There’s something new and daring about the CEOs who are transforming
today’s industries. Just compare them with the executives who ran large
companies in the 1950s through the 1980s. Those executives shunned the
press and had their comments carefully crafted by corporate PR
departments. But today’s CEOs—superstars such as Bill Gates, Andy Grove,
Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Welch—hire their own publicists, write
books, grant spontaneous interviews, and actively promote their
personal phi-losophies. Their faces adorn the covers of magazines like Business Week, Time and The Economist.
What’s more, the world’s business personalities are increasingly seen
as the makers and shapers of our public and personal agendas. They
advise schools on what kids should learn and lawmakers on how to invest
the public’s money. We look to them for thoughts on everything from the
future of e-commerce to hot places to vacation.
Narcissists, he pointed out, are emotionally isolated and highly
distrustful. Perceived threats can trigger rage. Achievements can feed
feelings of grandiosity. That’s why Freud thought narcissists were the
hardest personality types to analyze. Consider how an executive at
Oracle described his narcissistic CEO Larry Ellison: “The difference
between God and Larry is that God does not believe he is Larry.” That
observation is amusing, but it is also troubling. Not surprisingly, most
people still think of narcissists in a primarily negative way. After
all, Freud named the type after the mythical figure Narcissus, who died
because of his pathological preoccupation with himself.
Best-selling business writers today have taken up the slogan of
“emotional competencies”—the belief that successful leadership requires a
strongly developed sense of empathy. But although they crave empathy
from others, productive narcissists are not noted for being particularly
empathetic themselves. Indeed, lack of empathy is a characteristic
shortcoming of some of the most charismatic and successful narcissists,
such as Bill Gates and Andy Grove. Of course leaders do need to
communicate persuasively. But a lack of empathy did not prevent some of
history’s greatest narcissistic leaders from knowing how to
communicate—and inspire. Neither Churchill, de Gaulle, Stalin, nor Mao
Tse-tung were empathetic. And yet they inspired people because of their
passion and their conviction at a time when people longed for certainty.
In fact, in times of radical change, lack of empathy can actually be a
strength. A narcissist finds it easier than other personality types to
buy and sell companies, to close and move facilities, and to lay off
employees—decisions that inevitably make many people angry and sad. But
narcissistic leaders typically have few regrets. As one CEO said, “If I
listened to my employees‘ needs and demands, they would eat me alive.”
http://www.maccoby.com/Articles/NarLeaders.shtml
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