Narcissists Are Over-Represented in Senior Leadership Roles. Yeah, You Knew That!

We know from research that narcissists are over-represented in leadership roles. This goes a long way in explaining how common toxic bosses and toxic workplaces can be. Why in the world would leadership roles include anyone whose personality is fundamentally damaging to others?

First of all, not all “toxic” or difficult bosses are narcissistic. Far from it. But compared to the natural distribution of folks with clear narcissistic personalities in society, we see a greater proportion of senior leadership positions filled by those on a spectrum from moderate narcissistic tendencies to those with diagnosable Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Narcissists are over-represented in leadership because many organizational cultures actually facilitate and reward narcissistic behaviors in leaders—particularly in male bosses.

For example, traditional American organizational cultures are often driven by zero sum practices (win-lose, rather than win-win), hierarchy (which is gold for a narcissist), the power of fear, a short-term focus, tolerance of unethicality, institutionalized privilege/entitlement, and acceptance of authoritarianism as a legitimate leadership style. And, particularly as it relates to white males, both organizational cultures and society at large frequently reward confidence over competence, which plays into core elements of narcissism.

To be clear, narcissistic leadership can, in fact, sometimes drive short term results. Ultimately, however, it typically results in distress and disengagement for most, but not all, employees. Some individuals, usually due to their own relational histories, are maladaptively drawn to narcissists, but that is a complex dynamic for another post.

Narcissism is also being facilitated by the technologically driven disintegration of traditional social norms and interactions. It is frankly easier to behave narcissistically behind the isolating veil of disembodied technological interactions than in socially regulated face to face contexts.

An important takeaway from the reality that you’re more likely to encounter narcissists in senior leadership roles than in the general population is that the further down the spectrum toward disordered personality a narcissist is, the less likely it is that your efforts or anyone else’s efforts can change who the person is or how they behave. Personality tends to be more static and “fixed” than situationally driven behaviors, and that is particularly so with narcissistic and other “antagonistic” personalities. If your boss is, in fact, narcissistic (not just arrogant or self-centered or rough around the edges), usually, the only way to truly protect yourself is to remove yourself from environment controlled by the narcissist.