Narcissistic Leadership

Narcissistic Leadership
Student’s Name
Institution
Course
Professor’s Name
Date
Narcissistic Leadership
Leadership plays an important role in organizational success, especially because it provides guidance and clarity about what needs to be done to achieve organizational goals. However, different types and styles of leadership take on different approaches to provide guidance and clarity. Also, different leadership styles/types are characterized by different traits, and these traits impact organizations differently. According to Mauri (2017), leadership styles matter because it is through adopting the right leadership style that organizations can make necessary changes to achieve organizational goals and success. This paper is going to look at two specific leadership styles, namely, narcissistic and covenant leadership. Specifically, the paper will explore the traits and organizational impact of each leadership style and develop a plan that can be used to transition from narcissistic leadership principles to covenant leadership principles, with a special focus on a police organization.
Narcissistic Leadership: Definition and Traits
Narcissistic leadership is understood from the perspective of narcissism as a personality trait. According to Nevocka et al. (2018), narcissism is characterized by a sense of self-imposed importance and superiority. Individuals with this personality trait are also self-absorbed and like to dominate others. Narcissistic leaders are not new; there were narcissistic leaders even in Biblical times. King Nebuchadnezzar is a great example of a narcissistic leader in the Bible. He ruled Babylon and expected his followers to do as he wanted, including worshipping the gold statue he had created instead of worshipping God. However, some people refused to worship this statue, and they were thrown into the furnace of fire for challenging his authority (Daniel 3: 13-22). In another instance, his self-absorbing nature can be seen in Daniel 5:30, where he talked about his greatness in building great Babylon. Unfortunately, he displayed narcissistic traits and ended up destroying himself because he was condemned to eat grass away from humanity for seven years. As Nevocka et al. (2018) reveal, the self-interest and self-absorbing nature of narcissistic leaders make them abusive and end up engaging in behaviors that destroy others.
The key traits of narcissistic leaders are:
* Self-interest and self-absorption
* Disregard for other people’s ideas/opinions (Yu et al., 2018)
* Hostility when challenged by followers
* Aggression towards negative opinions from others (Yu et al., 2018)
* Abusive towards juniors
* Blame externalization- They never take the blame for anything (Nevocka et al., 2018)
* Credit-driven –Likes taking credit even when it is for the positive performance of others.
Surprisingly, a gender bias or stereotype has made narcissistic traits desirable in men but undesirable in women, especially in organizational leadership. Leary and Ashman (2018) reveal that narcissistic female leaders are more disliked than narcissistic male leaders even though they share the same damaging traits. Their traits are also interpreted differently. For instance, the desire for dominance, or even the achievement of dominance among men, is seen as having influence (a positive thing), but when it comes to women, the same trait is interpreted as trying to be domineering or controlling. This is also another aspect of narcissistic leadership that makes it dangerous for organizations.
Organizational Impact of a Narcissistic Leader
Given the abrasive nature of narcissistic leaders, it is not surprising that they are poor at forging interpersonal relationships. Their ability to self-damage and damage the organizations makes them a threat to organizational success (Leary & Ashman, 2018). For instance, King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to busk in his glory so much so that he walked on his palace's roof saying he built Babylon to show his power (Daniel 4:29-30). This is what damaged him and made him eat grass for seven years. Closer to home, Leona Helmsley is a good example of a narcissistic leader who self-damaged by pushing her grandiose so far she ended up in prison (Leary & Ashman, 2018). One of the greatest negative organizational impacts of narcissistic leadership is employee feedback avoidance. According to Yu et al. (2018), employees often feel that their narcissistic leaders do not care enough to give them constructive feedback. If anything, narcissistic leaders are quick to assign blame on others when things go wrong and similarly quick to take credit when things go well. In addition, narcissistic leaders do not take feedback from their employees because they do care what the employees feel or think about the organization or the leader. So, employees choose to completely avoid feedback, and that is how they develop a "feedback avoidance behavior (Yu et al., 2018)." Yet, feedback is a very important aspect of organizational success. It helps improve efficiency and productivity among human resources. It also ensures that leaders learn from their followers about areas that need improvement. Another organizational impact of narcissistic leadership lowers employee morale (Leary & Ashman, 2018). Narcissistic leaders never empower their followers, and as such, followers lack the motivation to stay engaged in their work. They also never listen to employees' ideas and suggestions, and this makes employees feel as if they are not part of the team (Yu et al., 2018). Ultimately, low morale translates into low productivity, diminished quality of work, and overall poor productivity.
However, it is worth noting that narcissistic leaders do not always have a negative organizational impact. According to Leary and Ashman (2018), some productive narcissistic leaders can propel an organization's performance in times of crisis. Their confidence and grandiosity make it possible for them to make difficult decisions to get the organization out of the crisis. However, this only works because productive narcissists know they will receive all the glory once the crisis has been resolved. In the end, they are still serving their self-interest. Other situations where narcissistic leadership can have a positive organizational impact are when the organization is in transition or when the job is high-pressure, and the need to maintain long-term relationships is not immediate (Leary & Ashman, 2018). In such cases, a productive narcissist will swoop in and get the job done without caring about who gets hurt in the process. For narcissistic leadership to be productive, the leader has to create some balance so that their desire for power and self-importance does not overpower them and push them towards destructive behavior. Leary and Ashman (2018) consider Elon Musk and Steve Jobs as good examples of productive narcissists. These two have impacted their organizations positively by creating some of the most innovative, visionary products in the world. Their risk-taking nature and confidence have helped create value for humanity.
Covenant Leadership: Definition and Traits
Covenants can be traced back to ancient times. In Biblical times, covenants were used to define a relationship either between God and mankind or between human beings. One of the earliest covenants in the Bible is the Noahic covenant, where God made a covenant with humanity to never again destroy mankind and life on Earth with a flood. God even created the rainbow as a sign of his promise and everlasting commitment (Genesis 9:1-17). From this biblical example of a covenant...