At last......some sense from CIPD

Today's post from the CIPD could have been written by me. In fact, I think most of it has been. There won't be many UPS Managers that answers NO to any of the twelve questions. Here's the link if you want to check my source.

How to spot the psychopaths, Machiavels and narcissists at work…

…And why your boss may be one of them

TV has got a lot to answer for. Larger than life characters like mafia boss Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) and Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko convince us that it’s easy to spot the cold, unempathetic psychopaths, machiavals (compulsive game players) and the me, me, me narcissists among us.

But in the modern workplace, says Oliver James, author of Office Politics, people who display this triad of characteristics (if they have one they are likely to possess the others) are often adept at concealing the darker side of their nature. And when they do they are prone to doing well in the business world.

“1 per cent of the population are psychopathic, 4 per cent of American senior managers are. Likewise a study of English senior managers showed they are more much likely to be narcissists than the occupants of Broadmoor hospital,” says James.

So how do you spot them? In his book James suggest you score people on the following characteristics using a rating scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The higher the score, the more likely they are to possess the “dark triad” of personality traits.

1. They tend to exploit and trick others for self-advancement.

2. They have used lies and deception to get their way.

3. They have used ingratiation to get their way.

4. They tend to manipulate others for selfish reasons.

5. They tend not to feel regretful and apologetic after having done wrong.

6. They tend not to worry about whether their behaviour is ethical.

7. They tend to be lacking in empathy and crassly unaware of the distress they can cause others.

8. They tend to take a pretty dim view of humanity, attributing nasty motives and selfishness.

9. They tend to be hungry for admiration.

10. They tend to want to be the centre of attention.

11. They tend to aim for higher status and signs of their importance.

12. They tend to take it for granted that other people will make extra efforts to help them.

Let us know how many of them you spot in your workplace.

Look out for our article on how to survive – and even thrive – when office politics are rife in March’s edition of People Management.

"Let us know how many of them you spot"...........OK, then, just to name a few.

Geoff Platt

Mo Akhtar

Carl McGuinness

Richard Watts

Howard Stone

Duncan Coates

Nigel Marsh

Scott Fowler

Steve O'Donnell

Rob Burrows

Craig McIntosh

Roger Mays

Lisa Bradshaw

Emma O'Toole

Tony Collaizo

Cindy Miller

D. Scott Davis

To name just a few, like what I said