Narcissists are people who dream big. They generally believe that they are smarter and more exceptional than they are. Because of their high levels of self-confidence, they are also used to be leaders in many situations.
Narcissists are not only asked to be leaders, but their confidence makes them feel like they are good leaders to others. People in the group want to feel that the group is doing a good job. Narcissists project a confident image, and this confidence is contagious. The rest of the group believes that their leader is doing a good job.
So, should we let narcissists take over?
A research paper by Barbora Nevikka, Femke ten Velden, Annebelle de Hooghe, and Annelies van Vianen in the October 2011 issue of Psychological Science suggests that there may also be a downside to narcissistic leaders.
Because narcissists are so confident in their abilities and opinions, they may prevent group members from sharing information. In situations where shared information is critical to good performance, a narcissistic leader may cause a group to be overly confident that their leader is good and yet perform poorly.
To test this possibility, groups of three were asked to evaluate job candidates. Before gathering as a group, a leader was chosen at random. The group leader was the person who had to make the final decision on the task. Participants in the study also completed an inventory measuring their level of narcissism.
Each member of the group was given a list of nine characteristics for each of the three job candidates. Some of these characteristics were given to each member of the group, but some were given to individuals only. The descriptions were cleverly crafted so that one job candidate would appear better if only the information shared by all group members was taken into account, but if the group combined all of its information, the second job candidate would be better.
This study yielded two findings.
First, group leaders who scored high on the narcissism scale were seen as more effective leaders overall than group leaders who scored low on the narcissism scale. This is a typical finding in studies of narcissism and leadership.
Second, groups with more narcissistic leaders tended to share less information than those with less narcissistic leaders, and as a result, made worse decisions. So, although groups with more narcissistic leaders felt better about their group leader, they performed worse than those with less narcissistic leaders.
What does this mean?
There are often two distinct issues in group performance. First, groups need some confidence that they will succeed. This confidence can increase motivation to continue on a difficult task. In this way, a narcissistic leader can be a good one.
However if the group needs to share information to succeed, narcissistic leaders need to curb their tendency to dominate the discussion and decision-making and allow others to share information. Otherwise, the group risks rushing to judgment without obtaining key information that could lead to better performance.
