Recognising a narcissist manager

There are some CEO or manager narcissistic behaviours identified in research (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a). Collectively these behaviours might identify a particular CE or manager as possibly being a narcissist. 

It can be helpful to know what these behaviours are so that we can identify potentially toxic situations early. "Knowing" allows us take control over our own destinies and make the choice about when to move on from a role which is in danger of becoming toxic... or to avoid stepping into what is a potentially poor situation in the first place. Forewarned is forearmed.

The six items are (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a):

1. Praise. "The need for praise makes narcissistic CEOs more likely to take actions that lead the media to make them celebrities". This type of media-hungry CEO will play to the crowd: "violating conventions" (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a), look in the mirror when successful, through the window at failure (Collins, 2001). 
2. High-status people. "The need for praise makes narcissistic CEOs more likely to include larger proportions of high-status" staff (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a) in their teams. We are surrounded by high-flyers who make us feel special by association. So lots of stars (and see point 4 for the other side of this one)
3. Manipulation. "The need for praise and the presence of more high-status [staff] make narcissistic CEOs more likely to manipulate [their people] in ways that results in less [...] monitoring" (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a). We get left alone to do our work, without oversight; providing we do as we are told (see the next point)
4. Domination. "The need to dominate makes narcissistic CEOs likely to have more lower-status, younger, and less experienced" staff (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a). Then we can't argue with them. We more than likely lack the experience in dealing with this personality type. So.... lots of question marks to balance out the stars. 
5. Rewards and protection. "The needs for praise and domination make narcissistic CEOs more likely to give outsized rewards and protect loyal management team members who flatter the CEOs and defend them after poor firm performance" (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a). We get the big bucks working for these people, and they will protect us in order to prevent secrets from being spilled... until we fall from favour and then we get thrown to the wolves. Ouch.
6. Short (or long) tenure. "The need to dominate leads narcissistic CEOs’ [staff] to have either very brief or very long tenures with the organization" (Chatterjee & Pollock, 2022a). We either cope with this type of person and stay for ages because the roller-coaster we are on fills us with a continuous adrenalin high; or we leave fast because we can't cope with the roller-coaster. There is no mid-term.

What immediately springs to mind is the spread: stars versus question marks. Short versus long. Domination versus lack of boundaries.

This is a very interesting set of lenses for viewing our managers and CEOs through! 

Sam

References:

Chatterjee, A., & Pollock, T. G. (2022a). Six Things to Expect from Narcissistic CEOs. Academy of Management Insights Summary. https://journals.aom.org/doi/pdf/10.5465/amr.2015.0224.summary?download=true

Chatterjee, A., & Pollock, T. G. (2022b). Six Things to Expect from Narcissistic CEOs [infographic]. Academy of Management Insights. https://journals.aom.org/cms/10.5465/amr.2015.0224.summary/asset/images/medium/six_things_to_expect_from_narcissistic_ceos_infographic.png

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great. HarperCollins Publishers.