Campbell, Constance R.

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Georgia Southern University: Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

Georgia Southern UniversityDigital Commons@Georgia SouthernBusiness in Savannah Articles Business, College of - College Publications2-24-2010Leadership: It’s All about Me — Or NotConstance R. CampbellFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/savannahThis article is brought to you for free and open access by the Business, College of - College Publications at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Business in Savannah Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For moreinformation, please contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu.Recommended Citationhttp://coba.georgiasouthern.edu/pdf%20files/2010_03_24_Campbell_Leadership.pdfBusiness in Savannah | businessinsavannah.com | 912-652-030010 | Wednesday, February 24, 2010Leadership has manydefinitions —more than2,240,000 online.Many of these definitions,though, share four ele-ments: 1) a leader who exertsinfluence, 2)followers, 3) amission and 4)a context.Notice thatnone of theseelements tell uswhether leader-ship is positiveor negative.Churchillqualifies as a leader, but sodoes Hitler. So what is thedistinction between what isoften called the light side ofleadership and the dark sideof leadership?The four elements ofleadership provide a start-ing point for examining thatissue.Starting with element No.1, the leader, we find thatwell-known leaders tend tohave a strong sense of self,as illustrated by Churchilland Hitler. But the shape oftheir sense of self is wherethe paths to light and darkdiverge.Light-side leaders have astrong sense of self-accep-tance, self-confidence andself-efficacy.They believe in themselvesand their capability to influ-ence followers to accomplisha mission. But their strongsense of self is balanced bya strong commitment to fol-lowers and to their mission,coupled with an awareness ofthe nuances of context.Light-side leaders havebeen called “constructivenarcissists,” people who havea strong sense of self, but viewthemselves as part of a largersystem, rather than the focusof the system.In his book “Good toGreat,” Jim Collins notes thatgreat leaders display ambi-tion, but it is ambition fortheir organization (context)rather than for themselves.For these people, leadership is“not all about me.”Churchill, described bybiographer WilliamMan-chester as a man of strongself-confidence, softenedsomewhat by his years ofpolitical successes and fail-ures, is an example of such aleader.At the other extreme, thedark side, the focus is almostexclusively on the self. Forthese leaders, leadership isindeed “all about me.” Follow-ers, mission and context areviewed on the basis of theirservice to self.These leaders have beencalled “destructive narcis-sists.” Their narcissism leadsthem to a sense of entitle-ment, even when others mustsacrifice to give the narcis-sist what he or she wants,but dark-side leaders do notrespond to the sacrifices ofothers as they are not capableof empathy with others.Dark-side leaders tendto view followers as tools tobe used to accomplish theleader’s own goals, and theirinteractions with others areprimarily manipulative. Likelight-side leaders, dark-sideleaders believe strongly intheir mission. However, it isusually a mission that is self-aggrandizing.Hitler, as described bybiographer Ian Kershaw,fits this description withhis strong personal ambi-tions and reinterpretationof historical events to puthimself in a better light in“MeinKampf.”Thus, light- and dark-sideleaders look alike in someways — a strong sense of self,strong commitment to theirmission and an understand-ing of their context. Theydiffer in their focus on self.For organizations that wishtomove toward the light sideof leadership, this implies aneed for careful selection pro-cesses. Because it is difficult tojudge between self-confidenceand self-absorption in aninterview setting, organiza-tionsmay need to employ theservices of a psychologist whocan help them in this regard.Organizations must alsoensure that their leader devel-opment programs includeways to help self-absorbedindividuals appreciate theperspective of others, forexample by using 360-degreefeedback. However, the jury isstill out on whether it is pos-sible to move from the darkside to the light side.What do you think? Do youknow a light-side or dark-sideleader? Does this descriptionfit?Constance Campbell is a professorof management at GeorgiaSouthern University. She can becontacted at ccampbell@georgiasouthern.edu.Leadership: It’s all about me — or notBiS EAGLE EXECUTIVE BRIEFINGSDark-side leaders tend to view followersas tools to be used to accomplish theleader’s own goals, and their interactionswith others are primarily manipulative.ConstanceCampbell

Leadership: It’s All about Me — Or Not

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Leadership: It’s All about Me — Or Not

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