The Dark Side of Leadership: How Personality Traits Shape Who Rises to the Top
The Uncomfortable Truth About Leadership
When we think about great leaders, we often imagine charismatic figures with exemplary characters and positive personality traits. However recent research in organisational psychology confirms that the reality is more complex: those who rise to senior leadership positions may actually possess distinctly different 'dark side' personality profiles compared to other employees.
This isn't to say that leaders are inherently ‘bad’ in anyway, but rather that certain personality characteristics traditionally viewed as problematic or dysfunctional might actually facilitate career advancement and leadership emergence in some organisational settings.
What Are 'Dark Side' Personality Traits?
The concept of 'dark side' personality traits refers to characteristics that, while not necessarily pathological, can become problematic when taken to extremes. These traits are often measured using tools like the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), which categorizes behaviours into three main clusters:
Unlike traditional personality disorders, these 'dark side' traits exist on a spectrum and can actually be beneficial in moderate amounts, becoming problematic only when overused or expressed in situations where the leader lets down their guard or feels under stress or pressure.
The Research: What Studies Tell Us About Leaders
Multiple research studies spanning thousands of managers and executives have revealed fascinating patterns about how senior leaders differ from their subordinates in terms of dark side personality traits.
The Fast Track to Promotion
Research involving over 7,000 managers found a clear relationship between certain dark side traits and speed of career advancement. Those who scored higher on 'Moving Against' characteristics—traits associated with being bold, assertive, and sometimes manipulative—tended to get promoted faster than their peers.
Conversely, individuals with higher scores on 'Moving Away' (withdrawn, cautious behaviours) and 'Moving Toward'(overly accommodating tendencies) experienced slower career progression.
CEO Personality Profiles
When researchers examined 151 New Zealand CEOs using standardised personality assessments, they discovered that these top executives scored significantly higher than the general population on certain traits within the 'Moving Against' cluster, particularly on measures of being 'Colourful' (dramatic, attention-seeking behaviours).
Interestingly, these same CEOs scored substantially lower on traits associated with being overly cautious, dutiful, or excitable—suggesting that successful leaders may be less prone to anxiety and over-compliance than the average person.
Climbing the Corporate Ladder
A more nuanced study examining 264 individuals across three organizational levels (entry-level supervisors, middle managers, and executives) provided clear evidence of differences between hierarchy levels:
Talent Management Programs
Research on 602 individuals selected for executive talent management programs (designed to identify future leaders) revealed similar patterns. Those chosen for these high-potential programs typically scored higher on bold and assertive traits, while scoring lower on sceptical and overly colourful behaviours.
The Paradox of Leadership Success
These findings present a fascinating paradox: some of the same personality characteristics that help people rise to positions of organisational authority, might also make someone difficult to work with as a colleague or line manager.
This doesn't mean that all leaders are problematic individuals, but rather that certain traits we might label as 'dark side' characteristics can serve adaptive functions in competitive organisational environments:
Important Limitations and Considerations
While these research findings are compelling, it's crucial to understand their limitations:
Correlation vs. Causation
All studies in this area are correlational, meaning we can't definitively say whether dark side traits cause people to become leaders, or whether leadership positions somehow cultivate or bring out these characteristics.
Small Effect Sizes
While statistically significant, the differences between leaders and non-leaders on these traits are generally small. This means that while patterns exist, there's still enormous variation among individuals.
Measurement Challenges
Most research relies on self-report surveys, which can be influenced by social desirability bias—people may not accurately report their own problematic behaviours.
The Curvilinear Relationship
Many researchers now believe that dark side traits show a curvilinear relationship with leadership effectiveness. In moderate amounts, they may be helpful, but in extreme amounts, they become detrimental to both the leader and their organisation.
What This Means for Organisations
Understanding the relationship between personality and leadership emergence has several important implications:
Recruitment and Selection
Organisations might need to reconsider how they evaluate leadership potential, recognising that some traditionally 'negative' traits might actually predict advancement and success in certain contexts.
Leadership Development
Rather than trying to eliminate all difficult personality characteristics, development programs might focus on helping leaders understand when and how to modulate these traits appropriately.
Organisational Culture
Companies should consider how their culture and reward systems might inadvertently select for certain personality types, and whether this actually serves the long-term interests of their business.
Team Composition
Understanding that leaders may have different personality profiles can help in designing balanced leadership teams and ensuring appropriate checks and balances.
The Bottom Line
The research on dark side personality traits in leadership challenges our assumptions about what makes someone suitable for leadership positions. While we might prefer our leaders to be paragons of virtue, the reality appears to be more complex.
Perhaps the key insight isn't that we should avoid people with dark side traits in leadership positions, but rather that we need to better understand how these characteristics can be channelled constructively while mitigating their potential downsides.
Effective leadership in complex organizations requires a delicate balance of traits—including some that we might traditionally view as problematic. The challenge for organisations is learning to identify, develop, and manage leaders who can harness these characteristics for positive outcomes while avoiding their career derailment and destructive impact on others, through interventions such as 360 feedback, psychometric assessment feedback, coaching and leadership development.
As our understanding of leadership personality continues to evolve, one thing becomes clear: the path to the top may be more psychologically complex than we ever imagined.
Join me next month to find out more about whether the dark side of personality helps senior managers to be selected as leaders, and if so, how. You may be surprised to find out about some of the mechanisms at work!
If you’d like to discuss how I can help you develop your managers and leaders for future leadership in a way which adds quantifiable value to your business performance, schedule a call here:
https://calendly.com/caroline-intrepid/free-initial-chat-with-caroline
This article is based on an extensive literature review of organisational psychology and leadership studies undertaken mainly in the US and UK. While the findings are significant, individual leaders vary greatly, especially in different countries, and these patterns should be understood as general tendencies rather than universal truths.
