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| The Global ANALYST || May 2022 |
46
The gap between what those in power want to believe and what is actually happening can result in major
misunderstandings, decision-making miscalculations, and trauma within the business.
Let me begin by sounding a warn-
ing note: It is suggested that
readers with a nervous or a sen-
sitive disposition should ensure they
are sitting down and are in a quiet room
before reading this article because the
contents which follow may well appear
shocking. It is further suggested that
caution should also be exercised before
recommending this article to other ex-
ecutives who may have a sensitive dis-
position.
Fake news, tyrannical leadership,
duplicitous behavior, conspiracy theo-
ries and false reporting reflect many of
today’s contemporary issues and con-
cerns. At the heart of such matters sits
the issue of power; who has it and who
does not, how it will be used and the
dangers which accompany an addiction
to power such as grandiosity, hubris, de-
lusion, narcissistic excess and a general
disregard for the wellbeing of others.
Against this backdrop, the purpose of
this article is to highlight how an addic-
tion to the accumulation of power can
profoundly affect the thinking and sub-
sequent behavior of those in positions of
authority and influence. Whilst focused
on the behavior of executives within
business organizations, the points cov-
ered have global relevance, resonance
and utility. ‘Power Addiction’ is by no
means a rare condition nor is the one
Leadership
‘POWER ADDICTION’
AND ITS PERILS
Tyrannical Leadership
reserved only for those occupying senior
positions. Rather, it is a common fea-
ture of business life. In fact, it will not
be surprising to see that many readers
might have experienced instances of
‘petty tyranny’, where minor officials
chose not to be as helpful as they could
just because they wanted to exercise the
little power they held. Taking actions
which were self-serving impeded effi-
ciency or productivity and wasted time
and effort for no substantive reason. If
such behavior comes from those in senior
executive positions, just think of the
wider impact which any self-serving be-
havior would have on an organization.
Ask yourself, “Are you an addict?” If
| The Global ANALYST |47
| May 2022 |
Michael Walton
Business Psychologist
and Visiting Professor, UK
your answer is in the affirmative,
chances are you are more likely to be
prone to display of narcissistic excess,
hubris and arrogance. The reason is
these patterns of thinking and behavior
can lead an executive to assume an un-
founded sense of personal invincibility,
perhaps based on an over-extension of
one’s talents and a denial of their per-
sonal limitations, compounded by a
lack of constructive challenge and de-
bate. It is this absence of constructive
challenge, in particular, which can re-
sult in some leaders’ becoming behav-
iorally unpredictable, exploitative, de-
meaning, contemptuous of others and
tyrannical.
The unrestrained concentration of
power in either a single person, or
within a top executive group, poses con-
siderable danger because such leaders
are likely to believe they can do no
wrong, only believing their self-pro-
fessed narrative which may of course be
very different to what is actually hap-
pening ‘on the ground’. The addictive
drive for power and influence can (i) lead
to isolation from others, (ii) insulation
from the ‘real world’, (iii) generate unre-
alistic expectations of entitlement and
grandiosity, and result in (iv) feelings of
omniscience and omnipotence. Such a
combination of factors is also likely to
result in an increasing dependence on
information, which however has been
deliberately shaped and manipulated
to appeal to those in the positions of
power and privilege.
In such circumstances, the problem
of how to cope with the sycophantic pos-
turing of others becomes a key issue as
an executive (or the top group of execu-
tives) accumulates power, prestige and
privilege. Yet again, trying to work out
‘Who’ to believe, ‘What’ to believe and
‘How’ to separate fact from fiction can
become a continuing challenge. Such
considerations become increasingly
pertinent and acute the more senior and
isolated a top executive becomes.
Grounded, realistic leadership will be
further compromised if information
which fails to reinforce—and perhaps
even dares to challenge—the presented
narrative being promoted by the leader-
ship is outlawed. In such conditions,
leaders will only receive the information
they want to see and which they choose
to believe to be ‘the truth’.
On the other hand, one of the ben-
efits of accumulated power and influ-
ence is that such leaders can define the
business agenda. They can decide which
issues to address and which to ignore.
They can decide what sources of infor-
mation can be allowed and which
should be barred, closed down and out-
lawed. In this way, a powerful leader
can effectively decide what ‘the truth’ is.
But such power and authority comes
with a ‘Health Warning’. Wielding such
power though is very much like handling
a double-edged sword and highlights
two fundamental frailties of the power-
ful: firstly, the dangers of succumbing to
unrestrained and narcissistic self-pro-
motion, and secondly of delusional and
unconditional self-belief based on com-
promised information and the syco-
phantic behavior of those around them.
So what do we know about power
anyway?
What is it that is so special about this
aspect of human nature? And why does
‘being powerful’ matter so much to some
people yet not at all to others? For the
purposes of this article, ‘Power’ will be
defined very simply as the ability of an
individual to influence, direct, and con-
trol the actions of others. But of course
just possessing power and influence is
only part of the issue because ‘How’ such
power and influence is deployed by an
executive is very important to consider
too. And understanding ‘How’ power is
deployed will vary with each person and
involve examining the nature of an
executive’s psychology—and perhaps
pathology—if their behavior and priori-
ties in the workplace are to be under-
stood.
