Psychiatry Can Help Businesses Counter Toxic Leadership

CHICAGO – The high-profile corporate scandals of the past decade have brought renewed interest in destructive and dysfunctional leadership and how it can be identified and mitigated, Dr. Vineeth P. John said at the annual conference of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.

Occupational psychiatrists and psychologists should be familiar with the concept of toxic leadership so that they can confront the issue and help the business world understand the paradigms and psychodynamic underpinnings of corporate narcissism, Dr. John said in an interview.

“We have to create and employ appropriate measures to counter the impact of toxic leadership and create awareness of the enormous cost to society of this sort of behavior,” said Dr. John of the psychiatry department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He noted that the term “toxic leader,” frequently heard in the debate about corporate ethics and the issue of accounting scandals, was coined in 2004 by Jean Lipman-Blumen in her book “The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians–and How We Can Survive Them” (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2006).

According to Ms. Lipman-Blumen, any one of several qualities can help to identify a toxic leader, including lack of integrity, insatiable ambition, enormous ego, arrogance, avarice, amorality, cowardice, and incompetence. Toxic leaders tend to violate basic human rights, feed followers' “illusions,” stifle criticism, and identify scapegoats, Dr. John said.

Barbara Kellerman, in her book “Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters” (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), identified seven kinds of bad leadership: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil. Such leaders often are tolerated because they provide jobs and income, Dr. John explained at the conference, which was cosponsored by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The keystone in the arch of toxic leadership is narcissism. A desire for power, and the need to win at all costs might indicate the presence of narcissistic personality disorder. Dr. John noted that the more those around toxic leaders try to understand their motives, the more vulnerable these followers become. The toxic leader, his constituency, and the organizational culture within which they work create what Dr. John calls a “toxic triad” that promotes mediocrity over merit, management by intimidation, and age and gender silos. In these situations, prominence often is given to the leader's personal agendas above sound organizational strategy.

In addition, the toxic work culture is characterized by several other factors, including:

▸ Vague job descriptions.

▸ Constant flux in the organizational climate and poor coordination among divisions.

▸ Hostile style of conducting meetings.

▸ Tolerance of abusive behavior by senior management.

The real costs of toxic leadership include stress, burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, loss of share value, loss of jobs and pensions, bankruptcy, destruction of the organization, and perhaps even destruction of communities, cities, and nations, Dr. John said.

On the other hand, a countermovement called “productive narcissism” is expounded by Michael Maccoby in his book “The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership” (N.Y.: Random House, 2003). Mr. Maccoby posits that narcissism can be useful to a company in crisis that could benefit from a leader whose strategic intelligence can take the organization to the next level, Dr. John said. Winston Churchill has been described as a “productive narcissist” who stepped forward to lead a country in crisis to victory.

CHICAGO – The high-profile corporate scandals of the past decade have brought renewed interest in destructive and dysfunctional leadership and how it can be identified and mitigated, Dr. Vineeth P. John said at the annual conference of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.

Occupational psychiatrists and psychologists should be familiar with the concept of toxic leadership so that they can confront the issue and help the business world understand the paradigms and psychodynamic underpinnings of corporate narcissism, Dr. John said in an interview.

“We have to create and employ appropriate measures to counter the impact of toxic leadership and create awareness of the enormous cost to society of this sort of behavior,” said Dr. John of the psychiatry department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He noted that the term “toxic leader,” frequently heard in the debate about corporate ethics and the issue of accounting scandals, was coined in 2004 by Jean Lipman-Blumen in her book “The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians–and How We Can Survive Them” (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2006).

According to Ms. Lipman-Blumen, any one of several qualities can help to identify a toxic leader, including lack of integrity, insatiable ambition, enormous ego, arrogance, avarice, amorality, cowardice, and incompetence. Toxic leaders tend to violate basic human rights, feed followers' “illusions,” stifle criticism, and identify scapegoats, Dr. John said.

