of the reasons why I realised the importance of researching this matter and writing about it in a manner that most people should be able to understand, given that many people should be well capable of observing much of the behaviour I describe here without ever studying psychology, neuroeconomics or neuroscience themselves.

If other people can better familiarise themselves with some of the more apparent behavioural traits and associate them with the possibility of a Personality Disorder, then they can begin to adapt their own behaviour in such a manner that they can diminish the degree of harm such damaging people can do to interpersonal relationships and organisational life.

They can ultimately transpire to be be more destructive than constructive and hold both the organisation and its employees back from fulfilling its and their potential. The most progressive people can become too scared to suggest alternative opinions to those of their “Destructive Leaders”, who would rather do the opposite of what others want if the ideas are not seen to be their own.

In due course the smarter co-workers learn how to frame situations so the “Destructive Leaders” believe that the most forward-looking options were first thought of by themselves and so have a better chance to be actioned, although having to engage in such behaviour is not only an utter waste of their time but also talents, which “Constructive Leaders” innately maximise by way of praise, encouragement, inclusion and vision, in addition to many other characteristics discussed in this paper.

In stark contrast the outlook of Destructive Leaders is primarily focussed on me not we or us and this guides much of their behaviour. Until this is understood they will be misunderstood.

Their mindset is essentially quite different from that of most other people – yet they frequently achieve positions of responsibility in society. Others may only learn how to adapt their own behaviour to more adequately deal with them when they begin to better understand how their distorted and disordered mind operates.

Those who work with or for such people quickly learn to incessantly praise and never criticise them, directing too much of their time to trying to satisfy their whims. They spend an inordinate amount of their emotional energy trying to keep them on an even keel, rather than devoting their collective talents to working collaboratively and constructively to achieve their organisation’s goals.

Whether diagnosed or diagnosable or not, which is the prerogative of specially trained and experienced mental health professionals, recognising that a minority of society may be “different” from the norm will allow informed others to deal with them “differently” and better cope with their peculiarities, or preferably deny them the positions of power they are most likely to abuse, as trying to deal with them “normally” will probably result in abject and perhaps incomprehensible failure.

As they perceive many matters differently, see and experience other people differently, think differently and behave quite differently from most other people in society, they CAN be identified and dealt with quite differently, given that at the end of the day it is their own actions, reactions, moods and behaviour, which give the game away to those astute enough to notice.

But they cannot be treated differently unless other people recognise them as being different and familiarise themselves with the identifiable behaviour, especially when others may begin to appreciate that there may actually be a consistency in their apparent inconsistency, given that psychologists believe that many are actually “maladaptive” and struggle to change their behaviour or adapt it to changing circumstances, which makes them easier to identify.

Decision makers may need to assess their better qualities and talents, which may be considerable, and weigh these up against the past, current or potential damage they have done or could do both to other people and the organisation itself, as the most appropriate solution may be to tell them “you’re fired”, especially when they are given the opportunity to improve or change but don’t because perhaps they can’t.

It must be stressed that entirely normal people can behave badly or abnormally occasionally, especially when under considerable pressure (notably that exerted by their most intimidatory peers). But when bad, challenging or self-centred behaviour can be observed by others to be arising regularly, be seen to be recurring and can be predicted by others, that a Personality Disorder may indeed be present.

Society may even need to be protected from Disordered Leaders, initially by way of denying them positions of authority which their personality peculiarities prevent them from using for the responsible purposes intended, something they alone may be aware of. People need to be protected from the harm which can be done by those who delight in causing harm and disturbing harmony.

A self-centred person may not see themselves as being selfish, even when this is very apparent to everybody else, who they are unlikely to seek advice from nor listen to even if offered.

Those more likely to be mean than meaningful, prefer harm and humiliation to humility, cold calculation to compassion and themselves to other people, no matter how well they manage to mask these tendencies, at least much of the time, cannot be trusted with responsibility for other people as they simply do not have what it takes to be other than a one-person band.

Those whose vision is limited to their own perspective, evaluating matters by primarily considering “what’s in it for me?”, are incapable of providing a worthwhile vision for the entity they lead nor inspiring the people they mis-lead to follow their unworthy example.

They lack the subtlety and tact associated with guiding a jazz group or Irish ceili band in the right direction, or the respect and other qualities required to successfully lead an organisation in the style of an orchestra, with every musician sharing the same sheet-music and playing the same tune, with the goal of achieving organisational goals rather than satisfying the self-interest and varying whims of the Disordered Leader, whose greatest talent may be blowing their own trump-et and playing off different sheet music, which they keep to themselves and deny to the other players.

Harmony is just not something which seems to come naturally to those who seem to have played out of tune with everyone else throughout much of their lives and who innately practice “Destructive Leadership” when mistakenly permitted to bring their disruptive nature to any form of organisational life.

Those who seem to behave the same way all time, being “maladaptive”, lack one of the most critical qualities expected of managers and leaders of all entities in society, the flexibility required to adapt to constantly changing situations and respond in a responsible manner appropriate to varying circumstances.

Those who feel supremely self-confident, whether warranted or not, but cannot experience the feelings of others, do not have what it takes to influence, inspire and motivate others to produce their best, meaning provide the critically important leadership which so many other more modest and less arrogant people throughout global society do in such a subtle manner that the followers they inspire hardly seem to notice, given that tactful encouragement and harmonious cooperation are the order of the day.

All my organisational life I have observed that there can be as much to be learned from seeing management and leadership conducted badly, especially by those emotionally labile, proud and self-centred folk who believe they are great, but aren’t (although unknown to them), and hence advocating and doing quite the opposite of what “Destructive Leaders” say and do, as can be learned from working with or for those selfless peacemakers with great emotional depth and ability to find common ground and compromise, who make management and leadership seem easy.

Such people take every situation which arises in their stride, without apparent fuss, rebuke or the necessity to apportion blame, given that “Constructive Leaders” accept responsibility for the faults of those they lead, yet pass on credit to others when things go well.

Those being led know that humility beats humiliation, any time, any place, any where, any culture, any walk of life.

People like feeling appreciated and valued, yet too many managers and leaders do not make others feel as important as they should. The most astute leaders with the deepest emotional intelligence know they cannot go wrong when they practice the simple mantra of treating everyone the same – with the respect they would like to be treated themselves.

Far too many leaders and managers throughout global society evidently do not, prioritising making themselves feel good at the expense of making those they are supposed to be responsible for feeling bad, who are simply not their concern, ultimately only being interested in themselves. Such people need to be in solo roles without responsibility for other people where their technical expertise can be availed of, if any, not their inability to responsibly manage and inspirationally set an example all their followers will aspire to following.

What the most self-centred fail to appreciate is that this runs quite contrary to one of the core requirements of management and leadership – motivating people to produce their best in their cooperative attempts to achieve the goals of the group and the stated purposes the entity was formed to satisfy in the first place – which are unlikely to include discouragement, disrespect and humiliation in their mission statement.

Those whose perception of matters may be “delusional”, holding personal ideas or beliefs that are maintained with conviction in spite of irrationality or evidence to the contrary, who see criticism or persecution where there is none or none intended and unnecessarily make enemies out of former or potential friends, need to be disregarded when serious consideration is being given whom to hire, promote and even vote for, no matter how charming and eloquent they may appear on the surface to be.

Smart words do not make for smart leadership when there may be a deep and fundamental disconnect between their words and actions and the reality which most people except themselves can see.

But as those with a Personality Disorder rarely see themselves as being different or as being the problem, as they blame all their faults and failings on everyone else, this places the onus to be “responsible” and “constructive” on those who, out of necessity, spend an inordinate amount of their time dealing with the whims of their unbalanced and perhaps “Disordered Leader”.

Their self-interest does not just appear to be an option they persistently prioritise, rather it can seem to be their sole child-like state of mind, overriding all other considerations when the opportunity arises to “get their own way” and “win at all costs”, irrespective of the consequences for anyone or anything else, with their fixed focus fixated on “what’s in it for me?” and “we” or “us” not even on their personal radar.

Charm, especially when seen to be shallow and insincere, should never be mistaken for, or preferred to, good character and the courage to do the right thing even when no-one is looking, nor eloquent talk or false promises for real evidence of integrity.

“Disordered Leaders” who practice “Destructive Leadership” are actually easier to spot than people may realise, so responsible people can practice “identify and deny” such deeply irresponsible people the positions of power they can only inevitably abuse, given that they are fundamentally really only interested in themselves, prefer covert cruelty to overt kindness and see empathy and interest in others as a sign of failure and intimidation, humiliation and ruthlessness as the ultimate signal of success.

