Psychopaths aren’t always bad bosses
The British psychologist Kevin Dutton wanted to know in which professions such characters are most often found. To do this, he subjected British employees to a personality test in which psychopathic traits were identified – unnoticed by the test subjects.
The most psychopaths were, in that order, CEOs, lawyers, broadcast journalists, salespeople, and surgeons. Clergy were also among the top ten on the list.
The fact that some of the CEOs are psychopathic does not necessarily mean that these people are all bad bosses. After all, the characteristics cited only represent part of their character. In addition, those up there are simply better at many things than others, which is also why they have made careers.
Courage, will and resilience
The international personnel consultancy Russell Reynolds looked intensively at these positive characteristics in the study “Inside the Mind of the Chief Executive Officer”. To do this, the creators analyzed over 900 psychometric data sets (in German: measurable and comparable characteristics) of CEOs as well as 6,000 profiles of second and third level managers.
It was to be expected when looking at the results that a personnel consultancy does not announce that the world’s board members are primarily crazy, but rather praises them. Russell Reynolds believes – of course – that most CEOs are bosses because they can do many things better than the managers on the floor below them.
In detail, they differed (positively) from them, especially in the following points:
