Psychopathic bosses are true psychological explorers and we need to know how to stay mentally strong in the face of them. They are bosses who do not hesitate to ask for impossible and even unethical tasks. They like to exercise dominance, they are arrogant, insensitive and dishonest.
Unfortunately, all these practices do not prevent them from continuing to progress in their careers day after day. Is our society becoming increasingly tolerant of this kind of aggressive behavior of our leaders?
- We can all think of a politician who wields power through this kind of dynamic.
- We all know a business leader who strictly fulfills all the characteristics of a psychopath.
We must keep in mind that this type of profile has always existed in our day to day, so the theme is not new. However, the difference these days is that we know very well its psychological anatomy as well as its harmful effects.
A psychopathic leader is not a criminal. Despite this, it uses tricks so antisocial, harmful and dishonest that it could be morally equal to anyone prosecuted by the courts. Still, we still live with them, and nothing makes us think this reality will end.
Therefore, it is recommended to learn how to handle it
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power absolutely corrupts” – Lord Acton-
Dr. Karen Landay and her colleagues in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama conducted an interesting study in early 2018, titled “We Serve the Dark Lord” and published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
This team of experts revealed that not all bosses have psychopathic traits, and not all psychopaths hold positions of power or commit acts of violence, that’s something we need to clarify. On the other hand, this does not prevent a significant percentage of today’s business leaders from having this “dark” moral compass.
For starters, psychopathy isn’t just a trait. In fact, this involves a wide range of behaviors; some authors point to some of them as the most relevant, although there is no absolute consensus.
However, several authors agree that psychopathic patterns converge into three fundamental dimensions:
These characteristics explain their growth in companies. They lead us to understand why they are so bold in business, sometimes charming, and why they get important jobs that take so many victims along the way.
Knowing this, let’s now look at what mental mechanisms we should use before psychopathic bosses.
The psychopathic chief uses our emotions and weaknesses to gain control. He likes to do that. As much as possible, we must avoid showing ourselves as they want: vulnerable.
This can be complicated on some occasions, but it is essential to remain energetic and with well-protected personal barriers, we must not be intimidated by them, because when they realize they will gain ground, assertiveness will be our best ally.
This type of psychological profile usually does not have good control of your emotions, if we can control this trait, we will have an advantage over them.
Something like this means maintaining the right mental calm, we can’t get carried away by anguish and anger, if we lose our balance they will start to manipulate our emotions even more.
Psychopathic bosses are great storytellers. They do not hesitate to explain the aspects and experiences of their life, enchant and approach deftly. Make no mistake: it’s a subtle and effective trap to gain our confidence to dominate us.
Whenever possible, we have to do two things: the first is to protect our personal limits to avoid being harmed; the second, that psychopathic chiefs see their own flaws.
So, when they come to us, we need to redirect the conversation to you and your toxic dynamic, an example: in today’s meeting you seemed a little stressed, you even yelled at us, maybe it would be nice to think about the task you asked for, I think you know it’s excessive and can’t be accomplished today.
We know that it is not always possible to keep a boss at bay, we are often forced to deal with them day by day, this, in addition to exhausting us, can end up burning psychologically.
Therefore, whenever there is the possibility, it is recommended to zoom out and talk to them by email and messages, there are studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of doing so in this way, communication is less aggressive and it is possible to get a better workflow. .
In conclusion, as we said at the beginning, there is no indication that such situations will disappear, year after year directors, entrepreneurs and politicians with psychopathic traits will continue to emerge, running away from them is the best answer, but as we well. know, it’s not always possible.
Therefore, we must learn to live with these profiles, to act rather than just react and, in essence, to create a good survival kit to protect our psychological health.