Leadership in a time of Psycho

 I've read quite a few books and articles on Leadership over the years. Some are very good. Some aren't. You do find many themes about leading with care, leading by example, leading from within, living your values, promoting positivity, recognising potential in even the lowliest of others, appreciating and learning from failure, and lots of good wholesome stuff that make you happy to be alive and to Be A Leader.

But let's face it - very few of us are actually God or Supreme Imperator of the Universe. We don't have complete control over our environs, nor are we the only "Leaders" out there. There are other Leaders, some of which are in different pecking zones, never mind orders, and nearly all of us are "under" other Leaders, or working in a system where the behaviour of one Leader will influence others. It's like a body, isn't it? All those different parts working together harmoniously towards a shared goal.

Bollocks.

That's not real life. But in this brief article I want to look at one massive glaring humungous pathology in the corpus leadershipicus - the Psycho Leader. In a world of Trump, we need to face this problem, because it's a lot more than that piece of work, and the sad fact of the matter is that much of the good leadership advice that you are being told actively feeds this pathology, and cements the power base of the Psycho Leader, and perpetuates the misery this person can inflict.

Maybe you ARE a Psycho Leader - if that is the case, please step aside and seek help.

There's a whole book of stuff to be written around this (or, rather, books have been written around it, such as Babiak & Hare's "Snakes in Suits - when psychopaths go to work"), but here I'm going to look at some very simple aspects, and you can see this playing out right now on Twitter and the news, with the reality TV show that is the current US "Presidency".

So one thing that I'm going to highlight is perhaps the most important. Psycho Leaders don't reach their positions despite all the nice people around them. They reach their positions, and retain and consolidate their power, precisely BECAUSE of all the nice people around them. Yes, dear reader and leader, YOU helped make this possible. Now you're going to feel all guilty, but please don't. Because you feeling guilty is part of what makes it possible too. It may be a Catch-22.

The extensive characteristics of the Psycho Leader I will perhaps leave for another post; I'm taking it as read that you know what I mean. He's outrageous! He's unhinged! How can he do this? How does he get away with this? (It's usually a he, but I suppose not necessarily). It's all bound to come crashing down! (It usually doesn't).

What keeps Psycho Leaders in power? How come they aren't toppled and get their come-uppance? Why doesn't someone do something?

It's a People Thing. Firstly, PLs are often superb manipulators. They trade on guilt and deals. In their rise to power they find ways to come to arrangements with good decent people who think they are being treated fairly, but the PL will often engineer things so that the good decent person (GDP) ends up owing the PL something, or (more commonly) feeling that they do. The PL will use this to his advantage to move on up. Over and over again. The PL may dole out the occasional rewards to the GDP, but will always do this in such a way that it is seen that the GDP should be really thankful to the PL, and always remains observably in his debt.

The PL will attract other up-and-coming PLs. This is actually quite hazardous for the junior PLs, as we are seeing in the White House saga, with the rapid turnover of greasy wee shits trying to curry favour with the big one. You see, they can get a bit uppity. They can try to use their own PL skillz on the Big Cheese PL, and that can be a mistake. Or they can distract attention from what BCPL is doing, and if there's one thing PLs like, it's attention. This is actually a weakness. Remember that.

You get this uneasy mix of flash-in-the-pan Icarus PLs flying too close to the sun, and, paradoxically, a lot of GDPs who are trying to stabilise things around the edges - cleaning up the PL's mess. Of course this reinforces the PL's view that he's doing a great job of leadership, regardless of what is happening to the company or organisation. The GDPs will recruit in other GDPs to help the stabilisation effort, and in some cases this can keep the wheels on the wagon for a while, but it is very unstable, and prone to collapse. And when that happens, the PL will dust himself off and move on.

Sometimes the PL is recognised by senior people (who may be GDPs) on the outside as being a Problem. If they are GDPs they often lack the guts to do something significant - and the PL knows this. He knows it is very hard for them to fire him - after all, he has engineered it so that they owe him something, and he will milk that guilt or debt for all it's worth. Or he will make it clear that replacing him will be very VERY expensive (and guilt-laden for them), and it's less trouble to leave him to get on with being a brilliant leader.

He may not even need to say that explicitly, because GDPs are often quite timid in this regard - particularly senior ones. So they may lack the courage to get rid of the PL. Other PLs are unlikely to act unless they see our PL as a threat, or he tries to impinge on their particular empire - in which case we're in the same position we looked at above. In either event, the GDPs propping up this pathological tower of power become increasingly frustrated and disenfranchised. What happens to them?

Some will be beaten down - they will come to love Big Brother, like at the end of 1984. Recognising their powerlessness, they adapt to rely on the PL, and can become his most ardent supporters and sources of information. This is a dangerous situation that you, as a GDP and a Leader, need to be very aware of. Exercise due caution.

Others will decide they can't be bothered with this stress, and leave the organisation, often slipping down a few steps in their career structure. But it's worth it to not be in that environment, right?

Still others will soldier on, in the hope that things will get better, and decide to do their utmost to keep the organisation afloat, or to go beyond their call of duty again and again. But this is not sustainable, and things can really only get worse. They will suffer.

We see this pattern time and time again. The pathology of the Psycho Leader, whose malign power only increases, the more that Good Decent People try to make things better.  

The only solution is to remove the Psycho Leader, and prevent new PLs from rising in the ranks. I'll maybe look at some strategies for this in future posts. In the meantime, look at your organisation; recognise where such abuse is occurring, and costing you dearly in time, money and good personnel. Help and support the GDPs by showing and rewarding positive leadership attributes. And if you are faced with a PL, remember you do NOT owe that bastard a damn thing.