THERE’S A PREDATOR HUNTING YOU.

Not all psychopaths are in prison: many of them put on suits and roam corporate offices. They use their incredible impression management skills to charm victims and extract whatever favors they want, often rapidly advancing up the corporate ladder at the expense of their colleagues and the company. The only hope for those involved is to quickly spot these predators before they destroy the organization.

 Unfortunately, sooner or later, you’re likely to meet a psychopath. When this happens, you’ll probably have no idea who you’re dealing with.

Most psychopaths wind up in prison because they lack the skills to manipulate people to get what they want, forcing them to resort to a more direct approach: violence. But psychopaths who are not incarcerated are much more subtle and capable manipulators. They often use the following three-stage process:

First, in the assessment phase, psychopaths will evaluate their victims’ utility to them, e.g., the victims’ ability to provide them with money, power, sex, celebrity, recognition and so on. At the same time, psychopaths will also assess their victims’ weak spots. Not distracted by emotions or social inhibitions, psychopaths are experts at reading people, and can easily identify their needs, likes, vulnerabilities and emotional hot buttons.

Second, in the manipulation phase, psychopaths extract what they wants from the victim. They do this by changing their personality into a completely fictitious character: whoever is needed to manipulate the victim. Psychopaths are pathological liars and can quickly make up whatever stories they think will strengthen the bond with their victims. They are incredibly adept at managing the impression they make on others and can change their apparent personality to suit any situation: anxious victims find them soothing and bored victims find them exhilarating. A chameleon changing its color to snare a fly seems an apt analogy.

Finally, in the abandonment phase, when victims are no longer useful to them, psychopaths discard them abruptly, typically cutting off all contact. The victim is often left in emotional turmoil, shocked at the betrayal of a supposedly close friend or lover. Psychopaths do not feel regret or remorse over this action like normal people. In fact, they don’t feel any emotion at all: brain imaging experiments have shown tha psychopaths’ brains do not react to emotional material like the brains of normal people. They know that other people have things called emotions, but they neither feel nor appreciate them themselves.

 ACTIONABLE ADVICE-KNOW THYSELF.

Ask your family and close friends – the people who know you best – to describe how they see you: strengths, weaknesses and all. You might well be surprised at what you hear, and this will help you better understand what emotional hot buttons you have that a psychopath may take advantage of.

 KNOW YOUR COMPANY.

If you don’t already, spend some time getting to know the rules and formal processes of the company you work for. It is good to know what options are at your disposal, and also it will help you spot any situations where someone – psychopath or not – asks you to do something which may be in violation of those regulations.

By Farooq Khan