Newsweek on CEOs: "Difference between visionaries and psychos not big"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Of Criminals And CEOs
The difference between bold, creative visionaries and deluded psychopaths is not as big as it used to be.

By Tara Pepper
Newsweek



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9023604/site/newsweek/

Aug. 29, 2005 issue - For a while, Brian Blackwell seemed to have it made. His girlfriend believed the cosseted only child from Liverpool was a professional tennis player, with a $125,000 Nike contract funding his jet-set lifestyle. He hired her as his private secretary and wrote her a check for $90,000. He bought her a $16,000 car, then purchased $22,500 worth of flights for them to New York, Miami, Barbados and San Francisco. When they returned, he spent the summer at her house. One day the police knocked on her door. Blackwell's whole life, it turns out, was a lie. He had stolen $16,000 from a trust fund his parents had set up for his education and maxed out his father's credit card. The $90,000 check bounced (he had sixteen cents in his account). The Nike contract never existed. And in June, Blackwell was sentenced to life in prison for killing his parents with a claw hammer and kitchen knife.

Psychiatrists from both defense and prosecution agreed that Blackwell posed a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder, or NPD, and he was convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. Yet Blackwell, before spiraling into his delusional fantasies, was a straight-A student, well regarded by teachers and about to attend university to become, as his parents boasted, "not just a doctor—a surgeon." In fact, while his case is extreme, researchers are finding that milder forms of NPD may afflict some of society's most successful members. A recent study by Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon of the University of Surrey in Britain found that successful business managers were as likely to show the traits associated with NPD—grandiosity, lack of empathy and exploitativeness—as samples of criminals and psychiatric patients. "A narcissist, who breaks new ground, can be the optimal, innovative business personality," says Michael Maccoby, author of "The Productive Narcissist."

Narcissists often make exceptional managers, galvanizing employees and making far-reaching changes. A narcissistic executive is the creative, superficially charming colleague who may be arrogant and manipulative but also charismatic and hard-charging, qualities that are increasingly valued in politics and business. They can be contrasted with obsessive managers, like Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who kept a low profile and a modest lifestyle, or Gillette's Colman Mockler, known for his calmness, courteousness and down-to-earth manner. In a six-year study of high achievers working on special projects in 20 large firms, management experts Bill Fischer and Andy Boyton found that firms are often eager to hire such brilliant thinkers, but fail to put their skills to good use. In the best of cases, though, managers like Southwest Airlines cofounder Herb Kelleher "smash the old economic rules and create an entirely new game with their own rules," says Maccoby. "They use their corporations as vehicles for their own vision."

That kind of success has much to do with the talent such leaders are able to attract. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs are so charismatic and visionary that employees overlook the more difficult aspects of their narcissism; many of the best people are drawn to their firms to be part of something that is ambitious and meaningful. As Jack Welch wrote in his autobiography, he wanted to "change GE from one of the great companies to absolutely the greatest company in world business." The most effective narcissistic CEOs are also self-aware enough to surround themselves with people whose complementary personalities act as a check on their own. (Kelleher, for instance, had Southwest president Colleen Barrett, whose systematic attention to detail was the perfect foil for his idea-driven approach.)

[hedda_foil]

1. Ya think?

And what's the chance of a narcissitic personality disordered person actually doing this?

"The most effective narcissistic CEOs are also self-aware enough to surround themselves with people whose complementary personalities act as a check on their own."