Fortunately there is a consistency in their apparent inconsistency, so their bizarre behaviour and mindset may with greater familiarity be seen to be entirely predictable.
Indeed it is their very predictability and inability to amend their own behaviour which allows “us” an insight into the very different world “they” inhabit, but this predictability only becomes apparent when other far more trustworthy and responsible people first learn what traits to look for, then act on this knowledge by denying such fundamentally untrustworthy and irresponsible people any position of responsibility.

Society increasingly needs “Constructive Leaders” who prefer encouragement to discouragement, humility to humiliation, cooperation and compromise to conflict, harmony to disharmony and the interest of others to their self-interest, being peacemakers who find it easy to be kind and impossible to be cruel rather than troublemakers who find it easy to be cruel and impossible to be kind, capable of diminishing not thriving on hatred and making friends out of former enemies, not enemies out of past or potential friends.

No matter what their other talents may be, including the ICE characteristics of “Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence”, a “selfish-streak” when combined with an inability to show any genuine interest in other people is not indicative of a naturally endowed ability to influence and motivate a group of people towards achieving a common goal, or what is commonly referred to as “leadership”.

When “leaders” feel better from making others feel worse, there is clearly something wrong, especially in those who seem to lack a sense of wrong, and questions need to be asked why they were chosen to lead in the first place.

When colleagues and coworkers have to spend an inordinate amount of their time tending to the whims of their leaders rather than working as a team to prioritise the goals of the organisation or entity and the needs of those it was founded to serve, such as customers or citizens, rather than the insatiable personal needs and interests of a few individuals, there is clearly something wrong and it should be evident that the wrong people are in charge.

Yet time after time we choose such people for senior roles for which they are deeply, utterly and fundamentally ill-equipped.

Do we never seem to learn?

How abnormal “Disordered Leaders” must be, because when they look out on the world, all they seem to see is their own, as if blinded to the world which everyone else shares, inconsiderate of the interests and needs of anyone and anything else, not even the entity which erroneously employs them.

Yet we let them “lead”, or rather “mis-lead”.

Despite most people far better responding to encouragement than discouragement, extraordinarily some believe the intimidation they practice is indicative of some form of strength of either character or leadership, rather than a deep character flaw.

Until intimidatory traits become more associated with illegitimate management, this misconception, which may have blighted global society for generations, will continue to the detriment of interpersonal trust and the reputation of the entities who appointed them, before they may subsequently be given sufficient reason to doubt their own sanity for choosing them.

Those who gradually get to know and begin to understand, as best they can, narcissistic people and what seems to motivate them, will realise that any interest they may show in others is likely to be pure pretence. Putting others first does just not appear to be part of their psyche.

Their pride of seems to innately focussed on themselves, inconsiderate of the interests and needs of those they lead. Some can be merciless, remorseless and ultimately disrespected by their peers, who do what they demand out of fear of the consequences of failing to do so, although this sends out entirely the wrong message to those nearer the beginning than end of their careers, unfortunate to work for the wrong role models.

Victims of their insensitive callousness can include respect, honour, trust, reputation, integrity, professionalism and healthy relationships, all of which are important to those with a genuine interest in other people and the organisations which employ them, but of little real concern to those who are fundamentally cold and ruthless at heart with little authentic interest in anyone but themselves.

Which type of person makes for a better leader, not just of businesses but also political parties, governments, nations and other entities and organisations in society from schools and public bodies to charities and clubs?

Surely not those who are always right and never wrong, incapable of accepting responsibility for decisions and events with poor outcomes, who blame others for all their failings, being naturally combative, won’t be the first to offer an “olive branch” to try and build bridges with opponents and more likely to escalate than seek a solution to conflicts, which perhaps might not have arisen in the first place had they not been in charge.

When we choose for leadership positions those who may be perceived by their peers as troublemakers rather than peacemakers, who prefer disharmony to harmony, intimidation to persuasion, animosity to kindness, antipathy to sympathy, discord to accord, aggression to compassion, contention to compromise, petulance to patience, rancour to rapport, enmity to placidness, acrimony to courtesy, animosity to diplomacy, bad blood to goodwill, dissension to conformity, friction and hostility to friendship, rivalry to collaboration, disrespect to respect, competition to cooperation and ultimately malevolence to benevolence, why are we surprised when the outcome is closer to war than peace?

When we elect those who are more naturally antagonistic, contentious, contrary, controversial, pugnacious, quarrelsome and argumentative rather than agreeable and consensus-seeking, who throw temper tantrums when they do not get their own way, who hold grudges and find it difficult to forgive and forget, who are so opinionated that they find it a challenge to accept the suggestions of others and who seem to prefer conflict, trouble and strife to calm co-operation, disputes to compromise and disagreement to agreement, are we mistaking strength of will for strength of character?

Ultimately when we permit those who are innately more cruel than considerate to achieve their goal of reaching senior positions, are we succumbing to the misconception that somehow seems to assume or accept that ruthlessness is a valid managerial or even leadership trait?

Management and leadership are supposed to be constructive processes, yet we continue to choose fundamentally destructive people to manage and lead our organisations, mistaking conflict and exclusion to be an acceptable alternative to cooperation and inclusion, being bullied into misinterpreting aggression and intimidation as a satisfactory and even admirable alternative to praise and encouragement.

Some lack the tact to realise that most people better respond to humility than humiliation, because somehow they feel better when they make others feel worse.

Yet time and time again we appoint such spiteful, vindictive, unforgiving, merciless and malicious people to seniority of position, trusting them with important roles in society despite their deep and utter untrustworthiness, perhaps scared of their retribution if we don’t grant them the power they insatiably crave but ultimately can only abuse; power which their self-centred focus switches to maintaining at any cost, rather than using astutely and constructively for the purpose granted.

Those who specialise in denying the undeniable and defending the indefensible need to be denied the opportunity to create situations which they will later deny as either not having happened, defend as having been appropriate when actually quite inappropriate or pass the blame as having been someone else’s fault, incapable of neither recognising their own failings nor learning from them, especially when they are regularly repeated.

Society most needs people capable of accepting responsibility for the faults of others as its leaders, not those who blame everyone but themselves for their many failings, like the emperor’s new clothes apparent to everyone but themselves.

Remedial action will inevitably be required arising from the destruction associated with “Disordered Leaders” before it is too late and the damage they inflict becomes irreparable, evidenced by the multitude of defunct corporations in global business graveyards, as well as other organisations and even nations which also no longer exist.

And yet for centuries we have chosen such people to (mis)lead our organisations and even nations.

Indeed more and more must wonder how such inappropriate people were allowed mis-lead in the first place when they make rational progress difficult, posing considerable challenges to those who have no option but to do what they cannot in trying to responsibly deal with their irresponsibility – adapt and amend their own behaviour.

Prevention is preferable to the improbability of cure.

This though is not a new abnormal, as throughout history from as early as this has been recorded, we seem to have let similarly “disordered” people mis-lead, with entirely inevitable combative, uncooperative, soul-destroying and destructive consequences, being troublemakers not peacemakers, starting then arrogantly justifying and perpetuating conflicts between colleagues, organisations and even nations, without a semblance of remorse or suspicion they may have learned from their mistakes, making this the most significant mistake which humanity seems doomed to repeat, time after time again.

The behaviour and indeed mindset of such “selfish, difficult and proud” people, especially when they prefer cold-hearted meanness and even cruelty over consideration for others and being disruptive to constructive, is totally and absolutely predictable, being “maladaptive”, with warning signs well displayed, which we do not seem to heed.

So when will we learn to instead choose the most responsible people for the most responsible roles, from business to politics, government, education, charities, sport and religion, indeed across global society in all its nations and branches, those with the talent and interest in others to drive the entity they are responsible for tactfully, constructively and sustainably forward, rise to not create challenges and by word and deed set an admirable example involving inclusion, encouragement and harmonious collaboration, not the most irresponsible who innately seem to prefer discouragement, dissonant disharmony and (most importantly to them) themselves and their insatiable personal goals to those they are supposed to be leading, guiding, cajoling and persuading, not intimidating, immune to their interests and needs, irrespective of the consequences?

