Toxic Leadership: Not Easy to Unmask

In a thought-provoking book, "Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?" organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic presents a compelling argument that challenges our conventional understanding of leadership. This book discusses the paradox of incompetent leadership and its negative impact on organizations and people.

The author shines a light on people with toxic behaviors who often act out for themselves rather than the organizations they serve.

Magnetism of Toxic Leaders:

Toxic leaders [men or women] do exist in corporations and serve the demands of businesses. Our society often confuses confidence with competence, promoting individuals who excel at self-promotion but may lack the essential skills needed for effective leadership.

Competence is how good you are at something, while confidence reflects how good you THINK you are at something.

The lack of correlation between actual competence and projected confidence is the breeding ground for toxic leaders. They know how to manage information to protect their personal interests rather than what's needed for the organization. They use their confidence and charm to keep others in the dark.

The author also talks about why narcissists can be successful in getting leadership positions.

Narcissists have an innate need for power, prestige, and status-seeking, which makes them better at impression management, ideas-selling, and networking with influential people. Their pursuit of grand vision and bold projections during an initial period gets them into leadership roles.

In the workplace, toxic leaders are known by their subordinates. They reap the benefit of their subordinates' hard work and don't care about their well-being.

But why is it so difficult to unmask them? Perhaps they know how to manage expectations merely by a play of words!

Drawing from extensive data, the book illustrates how traits such as narcissism, overconfidence, and charm can be mistaken for leadership potential. While initially appealing, these characteristics often mask a lack of emotional intelligence, empathy, and genuine concern for organizational goals.

These toxic leaders can negatively impact team morale, productivity, and long-term organizational success.

The Gender Dimension:

The book provides an excellent view of gender-related competence evaluation in leadership selection. The traits often associated with strong leadership—assertiveness, dominance, and self-assurance—are more commonly displayed (or at least more readily accepted) in men.

There is a generalization that women are less assertive than men. This bias contributes to the glass ceiling many women face in their careers and perpetuates a cycle of promoting individuals ill-suited for leadership roles.?

The author presents compelling evidence suggesting that women, on average, possess more qualities associated with effective leadership, such as emotional intelligence, humility, and a focus on team-building. However, these qualities are often undervalued in traditional leadership selection processes.

The Cost of Incompetent Leadership:

Toxic leaders lack moral inhibitions, a strong desire to break the rules, and empathy. Still, these traits are presented as performing under stress, greater resilience, and courage! Once made leaders, their performance is often sub-par, marked by a lack of diligence, disdain for processes and deadlines, and a passive approach to assuming responsibilities.

The high cost (intangible) of incompetent leadership comes from damaging organizational culture, stifling innovation, and driving away top talent. Establishing the correlation between toxic behavior and the financial and human cost to the organization is difficult, which leads to underestimation of poor leadership.

Redefining Leadership Selection:

The selection of actual competent leadership must go beyond surface-level charisma or confidence.

The organizations can consider solutions such as:

????? Implementing objective assessment tools to evaluate leadership potential

???? Prioritizing emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills development programs

???? Challenging unconscious biases in recruitment and promotion processes

???? Culture that values open communication and collaboration

?The author emphasizes the importance of looking beyond traditional indicators of leadership potential and instead focusing on qualities that truly drive organizational success.

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A Call for Change:

As a leader, if your organization is facing challenges, you must reconsider your assumptions about the leadership team and take a more critical look at the qualities you value in your leaders.

Organizations can cultivate leaders who truly drive success and create positive work environments by understanding the root causes of incompetent leadership, implementing more effective selection processes, and engaging in Behavioural Attributes and Thinking Attributes assessment tools.

Make fresh, data-driven decisions on critical issues facing modern organizations. Exposing the flaws in our current leadership selection and development approach can pave the way for a more effective and inclusive leadership paradigm.

Organizations should look beyond superficial indicators of leadership potential and instead focus on the qualities that truly drive organizational success and employee well-being.?

The real issue with allowing incompetent leadership is that every incompetent leader you hire means a competent leader (male or female) is denied the opportunity to lead a team to success.

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