Barbara Kellerman, in her book “Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters” (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), identified seven kinds of bad leadership: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil. Such leaders often are tolerated because they provide jobs and income, Dr. John explained at the conference, which was cosponsored by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The keystone in the arch of toxic leadership is narcissism. A desire for power, and the need to win at all costs might indicate the presence of narcissistic personality disorder. Dr. John noted that the more those around toxic leaders try to understand their motives, the more vulnerable these followers become. The toxic leader, his constituency, and the organizational culture within which they work create what Dr. John calls a “toxic triad” that promotes mediocrity over merit, management by intimidation, and age and gender silos. In these situations, prominence often is given to the leader's personal agendas above sound organizational strategy.

In addition, the toxic work culture is characterized by several other factors, including:

▸ Vague job descriptions.

▸ Constant flux in the organizational climate and poor coordination among divisions.

▸ Hostile style of conducting meetings.

▸ Tolerance of abusive behavior by senior management.

The real costs of toxic leadership include stress, burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, loss of share value, loss of jobs and pensions, bankruptcy, destruction of the organization, and perhaps even destruction of communities, cities, and nations, Dr. John said.

On the other hand, a countermovement called “productive narcissism” is expounded by Michael Maccoby in his book “The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership” (N.Y.: Random House, 2003). Mr. Maccoby posits that narcissism can be useful to a company in crisis that could benefit from a leader whose strategic intelligence can take the organization to the next level, Dr. John said. Winston Churchill has been described as a “productive narcissist” who stepped forward to lead a country in crisis to victory.

CHICAGO – The high-profile corporate scandals of the past decade have brought renewed interest in destructive and dysfunctional leadership and how it can be identified and mitigated, Dr. Vineeth P. John said at the annual conference of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.

Occupational psychiatrists and psychologists should be familiar with the concept of toxic leadership so that they can confront the issue and help the business world understand the paradigms and psychodynamic underpinnings of corporate narcissism, Dr. John said in an interview.

“We have to create and employ appropriate measures to counter the impact of toxic leadership and create awareness of the enormous cost to society of this sort of behavior,” said Dr. John of the psychiatry department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He noted that the term “toxic leader,” frequently heard in the debate about corporate ethics and the issue of accounting scandals, was coined in 2004 by Jean Lipman-Blumen in her book “The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians–and How We Can Survive Them” (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2006).

According to Ms. Lipman-Blumen, any one of several qualities can help to identify a toxic leader, including lack of integrity, insatiable ambition, enormous ego, arrogance, avarice, amorality, cowardice, and incompetence. Toxic leaders tend to violate basic human rights, feed followers' “illusions,” stifle criticism, and identify scapegoats, Dr. John said.

Barbara Kellerman, in her book “Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters” (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2004), identified seven kinds of bad leadership: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil. Such leaders often are tolerated because they provide jobs and income, Dr. John explained at the conference, which was cosponsored by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The keystone in the arch of toxic leadership is narcissism. A desire for power, and the need to win at all costs might indicate the presence of narcissistic personality disorder. Dr. John noted that the more those around toxic leaders try to understand their motives, the more vulnerable these followers become. The toxic leader, his constituency, and the organizational culture within which they work create what Dr. John calls a “toxic triad” that promotes mediocrity over merit, management by intimidation, and age and gender silos. In these situations, prominence often is given to the leader's personal agendas above sound organizational strategy.

In addition, the toxic work culture is characterized by several other factors, including:

▸ Vague job descriptions.

▸ Constant flux in the organizational climate and poor coordination among divisions.

▸ Hostile style of conducting meetings.

▸ Tolerance of abusive behavior by senior management.

The real costs of toxic leadership include stress, burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, loss of share value, loss of jobs and pensions, bankruptcy, destruction of the organization, and perhaps even destruction of communities, cities, and nations, Dr. John said.

On the other hand, a countermovement called “productive narcissism” is expounded by Michael Maccoby in his book “The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership” (N.Y.: Random House, 2003). Mr. Maccoby posits that narcissism can be useful to a company in crisis that could benefit from a leader whose strategic intelligence can take the organization to the next level, Dr. John said. Winston Churchill has been described as a “productive narcissist” who stepped forward to lead a country in crisis to victory.