Those only capable of loyalty to themselves lack the fundamental ability to inspire and lead others, unaware of personality deficiencies blatantly apparent to others, unable to set an admirable example for those they should be role models for, incapable of showing a genuine interest in them or even the organisation whose future they are entrusted with, yet risk, being so innately and incredibly consumed by their self-interest and having to personally prevail in every situation that nothing else seems to matter in their peculiar version of reality and truth.

They do excel at one aspect of “management”. Although poor at managing their own emotions, especially when their self-interest is challenged, no matter how well they do “manage” to hide their true inner coldness and insensitivity behind a “mask of normality”, often composed of Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence, eventually others begin to realise that their talents can be wasted when all they are really interested in is – themselves.

Is it not common sense that demotivated and uninspired employees are unlikely to want to contribute their best, with the highlight of their working day perhaps being going home, sometimes even counting the hours and minutes before they can leave the inhospitable environments which “Disordered Leaders” create, not just at the end of the day but also permanently as they take their talents and enthusiasm elsewhere instead, to environments where their efforts are more likely to be appreciated, more likely to be fun place to work which “positive psychologists” such as Martin Seligman and Barbara Fredrickson may refer to as “playful” or the Irish as “craic”?

So in closing our discussion of this question, please indulge me if I do so by having some fun with words, taking nothing away from the extremely serious nature of the subject, given that those we have discussed may well transpire to be amongst the most difficult and challenging people others encounter during their entire lives, if not even dangerous, whether within or outside society’s organisations.

In dealing with the imperiously impulsive and insidiously impatient, the maliciously manipulative, the consistently challenging, the scurrilously secretive, the instinctive initiators of vindictively vengeful vicious vendettas, with enough experience of their typical traits, other people learn that when they can remain cool, calm and collected, that polite persistence pays.

From often bitter experience others need to learn how to deny disordered people, innately infantile and surreptitious sympathy seekers, with their inevitable inability to forgive and forget, the opportunity to seek revengeful retaliation arising from their fundamentally fractious and mendacious mindset, difficult and demanding demeanour, super special self-esteem, horrible habits, hidden hatreds, heightened haughtiness and narcissistic necessity to prioritise praising themselves but harm, hurt and humiliate others, arising from their clandestinely cruel cognition and covertly cloaked conscience, which with other appallingly absent attributes notably consideration, compassion and kindness, empathy and emotional intelligence, results in their dangerously destructive, deviously dishonest and bizarre blaming behaviour including scurrilous scandalmongering and remorseless rendition of false facts, especially when no longer obsequiously obscured and cunningly concealed by their charming confidence and arrogant attitude, nor deviously disguised by the moderate mask of normality they wear much of the time, decidedly delusional and potentially paranoid – until challenged when their disguise drops disclosing their no longer invisible insidiousness, dreadful disloyalty, coldly casual cruelty, seditious sadism, malevolent masochism, easily aroused agitation, awful anger and particularly pernicious penchant for shamelessly stirring up tantalisingly tactless trouble, antagonistically alienating particular people and damaging or destroying relationships, while their terribly thin-skinned visible veneer vanishes to rapidly reveal their craving for control, crafty cunning and other truly treacherous traits, predictably proving what unreliably untrustworthy and disgracefully dangerous people they actually are, dreadfully difficult to deal with due to their frustratingly futile inability to consistently change from their self-centred secrecy and self-serving selfish streak, making them most likely to mercilessly, mendaciously and alarmingly abuse positions of power.

Pride comes before a fall and what a fall those who lacked humility but like humiliating and specialised in ridicule, retaliation and retribution can have when people finally see them for what they are and their incredibly intense efforts to maintain power fail, no matter how many people they threaten during their downfall.

It is far better and indeed healthier for others, perhaps in mind and body, that such people be removed from positions of influence before the damage they inflict becomes irreparable. Even after the organisations start failing and collapse, with many people within and beyond adversely affected, their gargantuan self-belief, lack of emotional warmth and inability to see beyond their own perspective can convince them that they actually did nothing wrong.

Such scenarios makes it imperative that such fundamentally and incredibly irresponsible people be as a matter of priority be prevented from attaining positions of responsibility, as in such instances prevention is far preferable to cure, improbable as this may be.

Yet somehow global society can seem to mindlessly mistake their cocky confidence, arrogant attributes and reckless ruthlessness for “leadership ability”, when their tough traits are more likely to prevent people from trusting or respecting such perniciously prickly people and may even contribute to their deeply disliking these deficient delinquents and tricky troublemakers, while failing to follow the erroneous example they seditiously set.

Society Needs “Constructive Leaders” who prefer co-operation and collaboration to conflict and turmoil, harmony to disharmony, win-win to win-lose, ultimately preferring to peacefully resolve differences without resorting to war.

The wonderful world we share no longer needs irresponsible and self-centred leaders who struggle to be agreeable and encouraging, thrive on disagreement and dissent, even subtle or more overt havoc and turmoil, believe they are better than everyone else and fail to realise that disharmony in its many guises, especially intimidation and fear, can not only be extraordinarily counterproductive but deeply divisive and destructive.

These combative people, who seem to take pleasure in being unkind and some even cruel, would seem to have been around for ever, perhaps being responsible for many troubles and conflicts in society throughout human history, potentially both causing and then perpetuating wars, given their inability to be the “peacemaker”.

Their inability to see themselves and their real abilities for what they really are (more limited than they may appreciate), combined with their inability to experience guilt for wrongdoing (someone else is always to blame), nor experience the degree of fear and anxiety which permits most people to know where to “draw the line” between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour or caution and gambling, means that instead of avoiding situations which may be harmful to other people or their organisation, they may actually derive pleasure from taking extreme risks, apparently oblivious to the potential downsides.

Yet we permit such charming, eloquent and apparently “smart” people to manage and lead financial institutions, with their whole business model and very existence based on a constant balancing of reward and risk, despite the fact that even after their organisation has collapsed, with many people’s lives adversely affected, they can still wonder what exactly they did wrong.

Just like one of their most extraordinary inabilities – to learn from prior experience – does the rest of society never seem to learn from it’s prior mistakes with such people?

Appearing to be oblivious to the downside risk associated with hazardous situations and the potentially serious or even catastrophic implications for both other people and their own organisation, entity, financial institution (or nation) which may arise from their decisions and actions, does not spread confidence that when crunch comes to crunch they will prioritise any factor other than their self-interest, their own own pride and their extraordinary sense of infallibility, which extraordinarily they can maintain even following the collapse of the entity they were erroneously chosen to mis-lead.

In continuing to choose such incredibly irresponsible people for positions of responsibility, everyone else in authority needs to better appreciate that such a scenario is not only quite the opposite of the behaviour expected of leaders but also contrary to the fundamental purpose of forming an organisation or indeed any group of people coming together, from business to government, to co-operate towards achieving some common purpose, prioritising the benefit of those it was established to serve not the single-minded ambitions and self-interest of its “Disordered Leaders”, before it is too late and the damage the “Destructive Leadership” they invariably practice (or malpractice) becomes irreparable, lacking the “vision” which many “Constructive Leaders” possess as they successfully take their organisation to places others may not have thought possible.

This is something which “Destructive Leaders” are also well capable of doing – taking their organisation (and its perhaps far more capable and responsible people) to places no-one considered possible – but unsuccessfully and in quite the opposite direction, indeed (unless they are replaced) maybe even to a place beyond which there may be no return, as evidenced by the number of previously successful entities now long forgotten in business graveyards, also overflowing with leaders who really thought they were more important than the people they mis-led and those the entity was founded to serve.

We need to be able to identify these self-centred people for what they really are – deeply divisive, destructive, deceitful, disordered and possibly emotionally disturbed and delusional, with little real interest in anyone but themselves, no matter their apparent Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence because they can be ICE-cold – before they make a spectacle of themselves and the entities they work for, manage and (incredibly) even (mis) lead.

If only everyone else better knew what traits to look for in advance, they could be denied the opportunity to do their best to make other people miserable and ensure that the highlight of their (excessively long) working day is actually going home.

Almost everything written about leadership in some manner suggests that the role of the leader is to motivate their people to achieve common goals, not that their role is to bring out their worst traits, one of the goals of Disordered Leaders which many may also fail to comprehend.

Good Leaders do a great deal of of good. But perhaps those we should regard as Great Leaders do that little bit more, believing that they had a responsibility to society which extends beyond their own organisation or entity.

They may also have the ability or “vision” to see both opportunities for their organisations others may miss and the latent talents in those they are tasked with leading, want to see their potential fulfilled and contribute to this happening, knowing that not only do those individuals benefit personally and professionally, but so too does the group at large.

