The Mind of the Leader
Post Graduate Course in Effective Leadership
Alberto Zucconi
World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
World University Consortium (WUC)
Person Centered Approach Institute (IACP)
azucconi@iacp.it
azucconi@worldacademy.org
Inter- University Centre (IUC), March 31-April 3, 2015 ,
Dubrovnik, Slovenia
World Academy of
Art and Science
World
University
Consortium
ISTITUTO DELL'APPROCCIO
CENTRATO SULLA PERSONA
WE live in a period of globalization
and of growing complexity
To meet our present and future
challenges we need new effective
ways to cope and effective leaders
to help us to win those challenges
The state of human affairs shows
that there are several barriers
that make it difficult to
understand the real nature of
the problems we urgently
need to face
Albert Einstein once said:
“We cannot solve the
problems of today at
the level of thinking at
which they were first
created”
What Eistein said is
drammatically true and
on the same premises : We
cannot solve the problems
of today following the
leaders who led us in this
mess!
A leader is somebody who leads
but that is not automatically
bringing positive results.
Unfortunately a lot of leaders in
history have been famous for
their destructivity, cruelty and
psychopathology…..
Le Bon, Fromm, Adorno, Lasswell,
Reick and many others studied the
Psychopathology of toxic,
destructive leaders
while
Maslow, Rogers, Gordon, Bugenthal
and others did research the
personality traits of healthy and
effective leaders
"Psychopaths are social predators who
charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow
their way through life, leaving a broad trail
of shattered expectations, and empty
wallets. Completely lacking in conscience
and in feelings for others, they selfishly take
what they want and do as they please,
violating social norms and expectations
without the slightest sense of guilt or
regret."
Robert Hare
DISFUNCTIONAL LEADERS
•Glibness/Superficial charm
•Manipulative and cunning
•Grandiose sense of Self
•Pathological lying
• Shallow emotions
• Incapacity for love
•Need for stimulation
•Callousness, lack of empathy
•Irresponsibility/unreliability
•Developmental problems, juvenile delinquency
•Promiscuous sexual behaviors
•Parasitic lifestyle
• Criminal versatility
The narcissistic leader promotes a
personality cult, almost a new religion with
rituals, temples, worship and mythology.
Many narcissistic and psychopathic leaders
are the hostages of self-imposed rigid
ideologies.
The narcissistic leader lacks empathy for
their subjects that are considered just a tool
to be manipulated or sacrificed in order to
reach the leader inflated and grandiose
destiny
Gustave Le Bon (1895) affirms that leaders are
often people so driven by ideological faith they
have almost lost the instinct for self-preservation.
This ideological zeal enables them to appeal to
the base instincts of followers who, through faith,
may follow their leader along a path of selfdestruction. Ideology is the tool used by despots
to gain and retain power. Through ideology, the
tyrant expresses his narcissism and creates
solidarity with followers.
Erich Fromm (1941), suggests that people may be
attracted to totalitarian leadership as a way to
escape the anxiety associated with the fear of
making a bad choice.
This is precisely the source of the fascination with Hitler,
diagnosed by Erich Fromm - together with Stalin - as a
malignant narcissist. He was an inverted human. His
unconscious was his conscious. He acted out our most
repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes.
He was not the devil. He was one of us. He was what Arendt
aptly called the banality of evil. Just an ordinary, mentally
disturbed, failure, a member of a mentally disturbed and
failing nation, who lived through disturbed and failing
times. He was the perfect mirror, a channel, a voice, and the
very depth of our souls.
The narcissistic leader prefers the sparkle and glamour of
well-orchestrated illusions to the tedium and method of real
accomplishments. His reign is all smoke and mirrors, devoid
of substance, consisting of mere appearances and mass
delusions.
As their end draws near, narcissistic-psychopathic leaders
act out, lash out, erupt. They attack with equal virulence
and ferocity compatriots, erstwhile allies, neighbours, and
foreigners.
All populist, charismatic leaders believe that they have a
"special connection" with the "people": a relationship that is
direct, almost mystical, and transcends the normal channels
of communication.
He projects onto others his own shortcomings and negative
emotions, thus becoming a totally good object. A
narcissistic leader is likely to justify the butchering of his
own people by claiming that they intended to assassinate
him, undo the revolution, devastate the economy, harm the
nation or the country, etc.
Eric Fromm believed that Hitler possessed an intense
narcissism, destructiveness, and a profound inability to relate
to others. Hitler destructive leadership skills were matched
only by few in the world. As the chancellor of Germany waged
a most destructive war not only to neighboring nations but to
millions of his citizen that in his delirium where to be
exterminated to give rise to a pure race.
From the very beginning, Mussolini made it a point to create for
himself mythological prestige and gain legendary status
It is necessary to be very intelligent in the work of repression. All
opposition journals have been suppressed and all the anti-fascist
leaders dissolved.
-Benito Mussolini
The combination of paranoid personality disorder, alcohol
abuse, intelligence, and a cruel nature created the foundation
for Stalin’s infamous mass killings.
Stalin controlled everybody through fear—fear of death, fear
of torture, fear of exile. His belief that everyone was plotting
against him contributed to him forcing “confessions” out of
many innocent people (Stal 2013).
He felt that if he had a scapegoat, then he was closer to
eliminating the prospect of his defeat (Volkogonov, 1988).
“From the standpoint of social development,
the family cannot be considered the basis of
the authoritarian state, only as one of the
most important institutions which support it.
It is, however, its central reactionary germ
cell, the most important place of reproduction
of the reactionary and conservative
individual. Being itself caused by the
authoritarian system, the family becomes the
most important institution for its
conservation”.
Wilhelm Reich
Fortunately there are also Effective Leaders
The leader as a fully functioning person
An effective leader is a person that feels (and not fakes ) genuine
respect , trust and emphatic understanding of the people around
him/her. (Carl Rogers )
The leader as a high performer
He/she is a role model and posses the psychological, emotional,
and interpersonal skills necessary perform at a high level
consistently. A leader that is willing to recognize mistakes and
learn from them.
The leader as team builder
Capable of recognizing and prizing other people capacities and
contributions, trusting and empowering people, capable of team
building.
The leader as decision maker
Effective leaders are not afraid to take decisions after asking the
input of their people and advisers, they are capable of giving and
receiving useful feedback and prepare their people to perform
their best during times of uncertainty, instability, and crisis.
The leader as change agent
The role of leadership is to envision a better future and
become the change agent that makes this future possible. The
effective leader promotes a culture of learning and takes great
pleasure in facilitating new young leaders to emerge.
The healthy person experience “well-being and
satisfaction with the past, flow, joy, sensual
pleasures, happiness in the present, optimism,
hope, faith”. The healthy individual has “positive
personal traits, such as the capacity for love and
vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic
sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality,
future-mindedness, talent, wisdom”. The healthy
person at the social level has “ responsibility,
nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance
and work ethic”
Mischel, Shoda & Ayduk (2009 p.341)
George Washington, he led the American
Revolution and later, led the USA into the first few
Years of it’s independence as the First President of
the USA. He was a visionary and his tenacity,
steadfastness, his ability to make decisions during
difficult times made him a great leader.
Asoka the Great was the last of the great Indian
empire of Maurya and he ruled from 269 BC.
He was a kind and a good-hearted leader. After the
bloody Kalinga War, he was so deeply moved and
pained by the suffering that he renounced his
throne and all his wealth and adopted Buddhism
and he preached to the people those values.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born as an ordinary boy he
later became known as the Father of the Nation. Mahatma
Gandhi led India against the tyrannical rule of the British
Empire. He fought always practicing non-violence. He
believed that truth and only truth shall prevail and without
harming a single soul. The British left India and Gandhi
became one of the greatest leaders of all the times.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist and a leader in the
civil rights movement. He was also a member of the clergy.
