Dive Brief:
- Charismatic health care leaders can turn out to be narcissistic in ways that leave the workplace in disarray when they leave, according to a blog post from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
- Charismatic leaders "are more likely to do whatever is going to make them look good at the moment ... rather than taking actions designed to truly grow the organization so that 10 years later it will be a thriving, successful business," Roy Lubit, a New York-based psychiatrist and executive coach told the blog, according to FierceHealthcare.
- However, research suggests that narcissism in moderation can help hospital leaders' performance improve, boosting their self-confidence without requiring them to put others down to feel good about themselves.
Dive Insight:
How dominant is the trait of narcissism in health care leaders? In cases where the narcissism is extreme, it can apparently poison the workplace and its culture, as negative aspects of narcissism such as being exploitive, arrogant and even tyrannical tend to show up, according to Emily Grijalva, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, FierceHealthcare reports.