The Great Leader is perhaps the person who does inspire and guide great achievements, but does not want or need to be thought of as great themselves, indeed quite the contrary.

Maybe those who actually are great, but don’t need to be reminded of this, will achieve far more, especially in terms of the enthusiasm and commitment of their followers, the foundations upon which really great achievements are built and without which mediocrity can be the norm.

If the only person who believes the leader is great is themselves, despite all the rational evidence to the contrary, they clearly are not, except in their own peculiarly self-centred, difficult and proud mind, which may differ significantly from that of truly Great Leaders, especially those far more interested in those they lead than themselves, who they really want to be the best they can be, contributing to making their organisation the best it can be.

Leaders who need to believe they are great, or need others to believe they are great, may not be, especially when they seem to make difficulties out of their opportunities rather than opportunities from their difficulties.

Somehow too many (including business school students) somehow believe that “ruthlessness” has not only a role to play but may even be “necessary” to be “successful” in business. Perhaps if they were consistently on the receiving end of the unnecessary ruthless callousness practiced by “Disordered Leaders”, they might change their opinion and prefer to work for those who specialise in encouragement rather than discouragement.

Ruthless-ness is more indicative of “Destructive Leadership” and a cruel and self-centred mindset which takes pleasure in the misery of others, than any realistic belief that it can either motivate others or lead to anything other than damaged relationships. Even it it leads to a “one-off” victory, any further business between the parties is likely to be hindered or rendered impossible.

“Constructive Leaders” who are strong and courageous as well as kind, considerate and empathetic, are more than capable of taking “tough” decisions when so required. It is a misnomer that people need to be “ruth-less” meaning “sympathy-free” and maybe even lacking in remorse to be able to take difficult decisions. Indeed. quite the contrary.

Unlike those more ruthless, unkind and even cruel by nature, who may thrive on causing upset for others, because they “understand people” and are “emotionally intelligent”, “Constructive Leaders” are capable of “weighing-up” the options and the impact on all concerned, even if negative, as they will try to minimise any deleterious impact to the degree possible on the entity and it’s people.

There is a major difference between being “strong and courageous”, not shirking required actions nor running away from problems as they arise, and being “ruthless” which involves a lack of compassion and consideration for the interests, needs, feelings and emotions of other people, all of which are required of leaders.

While the most mean and cold-hearted can “get their kicks” and derive their own pleasure from diminishing and humiliating other people and trying to “win” at the expense of others in both relationships and transactions, they somehow seem to lack the “nous” required to appreciate that such a policy may result in the other party not only never wanting to deal with them ever again, but even more damaging, they may even choose to “bad-mouth” the ruthless to other current or potential business partners, customers and suppliers.

One-off gains do not lead to longer-term success or even survival, especially when they result in impaired trust and damaged reputation. Seeking to actively harm others and damage relationships in business (or elsewhere) is not a policy that rational people would consider, only the most irrational. The “win-win” preferred by Constructive Leaders ultimately achieves more than the “win-lose” sought by “Destructive Leaders, especially when their incessant need to achieve “personal victories” can damage morale and the very fabric or culture of the organisation, causing the best employees, customers and suppliers to take their talents and business elsewhere, even to their most ardent rivals.

As I mentioned from the outset, when performing the not so pleasant task of considering amongst the worst people we have met during our careers and indeed lives, it makes us appreciate the many far finer and more admirable qualities of the very best, who even thinking about lifts us and brings a smile to our faces, those who do have the talents and skills to manage, lead and maybe even transform whatever organisation or entity is fortunate to count them as one of its own.

Perhaps it is considering and describing the far too prevalent “Destructive Leadership” most associated with “Disordered Leaders” which makes us appreciate the many merits associated with those I describe as “Constructive Leaders” . It is this larger cohort of people who undoubtedly would “make the world a better place” if somehow they were able to respond to the unspoken wishes of those led by “Destructive Leaders” and walk in the door next Monday morning, having replaced them, treating everyone the same, with the respect they would like to be treated themselves and by way of their enthusiastic positivity, praise and encouragement, far better motivate those they manage and lead to perform far nearer to their potential and contribute to the group at large, whatever it may be, doing the same.

That is why national and international business and indeed global Society Needs to ditch and no longer appoint “Destructive Leaders”, no matter how otherwise talented, intelligent, charming, eloquent, dominant, fearful or intimidatory, as when the decision makers assess their contribution, they are likely to realise that they have been self-serving in their own decision-making (“what’s in it for me?”), prioritising their own interests and needs over those of the entity itself and its people, and have probably done more harm (covert and overt) than good.

At the end of the day there are often equally if not more talented people available, more committed to the cause and mission of the entity, with a genuine concern for and interest in all the various people involved or “stakeholders” (especially employees, customers (or citizens) and suppliers) but who may not have been selected because they were less aggressive or “pushy” and perhaps more modest and self-effacing, preferring cooperation to conflict, relationship-building to destroying and indeed harmonious collaboration and consensus-seeking to troublemaking, yet who may have lost out to those who displayed the more problematic traits, only for those who made the decision to subsequently realise what a mistake they had made.

One of the many lessons arising from working with or for those who practice “Destructive Leadership” is that being agreeable beats being aggressive any day and practicing humility and respect rather than humiliation and disrespect is what endears leaders to followers, not the opposite, no matter how effective the worst leaders in society who innately have to promote themselves and disparage others believe such an approach to be. It isn’t and never will be.

Organisational progress, customer/public service and many measures including profitability, along with many “intangibles” like trust, respect, reputation, goodwill and even “world peace”, can all be enhanced when organisations (and nations) as well as Boards of Directors and Voters learn to appoint “Constructive Leaders” with the

vision to realise how great the group they are responsible for could be, with the
strategic insight to know what direction(s) to take,
perception to not only know how to get there, but when a change of direction may be needed,
integrity to set the right tone at the top,
moral compass to guide everyone in the right direction and avoid short-term gain which may result in longer-term pain,
honesty to speak truthfully, not deceptively, and only make promises likely to be able to be met,
remorse to be able to know when wrong has or could be done,
courage to avoid wrongdoing and own up and say “sorry” when things do go wrong (as they will) or promises can’t be met, rather than make the mistake of covering up and “denying the undeniable”, hoping no-one will ever find out (although they do), and
creativity to explore new opportunities,
(emotional) empathy to understand people in all their humanity,
interest in others to encourage and willingly provide support,
perception to offer astute guidance and appreciate the importance of trust and reputation,
wisdom to know what new opportunities to explore and what to change and when,
patience not to impulsively over-react to situations as soon as they arise, to wait for results rather than curtail prematurely, or know when the timing may be right to initiate change or introduce new policies,
humility to seek no personal acclaim and (being the opposite of pride) ability to admit to error rather than persist with doing the wrong thing,
strength to tackle the issues others might ignore and own up to rather than cover up mistakes or wrongdoing,
persistence to surmount obstacles and “never give up” on worthwhile matters which may be in the longer term best interest of all involved,,
resilience to tough out difficulties, remain positive and constructive in seeking to find optimal solutions,
tact to deal with matters diplomatically rather than rudely and crudely, and knowing when saying nothing may be preferable, especially words now could cause damage later or when there may be nothing positive or constructive to say,
attitude of gratitude to be able to genuinely praise and know when to do so, especially when people have tried their best even when the outcome isn’t as good as it might have been,
modesty to deflect praise to others. yet accept responsibility for their mistakes,
emotional intelligence to know how best to deal with the wide variety of people and situations which arise, supporting and pointing them in the right direction, with the
charisma which endears people to their leader and makes people feel important, warmly welcomed and appreciated,
enthusiastic personality which creates the positive culture and sets the
admirable example which encourages and maybe even inspires everyone to want to follow their leader in top gear, as they build bridges and roads to places that people with less vision and insufficient understanding of the mission never even considered. Together and unified.

Fortunately there are many such positive and “can do” people in many roles at all levels throughout local, national and international society.

Yet, although they set an admirable example for not only those they work with, manage and lead, but many others too, we somehow just don’t seem to hear too much about these role-models, especially not from themselves, not feeling the need to speak about themselves, just the group they inspire to produce their best, whose success built on respect and cooperation gives them their greatest personal satisfaction.

Irrespective of size or type of organisation or nature of their specific leadership styles, entities in society led by selfless, cooperative leaders often appear to be singing off the same hymn-sheet and to be playing to the same tune.