He is known for the non-violent ways in which he advanced
and led the civil rights movement. He fought for racial
equality and showed the people a picture of a better future
where all men are equal. Courage, perseverance and the will
to fight for what's right till the very end made him a great
leader. He won The Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Nelson Mandela was the first democratically elected
President of South Africa. He was the leader of the AntiApartheid movement and all through his life, he relentlessly
fought against racial discrimination. For his actions, he
served a long prison sentence but even that did not deter
him. He came out as a hero and led the country into a free,
equal future. His determination, focus and will-power were
tremendous that even after serving almost 30 years in jail, he
got out, never sought revenge, but successfully worked for a
peaceful and integrated South Africa.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner gave up
freedom and a life with her family in Britain to protest
military rule in Burma (now Myanmar). But nearly two
decades of house arrest could not quash the opposition
leader's determination.
How reality is socially construed and
how individuals and organizations
construe their experiences are
relevant to the understanding of why
narcissistic and psychopathic leaders
find a lot of adoring followers
as well as how parents, schools and
communities can promote the
development of healthy
personalities and effective leaders.
We need to ask ourselves some basic questions:
How our social and personal Selves are
socially structured?
Is the present social construction of reality and
of personal and social selves is effective for
promoting the sustainable development of
human potentialities of all the people & the
living forms of our planet or is it dysfunctional?
How we construe our experiences & our
narratives makes a big difference
Differing values, concepts of reality, of human
nature, generate different relationships,
priorities, goals & actions based on strategies
of:
Empowerment or Disempowerment
Empowerment
Disempowerment
1.Democratic relationships
1.
2.Equal rights & opportunities
2.
3.Promotes responsibility
3.
4.Bio-Psycho-Social Paradigm
4.
5.Health Promotion
5.
6.Patient Centered Medicine
6.
7.Biofeedback, neurofeedback
7.
8.Transparency, shared knowledge
8.
9.Person Centered & People Centered
9.
10.Capacity for deep contact, empathy
10.
11. Respect for all the life forms
12.Microcredit, sustainable
entrepreneurship
11.
Authoritarian Relationships
Oppression & discrimination
Promotes passivity
Mechanistic-reductionist Paradigm
Reductionist Medicine
Disease Centered Medicine
Electroshock
Manipulation of information
Racism, sexism, ageism, bigotry etc.
Alienation from self, others, depletion of
Natural & human resources
Profit to all cost, monopolies, Subprime
caper
A new compass for leaders, politicians, scientists, opinion
makers , professionals and people from all the walk of life
is badly needed
To promote the development of healthy personalities
and effective leaders
We need to promote a new socially compelling, forwardlooking vision of evolution that brings together the worlds
of science and spirit, evolutionary theory and
developmental psychology.
An updated recipe for resilience, on how to think, feel and
act outside the present obsolete mechanistic box, to
became aware of the fact that we live in complex web of
relationships and that to be blind to the world of
relationships brings us dire consequences
To promote the development of healthy personalities resilient
people and effective leaders is a MULTILEVEL circular continuous
action of psycho-socio-cultural change of:
•the individual
•the family
•the organization
•the community
•the society
•the culture…….and vice versa…..
We need to foster the conditions that allow people and
communities to become self actualized, resilient and able to
relate to themselves, to others and to the planet with more
•Respect
•Empathy
•Authenticity/congruence (deep contact)
We need to empower people from elementary school
age since empowerment generates responsibility and
promotes the emergence of effective leaders
The school years can be crucial to
promote effective and resilient
citizens. We all need to think, feel
and act in ways that will bring the
necessary changes:
From being part of the problem
to
becoming part of the solution
World Academy of Art and Science
www.worldacademy.org
World University Consortium
www.wunicon.org
Person Centered Approach Institute (IACP)
www.iacp.it
azucconi@iacp.it
Thank
World Academy of
Art and Science
World
University
Consortium
You!
ISTITUTO DELL'APPROCCIO
CENTRATO SULLA PERSONA