Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2012. “The worsening crisis” refers to Spain’s economic crisis, and “two days ago” means March 2012.
In September 2011 a study was carried out on a total of 200 company executives, in which more than 4% scored at or above the level psychiatry defines as “psychopathic”. A psychopath, by definition, is someone who has no conscience and feels no remorse or empathy. They tend to be charming at first sight, because they are born manipulators, which are perhaps two qualities expected of a business leader.
Psychopaths tend to be good negotiators, good managers and very skilled players in business, because every step they take has been thoroughly studied and calculated. That is why, even though they can’t work in a team, their charm and their manipulation of “key people” in the company can carry them into management positions.
The study, carried out by Paul Babiak, stated that 1% of the population had psychopathic tendencies, while inside companies that percentage was four times higher. Babiak set out the study in a book, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, a rather eye-catching title, considering that Babiak claimed that most psychopaths are not in prison but in positions of command in companies.
Still, many psychopathic traits could be mistaken for the requirements expected of a leader in a company, who has to be aggressive and keep control of difficult situations at all times, as well as make cold decisions that could harm or benefit the company as a whole. In other words, someone whose hand doesn’t shake, a cool-headed person. Those abilities are very hard to find in a manager.
The problem is that as the crisis has deepened, cases of “psychopathic bosses” have increased, especially when one of them feels their job or their position in the company is under threat. There’s no doubt that a leader with the traits we’ve been describing, on suspecting that a worker or colleague might take their place, could react in unpredictable ways. We’re not saying they would tamper with your car’s brakes, but they would do everything they could to devise a strategy to stop that person from taking their job. Being a good strategist, they could be a perfect practitioner of workplace bullying (mobbing), so if they felt threatened, they could make their victim’s life impossible.
Two days ago I was talking to several companies that measure workplace climate, and they told me that in the anonymous surveys they run among a company’s employees, more than 60% of workers give their bosses a failing grade for how they treat people, both personally and professionally.
So now, tell me: do any of you have a psychopathic boss? Are any of you psychopaths? 🙂
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