Narcissistic CEOs appoint other narcissists to the management board

Narcissism manifests itself in different forms in leadership situations—from self-confidence and charisma to destructive self-focus and lack of consideration for others. While this character trait in individual CEOs is already the subject of research, very little is known so far about its impact on the wider composition of senior management.

This was the starting point for the study conducted by a team of researchers that analyzed the LinkedIn profiles of top managers.

What the researchers say: “Narcissists want to show a broader audience that they are superior. Earlier studies have found that this is also reflected in corporate press releases or letters to shareholders, among other things,” the study’s lead author told us. “Elements that are indicative of narcissism include, for example, the size of an executive’s picture in the annual report or the frequency with which a manager’s name appears in a company’s press releases.”

In their study, the authors used the same approach to analyze individuals’ digital presence on social media. “We have demonstrated that we can reliably measure the narcissism of managers on the basis of their LinkedIn profiles by analyzing the number of pictures of the manager, the length of the text in the ‘About’ section, and the skills, certificates, and career steps listed,” they explained.

In total, the team analyzed 11,705 LinkedIn profiles of top managers of US companies. The study reveals an astonishing tendency: CEOs with a higher degree of narcissism appoint members to their management board who mirror their own character traits—in other words, who also display a narcissistic streak. An increase in the narcissism of a CEO by one standard deviation leads to an 18 percent higher level of narcissism in each newly appointed executive.

This also has an impact on the dynamics and stability of the team, as management boards with more narcissistic managers have a significantly higher turnover rate, which can mean sizeable costs for a company. Narcissists want to dominate each other, which leads to conflicts on the board, and these in turn lead to more fluctuation in the executive team.

“The results of the study show that it is important for CEOs and supervisory boards to understand the dynamics in their executive teams better and to review the selection process for managers,” the researchers conclude. “This can be achieved if the personality traits of managers are also viewed in a balanced way.”

So, what? This study is interesting but not wholly surprising in terms of human design specs. It is in our DNA to surround ourselves with people who either demonstrate how valuable we are to them, or who are as much like us as possible.

Hence narcissistic CEOs (or Presidents for that matter) are going to appoint either people who fawn over them or (because seeking commonality is part of our DNA) are fellow narcissists. However, since they are narcissists, they will come to resent any attention that the other narcissists get—hence the greater turnover.

There is a close neurogenetic link between psychopathology and narcissism and between each of these and the “bully leader” that is found in so many organizations.

There is some interesting research that shows that every hierarchy tends to attract people with these personality disorders. Psychopaths, narcissists and bullies all are more liable to be promoted, better paid and retained when others are laid off—and the more hierarchical the organization the greater this tendency.

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