When revenue is growing at the company, leadership issues get overlooked. But when revenue growth stalls or declines, suddenly, those actions and behaviors come to light. This is seen in sports all the time. When a team is winning, there is little concern about areas for improvement. But when the team starts losing, those same aspects are all anyone can talk about. So what does the dark side of leadership look like?
Our service partner, Hogan Assessments, recently wrote about the dark side of leadership, noting that at its worst, it can bankrupt a company, as was the case with WeWork and former CEO Adam Neumann.
When executive leadership is effective, companies recruit and keep high-performing teams and maintain a positive culture. The quickest way to ruin the culture is when leadership is derailed. Not only will it impact employee engagement, but it can also lead to lower customer satisfaction and a damaging brand reputation, ultimately resulting in decreased productivity and revenue.
It’s not as though executive leaders intentionally embrace their dark side. It’s often the same behaviors that helped them achieve success that result in their downfall. For example, when under intense pressure, the behaviors that served them previously may be relied upon too heavily, and the results will differ. As an example, “charm as an overused strength may seem manipulative, and creativity as an overused strength may seem like impracticality.”
When dark side characteristics emerge, it’s typically a mix of factors that have come together. Our partners at Hogan have built the largest database of global personality traits in the world. Their Hogan Development Survey (HDS) measures 11 potential derailers along with additional personality assessments. They have found three primary categories of dark side behaviors.
- Moving Away
- Relates to withdrawal or isolation
- HDS Scale: Excitable, Skeptical, Cautious, Reserved, and Leisurely
- Moving Against
- Relates to intimidation or manipulation
- HDS Scale: Bold, Mischievous, Colorful, and Imaginative
- Moving Toward
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- Relates to conformity or acquiescence
- HDS Scale: Diligent and Dutiful
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In a study conducted by Hogan of 700-plus global CEOs, most enterprise-level executives fall into the Moving Against category.
People who demonstrate the skills of this category come across as innovative, driven, and self-confident. However, those same skills can look different during difficult times. Instead, they come across as arrogant, undisciplined, and stubborn.
From the HDS scale attributes:
Bold
When overused, confidence and assertiveness might show up as impulsive, self-promoting, competitive, and demanding behavior. The leader’s extreme self-confidence may stem from the belief that they have unusual, unique talents. To others, they probably seem arrogant, hypercompetitive, unrealistic, and unresponsive to negative feedback.
Mischievous
These people seem bright, charming, and daring when at their best. In derailment, they may take ill-advised risks, seek excitement, behave impulsively, and push limits. Their impulsivity makes them seem disorganized, impetuous, and unpredictable, with a reputation for holding unreasonable expectations.
Colorful
Outgoing, fun, and socially skilled describe this characteristic. But these folks can manifest in dramatic, attention-seeking, distractible behavior. They’re curious, easily bored, and seek constant stimulation. The next new idea or project will distract them from their current projects.
Imaginative
Many inspiring leaders seem unconventional, innovative, and creative. Under pressure, they tend to show up as preoccupied, eccentric, and impractical. They may believe that they can see and understand things that others don’t. This conviction that they have superior perception likely causes them to generate ideas that seem eccentric or just plain odd.
Imaginative leaders are often entrepreneurs. And leaders of these early-stage companies are even more extreme in their Moving Against tendencies. Age of leaders can also play a factor, according to Matt Lemming, Director of Knowledge and Infrastructure at Hogan, “Entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s have high aspirations and ideals, while later-career CEOs have more stable, established personalities. “Those who are aspiring and showing initiative are more extreme, especially on Moving Against, because they are fighting for relevance and success.”
Awareness of executive derailment and the resulting dark side behaviors is the first step to preventing them from impacting your organization. One challenge is that most executives are not self-aware. “To become strategically self-aware, leaders must understand how their derailers affect others and the need to adapt behavior to increase leadership effectiveness.”
To learn more about building a leadership team through strengths and awareness, send us a note, and one of our executive search consultants will follow up with you.