Vladimir Putin is a startling reminder that psychopathic leaders are increasingly becoming the ‘norm’.
Before him, we had Donald Trump but I think Putin now ‘takes the biscuit’ with his brutal, senseless, invasion of Ukraine and threat to use nuclear weapons. It is as if this type of leadership is entering the mainstream. God help us!
I recently read an article in The Times (UK), entitled 'We Are Living Through a Democratic Recession’, penned by Christina Lamb, where very aptly she points out that: “Some say we are living through ‘a democratic recession’. Only 20 per cent of the world’s population live in free countries, while 38 per cent live under authoritarian rule and the rest have restricted freedom.”
Business research in the US shows that 12 per cent of corporate senior leaders display a range of psychopathic traits, which translates into psychopathy being up to 12 times more common among senior management than the general population.
To make matters worse, the trend in the last 15+ years has been to ‘flatten’ the business organisation. The consequence of this has been that middle management has been removed in most organisations, meaning higher levels of management tend to now hold more power, authority and responsibility.
As a result, I think it is fair to say that it is much more common to come across leaders with psychopathic tendencies in the 21st century business world than it was in the past. In fact, a study found that one out of five business leaders have clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits.
Putin is a kind of wake-up call to everyone. We need to start assessing and evaluating the personality traits of leaders (political or business) since the root of most of our problems comes from such leaders not being spotted early enough to be weeded out and prevented from reaching the top.
To my mind, corporate leaders should only be allowed to take office if they pass some kind of a clinical psychopathic personality test (typically in a semi-structured interview with a qualified professional).
The tool I am most familiar with, due to my profession, is the psychopathy checklist − revised (PCL-R) interview, although I am sure there are others.
The checklist I am referring to measures four dimensions:
1. Interpersonal: glibness, superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, manipulative;
2. Lifestyle: need for stimulation, proneness to boredom, parasitic lifestyle, impulsivity, recklessness;
3. Affective: lack of remorse or guilt, callous or lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for ones’ actions;
4. Anti-social: poor behaviour controls, revocation or tendency to ‘break’ the law, tendency to view laws as merely a suggestion.
I am making this argument because I think this type of peculiar leaders are extremely dangerous and tend to ‘hide’ behind a facade of normalcy. In fact, they tend to be very good communicators, described as ‘strategic thinkers’ and creative and highly innovative, which in turn means they deliver results to their organisations.
Common descriptive phrases about such people in the corporate world tend to be “strong leaders”, “have the ability to take unpopular decisions”, “cool under fire” and “charming”.
Unfortunately, these ‘positive’ traits mask their true self and in the end they always end up causing havoc in organisations since they have a tendency to engage in unethical or illegal business practices and have a toxic impact on employees.
Therefore, to become prime minister, CEO or hold any position of power and authority in this country, I think there should be some kind of a vetting procedure and use of instruments designed to assess psychopathic traits.
Putin, and Trump before him, are a huge wake-up call to the world but we have had our own Maltese versions in recent times.
My point is that the brutal war in Ukraine is a strong reminder that we are, as individuals and societies in general, allowing a certain type of destructive leadership style to rise to the top and Putin type of leaders are sprouting everywhere, including Malta.
We see it in politics and business and if we don’t develop tools to detect it, more psychopathic leaders will rise to the top and wreak havoc.
Let’s, therefore, wake up and smell the coffee. Start vetting leaders before appointing them!
For more information, read https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20171102-do-psychopaths-really-make-better-leaders.