Self-centred leaders do not appear to appreciate the benefits arising from unity. Their sheet music, like their disordered and often child-like minds, not only differs from the rest of the band or orchestra but, because they refuse to share the music with others, not unlike a child refusing to let others play with its toys, thrive on confusion and everyone playing to quite different tunes, quite the opposite of what is required of a leader.

Ultimately they are only capable of being a one-man band. Yet we trust “Disordered Leaders” with responsibility for the lives and emotions of other people, when they cannot even properly manage their own.

Society Needs the kind of leaders who can sense the temperature of the moment and know when best to provide either overt orchestra style leadership or appreciate, like guiding a jazz band or Irish ceilidh music session along the right path, that just being a member of the team, using a few well chosen words and setting a good example for others to follow may be the most apt way of calmly dealing with situations.

No matter how laudable some of their other talents may be, society and its organisations ultimately suffers from appointing leaders with an insatiable personal need to be seen to be the hero or heroine, who proactively seek praise when unwarranted and deflect blame for their many failings to others, eventually driving the musicians who perform for them to seek greater harmony by leaving for pastures new, in effect allowing their rival bands and orchestras to avail of their talents because of the myopia, intransigence and intimidation practiced by the illegitimacy of their self-centred leadership.

Yet we continue to elect them to leadership positions, due to what I refer to as “The Leadership Fallacy” which misinterprets some of their less admirable traits, including their more combative qualities such as fear-inducing intimidation and humiliation, as actually being appropriate to those which a “strong” leader could or should possess, while falling for some of their finer qualities, especially their Intellect, Charm and Eloquence, even if they transpire to be ICE-cold, their Intelligence being self-serving lacking and semblance of Emotional depth (or EQ), their Charm insincere, skin deep and used to engage in false flattery of those they believe to be (temporarily) useful to them and their Eloquence transpires to be utter meaningless, especially when there is seen to be a deep disconnect between their words, promises, deeds and actions, which can change at a moments notice.

It is extraordinary the number of organisations who go to great lengths to devise laudable Values Statements, communicate and inculcate these Core Values with their employees, then undo all this good work by (unwittingly) appointing amongst the most covertly unethical people in society to manage and lead them.

Throughout human history society seems to have mistaken confidence, charm, arrogance, apparent intelligence displayed by way of eloquent talk of integrity, for strength of character, and misinterpreted intimidatory traits for strength of leadership, when in reality such fundamentally weak and perhaps childlike people may possess neither good character nor genuine managerial or leadership ability.

Intimidation and aggression produce fear, anxiety and discouragement, which prevent our minds from thinking positively and creatively.

Yet those who put-down, humiliate, disrespect and bully others can extraordinarily be associated with “strength” rather than “weakness” of character, perhaps even a “Personality Disorder”.

Yet we make such people leaders.

Then regret the predictable consequences.

When will we learn?

So why don’t we choose more such trustworthy, modest and responsible people of integrity for important roles, especially when trust and reputation may need to be restored, improving not only “business ethics” and long-term profitability, growth and stability, but indeed peaceful cooperation, employee and stakeholder satisfaction and harmonious progress across global society?

We can tend to ignore the merits of the more calm, rational, astute, wise and talented, but modest, who appreciate there is no humiliation in humility nor humility associated with humiliation, who seek no significant acclaim for themselves, more proud of their people and their achievements than themselves or their own, deflecting praise to others yet accepting responsibility for their failings, as they prefer to praise, encourage and motivate those they lead and prioritise the interests and needs of the group at large over their own.

Perhaps Plato was right to suggest that those who do not desire power may be more fit to hold it, capable of being trusted to use it constructively for the purposes intended.

Only over the last decade or so have I been able to recognise that I have worked with or for over 50 “Disordered Leaders” who (mal)practice “Destructive Leadership” during my own diverse career, although I failed to properly understand them for 25 years. Perhaps that is why I feel a responsibility to explain what I have learned since I started studying Psychology, Neuroeconomics and Neuroscience from 2010 and Personality Disorders in particular from 2013 with you.

If it took me 25 years in industry to finally begin to understand what may be the mindset and motivations of the most “selfish, difficult and proud” people I had met, or encountered, during my own career, I share these thoughts and what I have learned so others may more readily identify some of the most challenging people in society for what they really are – self-centred troublemakers who thrive on disagreement and conflict with little real interest in the entity they manage or lead or its people – and not only deny them the responsible positions they are too irresponsible to use astutely for the purposes intended, but instead hire, promote or elect the total opposite kind of person – “Constructive Leaders” – and appreciate the many fine qualities they bring to managerial and leadership roles throughout global society.

Fortunately there are many such “Constructive Leaders” in many positions and indeed at all levels including team leaders, supervisors and junior and middle management, all of whom provide leadership to those fortunate to work with and for them, but we just don’t tend to hear so much from them nor about their many achievements and successes, and certainly not from themselves, given that they are neither arrogant nor excessively proud, rather astute, tactful and modest, good listeners who others in many ways find to be inspirational and good role models who set a good example for others to follow or aspire to themselves.

Much of this seems to come from their being far more interested in the people they lead than themselves and far more proud of their achievements than their own, which they can tend to downplay rather than advertise loudly as they praise and encourage those who they are expected to motivate and never, ever demotivate, which can seem to be one of the driving forces of their total and utter antithesis – “Disordered Leaders”.

As people with identifiable Personality Disorders can be “found in every race, culture, society and walk of life”, one of the most critical matters for global society to appreciate is that as “Disordered Leaders” see things differently, experience people differently, perceive many matters differently, think differently, behave differently and inhabit a quite different world from most others in society, it is imperative that they be recognised by decision-makers as being substantially different from the norm, being consummate actors hiding their true selves much of the time, hence need to be dealt with significantly differently, including denying them positions of power which they can only abuse, if they are no longer to be permitted to continue to damage the potentially even more wonderful world that everyone else inhabits, which would be far safer, fairer, cooperative, just, harmonious, pleasant and simply much better off if it were exclusively led by “Constructive Leaders”.

Such a utopian ideal may actually be quite achievable, but only when global society gradually begins to better appreciate how to identify potentially “Disordered Leaders” in advance and deny them the opportunity to practice their not so unique form of “Destructive Leadership”, in which case the world we inhabit and share really could be a far, far better, safer and more welcoming and cooperative place – for everyone else.

Yet this is what too many managers and leaders actually do and why I felt compelled to research and write about this, having worked with and for far too many people more interested in themselves than those they are supposed to be setting an admirable example for, yet who they criticise, diminish, demean and discourage when all the research at its most basic suggests they should be encouraging and motivating, and maybe even inspiring, to produce their best.

Society also needs leaders who are well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves) which also describes a minority of “Disordered Leaders”.

Yet extraordinarily we trust the coldest and most self-centred people possible – expert actors but ultimately lacking any genuine interest in other people at all, indeed in anyone but themselves, whose often considerable charm is skin deep and lacking any sincerity, whose often ample intelligence is misused, being cunningly calculating and anything but emotional, indeed those lacking the core essence of humanity, perhaps amongst the most irresponsible people on earth – with responsibility for the lives of employees, volunteers and citizens throughout global society when they hold positions of power, which they inevitably can only abuse as they prioritise competition and conflict over co-operation, disharmony over harmony and themselves over everyone and anything else.

Any attempts at trying to deal with them “normally” may well be doomed to failure.

Another best kept secret which needs to be revealed and better understood internationally is the peculiar, hidden and abnormal world of Personality Disorders, confirmed by the numbers of covert, intolerant, self-centred “Disordered Leaders” evident throughout global society, most certainly not the new abnormal as people with this personality type which results in “Destructive Leadership” would seem to have caused havoc down the centuries, starting conflicts within their own peoples and then between other tribes, regions and even nations.

Being innate troublemakers and not seeking agreement or compromise, a sign of weakness and failure given their imperative of having to ‘win at all costs”, they leave it to the more moderate, tolerant and probably far more emotionally intelligent peacemakers in their group to seek a mutually agreeable end to disagreements and conflicts which should probably never have been allowed to have arisen, especially if the instigating group had instead been led by those with the “dispositional attribution” and more harmoniously used talents associated with “Constructive Leaders”.

Society sometime needs to learn the many lessons from the past that “Givers”, being more interested in others than themselves, make for far better and more “Constructive Leaders”, especially of other people, than those “Takers” who are fundamentally more interested in themselves than others.

Leadership and Management require those whose expertise includes motivation, never, ever humiliation.

