Read this on MSN today…

Narcissism is a personality trait defined as an inflated sense of self-importance, overestimations of uniqueness, and a sense of grandiosity. According to a new study, not only is narcissism more common in men, but it’s more  likely to have a detrimental effect on their health. (So much for women being more vain, right?)

The assumed reason for this is linked to the societal definition of masculinity and pressure on men to be arrogant and dominant: “Even though narcissists have grandiose self-perceptions, they also have fragile views of themselves, and often resort to defensive strategies like aggression when their sense of superiority is threatened… These kinds of coping strategies are linked with increased cardiovascular reactivity to stress and higher blood pressure, so it makes sense that higher levels of maladaptive narcissism would contribute to highly reactive stress response systems and chronically elevated levels of stress.”

We have all met that guy…what a jerk…but maybe he will die soon..OK, seriously. This is a problem when we talk leadership. Leadership is about the people we seek to lead and influence, it has humility, it is not arrogant and dominant. Rather, I should say good leadership is about the people we seek to lead. There are plenty of people in positions of leadership who are arrogant and dominant. They aren’t good leaders. If you think being a leader is about you, you have it wrong.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 1:41 am and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.