I have found that one of the most
critical facets underpinning any discus-
sion on power is the extent to which
power is viewed as a finite or an infinite
entity. If power is viewed as a finite en-
tity (that is to say there is only so much
of it to go around), then there will be
competition for its distribution because
there is a finite ‘quantity’ of power avail-
able. Conversely, if power is viewed as
an infinite entity, then each person in-
terested in becoming more influential—
however that may be defined—is in a
position to accumulate more power and
influence, but not at the expense of di-
minishing, diluting or threatening that
already held by others. So this is a Win-
Win dynamic rather than a Win-Lose
one.
My experience suggests that it is
very likely that within many organiza-
tions power is primarily viewed as be-
ing a finite entity. And it is this belief
which perhaps could be behind the ris-
ing cases of conflicts, in-fighting, duplic-
ity, turf battles, bullying, emotional
distress and tension, etc., which charac-
terize the life within many organiza-
tions. If my supposition is accurate,
then one very simple and cost-effective,
way of defusing much workplace rivalry
would simply be to promote a view of
‘power’ as an infinite entity rather than
as a finite one. Doing so would surely
have a profound and significant effect
on enhancing workplace relationships
and collegiality.
Power corrupts
Depending on their seniority, executives
can control and manipulate the levers of
power for self-protection and for per-
sonal advantage; they can determine
Tyrannical Leadership
| The Global ANALYST || May 2022 |
48
what information needs are prioritized
and what information—however valid
and important it may be—can be dis-
carded, neglected or trivialized. In this
way, senior leaders have the ability to
reinterpret and effectively rewrite his-
tory to suit and reinforce their leader’s
current narrative and storyline. The
cost of doing so, however, will result in a
gradual narrowing of their awareness
of, and openness to, information which
is incongruent with the ‘party-line’ be-
ing presented.
Taken to an extreme, this will even-
tually lead to increasingly inward-look-
ing, self-serving and myopic thinking
where those in power only see and hear
what they want to. If executives and
leaders only accept what they want to
hear, this will culminate in the genera-
tion of a parallel universe of meaning
totally removed from what is actually
happening. The gap between what
those in power want to believe and what
is actually happening can result in ma-
jor misunderstandings, decision-mak-
ing miscalculations, and trauma lead-
ing to delusion. Accumulating power
can also have an anaesthetizing and
numbing effect as well as an addictive
one. It has been observed only too well
that power makes people—‘blind and
deaf’—only wanting to see and hear
what suits them. Holding ‘special privi-
leges’ also limits and restricts the out-
look and openness of those who are in
receipt of them. Finally, there is also of
course the well-stated observation—
and which is especially relevant to
those with an addiction to accumula-
tion of power—‘that power corrupts, and
that absolute power corrupts abso-
lutely’.
Five major ‘costs’
Leadership is not a cost-free venture.
For, whilst it offers one the opportunity
to make a positive difference, there are,
nevertheless, a number of dangers which
can easily block and derail even the best
intentions of an executive. Five major
implications are set out below, each of
which can constrain, complicate, confuse
and limit the capacity of an executive to
exercise their responsibilities—as they
have initially intended—in an ethical,
grounded and constructive manner:
1. Life Under the Spotlight: In-
creased visibility and public scrutiny
can be unwelcome and also attract per-
sonal attacks, adverse criticism and
abuse.
2. Isolation and Insulation: Execu-
tives can become increasingly isolated
from those outside their privileged
circle of colleagues and insulated from
accurate, timely and possibly critical
information, thus limiting their ability
to provide effective leadership.
3. Skewed Perceptions: An
executive’s privileged status and posi-
tion can lead them to only see things
from their preferred points of view, and
this increases the likelihood of them
losing touch with ‘reality’.
4. Delusions of Omnipotence: A lack
of awareness of what is actually going
on around them, and fueled by syco-
phantic posturing of colleagues, can
lead an executive to believe that they
are indeed omnipotent, omniscient, un-
touchable and flawless in whatever
they do.
5. Living in a ‘Parallel Universe’: The
factors noted above can combine to gen-
erate a ‘false reality’.
Whilst some of these factors may
well have been anticipated, it should
not be assumed that every executive,
and high-profile leader, will have under-
stood how intrusive and significant
such challenges can be in affecting their
ability to exercise leadership. It is these
hidden, obscured and unexpected as-
pects of ‘power’ which can result not only
in executive derailment, but also in in-
appropriate, dysfunctional and toxic de-
cision-making.
Leaders beware
It can be argued that all those in posi-
tions of power and authority are poten-
tially in the pathological grip of ‘power-
addiction’. Unfortunately, this is a more
widespread issue than usually imag-
ined, and one which may affect more ex-
ecutives than just those occupying posi-
tions of eminence, or are a part of top
management. The unrestrained exercise
of power may increase hypocrisy and ego-
centric behavior, and lead to an increas-
ing lack of empathy and a tendency to see
others as a means to an end. Any such
objectification of others can then be ex-
pected to lead to more uninhibited lead-
ership behavior and making of excessive
demands, and may encourage hitherto
restrained latent dysfunctional toxic
leadership to emerge.
Power, like vanity, is insatiable and
arguably nothing short of omnipotence
could satisfy it completely. Power—
however it may be defined—remains a
fundamental concept in seeking to un-
derstand, explain and predict an
executive’s behavior. At the same time,
power distorts reality and undermines
the value of open-minded debate, and
such tendencies are likely to become
magnified for those who may have al-
ready become ‘power-addicted’ and pos-
sibly increasingly tyrannical in their
behavior.
Reference # 20M-2022-05-12-01
Leadership