Society Needs leaders who derive their primary satisfaction from making the people they lead feel better, never, ever worse.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value, if none of it is emotional.

Indeed this also applies to any form of responsibility for managing the working lives and emotions of other people, a responsibility which should not and cannot be trusted to those incapable of managing even their own emotions.

Many on the surface who can appear to be Intelligent, Charming and Eloquent, may use these facets to hide a fundamentally ICE-cold interior, lacking the one quality essential in anyone tasked with leading and managing other people – basic humanity.

Those who themselves lack humanity and seem to inhabit a DIFFERENT WORLD from the rest of humanity, need to be denied the opportunity to damage the far better world that everyone else inhabits. Prevention is far preferable to the improbability of cure, and those who prevent such challenging people reaching seniority of position in any role throughout global society could well be doing a far, far better thing than they have ever done before, contributing to a far, far more harmonious environment than they would otherwise have ever known.

Better appreciating and acting on this observation alone, let alone others suggested by this paper, could indeed make the potentially more wonderful world we share a far, far better place, for everyone except the “Takers”.

As far as leadership and management of people are concerned, humility beats humiliation, any day, anywhere. Humility, honesty, generosity of spirit and a lack of arrogance and overt pride is appealing to followers.

Humiliation, arrogance, pride (and other forms of self-centredness) are not only counterproductive in terms of being demotivational (the opposite of what is expected of leaders) but also potentially quite destructive, in that they can damage the very relationships upon which successful organisations are built.

Putting people down, especially in public, endears very few to those who feel the necessity to do so. As “Constructive Leaders” are more than well aware, “Public praise and private criticism” achieves far more and can build rather than damage trust, loyalty, enthusiasm, commitment and relationships, one of the primary roles of leaders of all types of organisations.

There is no humiliation in humility, nor any humility associated with humiliation. Yet somehow far too many in society (including business school students) continue to associate arrogance with strength and modesty with weakness, despite the track record of the proud and arrogant more interested in themselves than others often being destructive when mis-trusted with responsibility for anyone other themselves, and the modest being such “quiet achievers” that they seek no personal publicity or acclaim, being more interested in those they lead than themselves, given that they constructively, sensibly, rationally and harmoniously set an admirable vision, tone at the top and worthy example, calmly guiding their organisations, entities and even nations to steady and consistent progress, ignoring short-term opportunities which could risk damaging trust and reputation, amongst the cornerstones of longer-term “success”.

Fortunately the vast majority in global society can be trusted to provide “Constructive Leadership” and we hear very little about them, most certainly not from themselves. However not all leaders and managers are fundamentally responsible, rational and trustworthy, and we can tend to hear a great deal about them, both from themselves and the outcomes and results arising from the negative impact they have on the entities and even nations they mis-lead and adverse consequences which almost inevitably arise.

It is extraordinary the number of organisations from businesses to non-profits, educational to governmental and religious to sporting who go to great lengths to devise laudable Values Statements, communicate and inculcate these Core Values with their employees, then undo all this good work by (unwittingly) appointing amongst the most covertly unethical if not downright dangerous people in society to mal-manage and mis-lead them, then suffer the further adverse consequences when maintenance of the power they should never have been granted becomes their over-riding priority.

Yet time and time again all such entities, apparently in every nation and perhaps in every sector of global society, continue to choose the wrong type of people to lead and manage them, sometimes even the most inappropriate possible, those with a Personality Disorder, knowledge of which would appear to be one of the world’s best kept secrets, incredibly even to themselves as many believe that they are normal and attribute the plethora of problems they create to anything and everything else, no matter how implausible.

Just because “Disordered Leaders” cannot learn from their mistakes doesn’t mean the rest of society shouldn’t from theirs, disbelieving those who seem to suffer a disconnect between their words, promises, actions and deeds and learning how to better identify and identify with the many far more positive and worthy traits associated with “Constructive Leaders”, including a vision for and genuine interest in the success of the entity and the needs of the people they lead, to whom they deflect praise for successes while accepting responsibility for their inevitable mistakes, once they learn how not to repeat them, blaming themselves not others if they do.

As far as leadership is concerned, all the intelligence in the world is of little or no value if none of it is emotional, as humility beats humiliation any time, any place, anywhere and in any situation.

Leadership involves encouragement not discouragement and bringing out the best rather than worst in the people they lead, if they are to collectively, collaboratively and constructively achieve the goals the entity was formed to satisfy, not the self-centred whims of “Disordered Leaders”.

This is especially so of those who seem to thrive on disagreement, dissent and conflict while preferring disharmony and even chaos to harmonious, sensible and rational progress, utopian goals which too many organisations, employees, nations and citizens throughout global society are alas denied when they make the avoidable mistake of hiring, promoting, selecting or electing the wrong type of person or people to provide the “Constructive Leadership” they ultimately are incapable of.

My fellow Dubliner Oscar Wilde, while attending a very boring dinner, was asked by the hostess whether he was enjoying himself. He replied “madam, it is about the only thing I am enjoying”. As well as dinner guests, Oscar could also have been referring to the best and worst of society’s leaders when he observed that: “some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”.

As we say in Ireland: “Ní neart go cur le chéile”.

Julian Martin Clarke 2010-2021

KOFI ANNAN

In the short video link below, former UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan answers the key question whether leadership is all about the individual leaders themselves – as leadership is perceived by takers (being more interested in themselves than others) who he describes as “macho” – or the welfare of the people they are tasked with serving – as leadership is perceived by givers (being more interested in others than themselves)?

“Leadership is not about the individual. When you have macho leaders who believe they have to shine and it has to be all about them, forgetting that what is required is the welfare of society and the people they serve”.

The core qualities which leaders should preferably possess include those which Annan’s own family associate with Kofi as having been a warm and compassionate person, with an abundance of empathy, the ability to experience and respond to the emotions of others, which contributed to his undoubted passion for wanting to alleviate suffering in society.

Should we not prefer such selfless and considerate people who like Annan “radiate genuine kindness” as leaders of organisations and nations in society, qualities more associated with givers, rather than self-centred people, takers with little genuine interest in other people at all?

Should we not be denying takers – more innately interested in themselves than others – the power they crave but are far more likely to misuse and abuse, benefitting themselves and their cliques rather than those they are tasked with serving as “leaders”?

Unfortunately too many businesses, other organisations in society and especially their long-suffering people have to try and cope as best they can with the entirely predictable downsides arising from self-centred and “destructive” or “disordered leadership”.

Proper understanding of the true nature and impact of people with personality disorders when engaged at any level of business, or indeed any aspect of organisational life, incapable of fully sharing in the emotions of others, incapable of showing an interest in other people, incapable of assessing matters from the perspective of other stakeholders, incapable of adequately evaluating risk, incapable of reasoning reasonably and responsibly let alone morally, should prohibit them from holding positions of responsibility.

Yet we continue to appoint such people to managerial and even leadership roles in society, before we realise what a mistake this has been and appreciate what a gargantuan challenge it can be to replace such difficult and challenging people, whose primary goal becomes maintenance of power rather then using it astutely for the benefit of those they were erroneously chosen to lead, to the detriment of everyone but themselves and their submissive, subservient and obsequious cronies.

A group intimidated into only doing what the dominant leader wants is unlikely to evolve, especially when “getting their own way” is very important to their leader. If people are afraid to “speak up” and uninspired to suggest a variety of alternative ideas or courses of action, how likely is more visionary progress? At the end of the day disordered leaders demotivate and discourage people from producing their best. They may even want to bring out the worst in others as they try to turn people against each other rather than engender co-operation and teamwork.

While many people “succeed” by developing people and building trusting relationships, others seem to thrive at damaging relationships and destroying trust, both perhaps inconsequential to them with their primary focus being innately on themselves.

Would business, politics, government, NGOs, charities, clubs, associations and indeed all other areas of society not only operate more progressively, efficiently and less counterproductively, balancing the interests of many stakeholders and considerate of the key roles of trust and reputation, but also be safer for all involved if we somehow learned from the many mistakes of the past and instead of selecting self-centred and ultimately emotionally shallow takers, especially those lacking many “incredibly important” talents including the ability to rationalise risk and learn from prior experience (especially their own mistakes), consideration for and genuine interest in other people, empathy, compassion and other warm emotions, guilt, remorse and even conscience, more frequently chose givers –more interested in others than themselves as our leaders?

