Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
6 - The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
Summary
How much freedom should be given to the entrepreneur, to the person with the high need for achievement, to the organizer, to the initiator, to the person who enjoys running things, being boss, wielding power? … Who will collect the garbage? How will the strong and the weak relate to each other? The more capable and the less capable? How do we achieve love, respect, and gratitude for authority?
(Maslow, 1971, pp. 219–220)BRILLIANCE AND PATHOLOGY COEXIST
Far beyond our usual concerns with difficult people in the workplace, bullies and irritating bosses lurks a shadowy, dark world of high-toxicity leaders. Successfully climbing up the company ladder does not exclude the possibility that brilliance and pathology exist side-by-side. In some cases leaders exhibit highly personable interpersonal and emotional behaviors that are the attractive, alluring outer shell of their disorder (e.g., see Kets de Vries and Associates, 1991; Lowman, 2002; Lubit, 2004). Subordinates and colleagues are drawn to their charm and style (Lipman-Blumen, 2001, 2005). In comparison, other bosses appear flat and dull, lacking the grace, pizzazz and intoxicating qualities that make for extraordinary people connections.
Favio Burnstein is a high-profile and extremely successful leader in the fashion industry who rocked the status quo in the US and Europe. Favio's productivity and creativity is exemplary. When he is on his game he is unstoppable. But there is another side to Mr. Burnstein – he is a white-collar toxic. Despite his brilliance, he can be a seriously dysfunctional boss.
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- Information
- Destructive Leaders and Dysfunctional OrganizationsA Therapeutic Approach, pp. 113 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009