As the 2024 US Presidential election reaches its climax, many are concerned about the wisdom of voting for Donald Trump.
Often described by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists as someone who lives with a personality disorder (Partland, 2020), the evidence is not universally conclusive (Immelman, A., & Griebie, A., (2020, July), yet many believe Mr. Trump may well be a sovereign risk for his own country. Whether these experts are correct about Mr. Trump’s mind and behaviour or not, now is as good a time as any to consider senior leader selection as a matter of board oversight and good governance that protects organisations through knowledge-based resilience.
What do we mean by knowledge-based resilience? For this piece, we refer to the knowledge that directors should have about the most serious and dangerous (dark) personality disorders so they can avoid signing off on potentially catastrophic senior management hires.
- What are personality disorders?
- To what extent are they real problems at executive levels?
- How do you identify these dark personalities?
- What do such people do that makes them so superficially successful?
- How do they manipulate other people’s perceptions of them?
- How do they manipulate other people’s perceptions of them?
- How do selection committees and boards arm themselves against the ‘charms’ and persuasiveness of such people?
The evidence base that provides the tools that directors need is significant and sophisticated. It includes the scholarship of leadership, organisational wisdom, organisational behaviour, and HR. These are substantial resources to support directors seeking to understand how to distinguish between behaviour that is unpleasant and that which is dangerous.
But what else do directors need to answer the questions set out above? Leaders and directors need to have sound working models, evidence-based cognitive models, in their own minds, and in their advisors’ minds.
One approach is to understand the models that psychiatrists and psychologists use to determine if a person meets the diagnostic criteria for a personality disorder, or, indeed, if they do not meet the criteria but are nevertheless still deeply problematic as sub-clinically disordered people.
The term ‘dark triad’ leadership is used to express the pattern of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism seen in many political and business leaders. Arguably the real challenge to organisational resilience and good leadership governance is to understand the sociological and social psychology of how destructive and toxic ‘dark triad’ behaviours can be when enacted by executives and leaders.
- Can you spot what is called superficial charm?
- Do you understand how selection committees, subordinates, and peers identify with such people and why?
- Do you know how feelings of uncertainty and vulnerability make you vulnerable to them?
There is not the time and space to elaborate on all of this here, but we and our extensive network of world class professional researchers have workable answers. Please reach out to discuss solutions that can bring resilience against malignant leaders to your organisation.
Read more
Partland, D. (Director). (2020). Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump [Film]. Bronson Park Films; docshop Productions.
Partland, D. (Director). (2020). Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump [Film]. Bronson Park Films; docshop Productions.
King, E. (2024) A Critical Perspective on the ‘Dark Triad’ Traits in Leadership: Balancing Influence with Humanity, drlizking.com, April 16, 2024, Avaliable at https://www.drlizking.com/the-dark-triad-traits-in-leadership/
