MEaN Leadership: ME a Narcissist??

Throughout history, narcissist leaders have emerged as the effective leaders who have shaped both the history and geography of the present world in terms of political power and conquest of states. Freud identified three types of personalities: erotic, obsessive, and narcissistic. Each one of us has the elements of all three depending on the context and situation. Freud stated that the narcissist personality is the hardest to analyze, having compelling vision for achievement and need for admiration and praise by the followers, so much so that they can live without food for days but not without admiration and adulation.

Narcissist have a passionate desire for authority and power and once they are in a powerful position the narcissist personality blooms to the maximum, fueled by the ‘spirit of power ‘. Narcissism is like fire, if it can be controlled, it can light up the darkest nights but once out of control it can burn the house, company and the soul. Leadership experts Manfred Kets de Vries and Michael Maccoby, therefore talk about ‘productive narcissists’, who can be useful for the government or business to achieve the mission of the organization. The key to their usefulness is the art to ‘manage’ them for productive results. All heroes in the real or cinematic world have high degree of narcissism; the following video portrays beautifully the narcissist traits(or rather Narcissist Personality Disorder Traits) of the famous character Sherlock Holmes.

  

Are Bureaucrats Narcissists?

Taking the analogy from popular research on Leadership that leadership is 30% innate and 70% dependent on the environmental factors, narcissism should also have the same characteristics. The 30% innate trait for narcissism in Bureaucrats can be debated but the remaining 70 % environment in Bureaucracy is too conducive for narcissism. A top job in bureaucracy has inbuilt followers who on a daily basis impart a dose of admiration and adulation to the boss, so much so that the bureaucrats have the narcissist feeling that whatever good that is going on in the organization is just because of their leadership and there is no one better than me in the whole world. Infact it seems that this attitude is somewhat useful and even necessary for the system to run smoothly and it even compensates for the absence of 30% innate basis of leadership, in some bureaucrats. It is pertinent to point out, all Bureaucrats need a healthy dose of narcissism for survival in a very competitive environment. In the words of Manfred Kets de Vries, “Narcissism is the engine that drives leadership”, a fact that is well collaborated in Bureaucracy.