Kofi Annan on Macho Leaders – BBC Tribute 180818

Dispositional Attribution of Corporate Executives

Comments and feedback welcomed by email to

jmcpsychresearch@gmail.com

AUTHOR’S NOTE – LABELS

This writing (which started as an academic thesis which evolved into a body of work for a more general readership) may contrast the many admirable and positive qualities typically displayed by those I refer to as “Constructive Leaders” with the many not so desirable and negative aspects typically displayed by those who practice “Destructive Leadership” (who may have a personality disorder), based as much on my own life experiences with many such selfless and selfish people throughout my own career (with over 300 organisations on all continents) as my own research since 2010, as it was these many “real-life” experiences which permitted me to better understand the available research and allowed it to “come alive”, but deliberately rarely labels these dangerous, untrustworthy and irresponsible yet often intelligent, charming and eloquent people as anything other than a “Disordered Leader”.

Those who (mal) practice both “management” and “leadership”, predominantly more concerned with their self-interest and (innately) prioritise advantaging themselves rather than those they have responsibility for or the entity which employs them, are more identifiable than many may realise, notably by those who in some shape or form may “suffer” as a result of being in their company, such as their own self-respect being damaged when criticised, disrespected, disparaged or even humiliated by such people, especially when they seem to derive pleasure from the suffering they inflict on others.

Although some themselves may be the last to know, they may “suffer” from one or more of the “Cluster B Personality Disorders”, a perhaps unique mix (like the Olympic Flag or Audi car symbols) of some combination of the traits associated with Narcissistic, Histrionic, Borderline and Anti-Social personality disorders, maybe with some elements of Paranoid from “Cluster A” too, alternatively described by “Dark Triad” terminology escalating from Narcissistic, Machiavellian or Malignant Narcissism to Psychopathy or Sociopathy, but by and large, except when these are being specifically discussed or described, these people are not “labelled” in this body of writing as narcissists or psychopaths per se, rather as “Disordered Leaders”.

While the precise “diagnosis” is clearly the field and responsibility of professional Psychiatrists and Psychologists, the challenge for every sector of society is that to those being led these “SDP people” – “Selfish, Difficult and Proud” – their unusual mindset and behaviour poses a challenge which too few may be equipped to either adequately deal with or associate with what is known as a “Personality Disorder”, which may be appropriate in situations when other people believe “there is something not quite right here” but may not quite know what “this” may be.

The challenge for global society is that far too few “Disordered Leaders” (who frequently “successfully” achieve their own self-centred goals, but always at the expense of others) will ever be required to meet with a trained mental health professional and hence will be permitted to continue to wreak mini or major havoc, as they have done for centuries, when allowed not only operate at any level of any organisation but also unhindered or unidentified throughout many other areas of society.

To those these people mis-lead or associate with, in whatever environment, the precise “label” is perhaps less important than being able to identify these people for what they may be – disordered and different – and hence learn how to behave differently themselves.

This includes adapting their own behaviour (which I refer to as “IDENTIFY AND ADAPT”) to diminish the harm they can do, to people, organisations and even nations or, better still, “IDENTIFY AND DENY such challenging people the positions of power and responsibility their very irresponsibility prevents them from eventually doing anything other than abusing for some form of personal advantage (even if this is purely within the confines of their own disordered mind), as they create unnecessary conflict and criticise, discourage, disparage, “put-down”, humiliate and “bad mouth” rather than praise, encourage and motivate other people, quite the opposite of what society expects of its “leaders”.

Even the most experienced psychiatrists or psychologists can, in the short term, be fooled by the Intelligence, Charm and Eloquence yet deceitful and perhaps delusional pronouncements (with words disconnected from intentions or actions, past present or future) most associated with this small yet influential subgroup of global society.

Those who profess to be grand-prix racing drivers may not even have passed their driving test, requiring those aware of their driving deficiencies to catalogue and describe these to alert others (including psychologists and more senior managers) to many aspects of the real-life behaviour they typically exhibit and actually display, especially when these traits seem to be frequently displayed in specific situations and don’t seem to change as circumstances change (as being “maladaptive” and “inflexible” are amongst the key indications of a “Personality Disorder”).

Amongst the key arguments of this body of work is that it is their very inflexibility which allows others to identify these people by way of what they struggle (or see no need) to change – their own behaviour – which on reflection can in due course be seen to be highly predictable, but only when others appreciate precisely what behaviour and indications to actually look for, which this work aims to describe in a manner which anyone may be able to understand.

While the label of “malignant narcissist” or “psychopath” may be interesting, and of course relevant, especially to psychiatrists and psychologists in the rare circumstance that they actually get to assess and treat such people, for society to be more ordered, reliable, responsible and indeed far safer, it needs to be able to identify these coldly-calculating, untrustworthy, devious, manipulative and deeply self-centred people, without any genuine interest in or concern for other people, for what they are – “disordered”.

When other people in their circle believe they may have gathered sufficient evidence of what may (or may not) be their “disordered behaviour” (as everyone can behave in a selfish and challenging manner every now and then, especially under pressure), they need to draw this to the attention of both those who specialise in mental health (to facilitate their task of diagnosis) and also (perhaps more importantly in the short-term) to those whose responsibility includes deciding who to select or elect for seniority of position, or indeed any position of responsibility, throughout global society.

The SBT or “Sad But True” reason for the importance of observing and cataloguing their typical behaviour (and specific instances of it) is the inevitability that in due course “disordered” people will ultimately fail to use their influence and power for the purposes intended, given their insatiable need for personal and sometimes impulsive gratification, especially when this is at the expense of others, preferring “win-lose” to the “win-win” outcomes most astute people seek, no matter the walk of life.

No matter how well the most “disordered” pretend to be interested in other people, especially as they seek greater influence, power, prestige, acclaim and wealth, ultimately they aren’t interested and probably cannot be, in anyone other than themselves, so need to be identified as such, before being erroneously trusted with responsibility for the lives and emotions of other people, when they cannot even properly manage their own emotions and lives in the company of others.

That is one of the reasons why this body or work describes the many facets of the behaviour such people typically display, some more or less than others, in such (hopefully) easy-to-identify detail, often behaviour which in isolation many may not associate with a Personality Disorder per se but, taken collectively, could be evident of this, especially when the “evidence gathered” is brought to the attention of professional Psychologists and Psychiatrists, aiding their subsequent diagnosis and (if necessary or likely to be beneficial) treatment programme.

When other people involved may believe “there is something not quite right” or “there is something wrong here, but we aren’t quite sure what this may be”, notably concerning those who seem to “lack a sense of wrong”, this situation may have the potential to become more serious and may be indicative of the presence of a “Personality Disorder”.

There is also sufficient evidence down the centuries of the “damage” which such self-centred and even conscience-free people have inflicted on others, from conflicts between communities to wars between nations, for this whole area of Personality Disorders” to potentially be considered as one of global society’s “best kept secrets”.

Until now – as there are so many examples from today’s world alone why this “secret” needs to be revealed and be better understood and appreciated, safeguarding and improving many (other) people’s lives and ultimately the harmony, safety and security of the organisations and institutions of global society, achieved little by little by preventing those who prefer conflict and disharmony to co-operation and harmony from being trusted with positions of responsibility their very untrustworthiness and irresponsibility prevents them from performing for the purposes society expects of its leaders, from club committees to corporations, other organisations and even nations.

When organisations, entities and even nations are managed and led by the wrong people with the least appropriate self-centred personality, irresponsible by nature and fundamentally incapable of being trusted with significant positions of responsibility, “Disordered Leaders” ultimately disappoint those who appointed them believing them to be capable of far better, before instead realising how difficult they are to remove when they transpire to be more capable at causing harm than doing good.

When will we learn to instead consistently choose in almost every respect their polar opposite, “Constructive Leaders”, those who can be safely trusted with positions of significant responsibility, be committed to achieving and advancing the goals of the organisation, sharing their progressive vision for its future, treating everyone involved with the respect they would like to receive themselves and to passionately prioritise the interests and needs of the people and entity they were chosen to lead over their own?

Somehow and sometime we need to better appreciate the many benefits arising from appointing trustworthy “Constructive Leaders”, given the more cooperative, honest, harmonious and less adversarial culture such responsible and considerate people engender throughout their organisation, being based on positivity, praise and encouragement rather than negativity, critique, fear, discouragement and blame.

Society Needs…

Society Needs “Constructive Leaders” who prefer co-operation and collaboration to conflict, dissent and turmoil, harmony to disharmony and win-win to win-lose, ultimately preferring to peacefully resolve differences without resorting to conflict between people, within and between organisations and even war between nations when their leaders have the cold, combative, “must-win” personality and superiority disorder which results in them innately diminishing and disparaging other people and which prioritises themselves and their needs over those of the more peace-loving people they mis-lead.
Society Needs to learn how to identify “Destructive” troublemakers and never, ever give up in their attempts to diminish the real damage they can do to the fabric of group life, whatever the grouping in society may be. Global society needs to better appreciate how to ignore shallow charm, self-centred intelligence, smooth eloquence and smart talk disconnected with deeds and actions, past, present or future.
Society Needs those capable of recognising wrong, including their own faults which they seek to learn from and rectify, who accept responsibility for the errors of those they lead, rather than those who see no wrong in words and actions which others would, do not learn from their mistakes and blame everyone else for their own failings, like the emperor’s new clothes apparent to everyone but themselves.
Society Needs decisive leaders who see inclusive debate and discussion as a constructive opportunity to maximise collective progress, not “my way only”.
Society Needs leaders who understand their words and deeds can significantly influence others so are careful to ensure what they say and do will encourage peaceful cooperation and never breed trouble, strife and dissent, especially between different groups of people.
Society Needs leaders who appreciate that their responsibility is to unite rather than divide the people they are responsible for, including those who have never cooperated before.
Society Needs leaders capable of diminishing not encouraging hatred and making friends out of former enemies, not enemies out of friends.
Society Needs leaders who are peacemakers not troublemakers, encouraging by their words and deeds kindness in lieu of hatred, forgiveness instead of holding grudges, belief in goodness where there is badness, bringing hope where there is doubt and despair, lighting up people’s lives with their positivity and joy not spreading doom, gloom, sadness, despair and darkness, appreciating that it is by showing an interest in others and trying to understand them that people respond positively, rather than being exclusively interested in themselves.
Society Needs leaders capable of considering the consequences of their words and actions, with the self-restraint to know when saying nothing may be more tactful and responsible, especially when they have nothing positive to say.
Society Needs leaders with the self-control which prevents them from acting impulsively and irresponsibly, inconsiderate of any adverse consequences for others, including themselves.
Society Needs balanced leaders capable of balancing the interests and needs of various groups they are responsible for, not consistently favouring some groups over others and even spreading dissent between them.
Society Needs those who appreciate that the richness of their leadership is derived from treating everyone the same, with equal respect not prejudice, while prioritising the most needy, disadvantaged and ignored over the already wealthy, including inspiring those who have never worked to experience the many joys of the workplace.
Society Needs leaders capable of persuading those considering leaving education too early to appreciate the longer term benefits of learning, while creating the opportunities for them to do so.
Society Needs leaders sensitive to the needs of all, capable of favouring the most kind and sensitive over the most cruel and insensitive.
Society Needs leaders capable of suffering criticism silently, perhaps accepting and learning from it, responding constructively not in a manner which causes others to suffer.
Society Needs those capable of hiring people more talented then themselves, rather than only those unlikely to show up their deficiencies. Society Needs those capable of firing those who do wrong, not those who try their best to put the organisation first or speak up against wrongdoing.
Society Needs positive leaders capable of making opportunities from their difficulties rather than negative leaders who specialise in making difficulties from their opportunities.
Society Needs to better appreciate how to identify the kind of people incapable of genuine kindness, if it is not to suffer from their fundamental lack of humanity.
Society Needs leaders who appreciate that their primary responsibility is to act responsibly, preferring humility to pride. There is no humiliation in humility nor any humility associated with humiliation.
Society Needs leaders with the emotional depth required to warmly experience other people in all their humanity, as unique people with their own needs and interests, not coldly as inanimate objects to be vindictively used, deceived and manipulated.
Society Needs visionary leaders with the ability to envision how great the group they are responsible for could be. Society Needs leaders with imagination, as it is those who imagine that make the unimaginable happen.
Society Needs positive leaders with the enthusiastic personality which creates the constructive culture (not ultra-competitive combat zones) which inspires others to contribute their personal best en route to collectively driving the entity along the road of progress from good to great.
Society Needs humble leaders capable of accepting criticism constructively and learning from it, not too-proud leaders who cannot cope and feel the necessity to respond destructively wanting to damage their critics.
Society Needs leaders with the integrity to set the admirable example which encourages everyone else to want to follow, well capable of “doing the right thing when no-one is looking”.
Society Needs courageous leaders who know that “doing the wrong thing when everyone is looking” could never be described as leadership, let alone leadership with integrity.
Society desperately needs leaders who derive their primary satisfaction from making the people they lead feel better, never worse.
Society Needs as its managers and leaders those capable of recognizing wrong, including their own faults which they seek to learn from and rectify, who accept responsibility for the errors of those they lead, rather than those who see no wrong in words and actions which others would, do not learn from their mistakes and blame everyone else for their own failings.
Society Needs those who find it easy to be kind and impossible to be cruel rather than those who find it easy to be cruel and impossible too be kind to be leading its people and organisations.
Indeed even more fundamental, Society Needs as its managers and leaders those who are well capable of love & incapable of hatred, rather than those well capable of hatred & incapable of loving (anyone other than themselves).
Those who consistently engage in almost unforgivable words and deeds are the very same people who time after time expect to be forgiven for the anger and hatred they practice, preach and instil in others, yet are incapable of forgiving those they perceive to have wronged them and hold deep grudges against, even when they didn’t, finding it easy to apportion blame but impossible to accept responsibility.
Society Needs leaders capable of evaluating the consequences of decisions on the grounds of “how will this benefit the people I am responsible for?” rather than “what’s in it for me?”
Society Needs honest leaders who are team players, bridge-builders and peacemakers not solo playing troublemakers who thrive on deceit, disrespect and disharmony.
Society Needs to learn that those who are always right and never wrong, blame others for their mistakes, cannot forgive and hold deep grudges, who cannot accept responsibility for their own failings and those of the people they lead, who have to “get their own way” and “win at all costs” inconsiderate of the consequences, more interested in themselves than the people they are responsible for, simply do not have what it takes to hold positions of responsibility or be leaders of business or society.
Society Needs to appreciate that when we permit those who are innately more cruel than considerate to achieve their goal of reaching senior positions, we may be succumbing to the misconception that somehow seems to assume or accept that ruthlessness is a valid managerial or even leadership trait.
Society Needs to consider that when it selects and elect those who are more naturally antagonistic, contentious, contrary, controversial, pugnacious, quarrelsome and argumentative rather than agreeable and consensus-seeking it may be mistaking strength of will for strength of character?
Society Needs to wonder when it chooses those who throw temper tantrums when they do not get their own way, who hold grudges and find it difficult to forgive and forget, who are so opinionated that they find it a challenge to accept the suggestions of others and who seem to prefer conflict, trouble and strife to calm co-operation, disputes to compromise and disagreement to agreement, whether it may be appointing children rather than adults to its most senior roles.
Society Needs to strongly consider when time and time again it appoints such spiteful, vindictive, unforgiving, merciless and malicious people to seniority of position, trusting them with important roles despite their deep and utter untrustworthiness, perhaps scared of their retribution if we don’t grant them the power they insatiably crave but ultimately can only abuse; power which their self-centred focus switches to maintaining at any cost, rather than using astutely and constructively for the purpose granted.
Society Needs fundamentally responsible people for its most responsible roles, not the most irresponsible people possible, immune to their inadequacies and unaware of their deficiencies, inconsiderate of the adverse consequences when they inevitably prioritise “winning” over compromise, their self-interest over the firm’s or national interest and themselves over not only others but indeed everyone and anything else.
Society sometime needs to learn the many lessons from the past that Givers, being more interested in others than themselves, make for far better leaders, especially of other people, than those Takers who are fundamentally more interested in themselves than others.

“Prevention is far preferable to the improbability of cure.”

Leadership – What Society Needs (Clarke)

Psychology of Leadership – What Society Needs

by Julian Martin Clarke © 2023

Global society needs consistently responsible “Constructive Leaders”

Leadership – What Society Needs

Society Needs…

KOFI ANNAN

AUTHOR’S NOTE – LABELS

Society Needs…

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Leadership – What Society Needs (Clarke)

Psychology of Leadership – What Society Needs

by Julian Martin Clarke © 2023

Global society needs consistently responsible “Constructive Leaders”

Leadership – What Society Needs

Society Needs…

KOFI ANNAN

AUTHOR’S NOTE – LABELS

Society Needs…

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