"Dark side personalities" could undermine leadership initiatives

Date: 18/09/2009

New research shows that 85 per cent of the UK's leaders demonstrate "dark side characteristics", it is understood, which could undermine other staff unless team building conferences address them.

The study, A Decade of the Dark Side, was carried out by Psychological Consultancy Ltd (PCL) and the results were released yesterday (September 17th).

Dark side characteristics can be defined as deep-set and "self-destructive" aspects of a leader's personality, spelling disaster and putting workers and organisations at risk while also contributing to the "alarming self-destruct rates" for those successful in their workplace.

Geoff Trickey, the managing director of the PCL, explained: "At work these tendencies can break through in times of stress (when the pressure gets to us) or times of success (when we feel full of ourselves and indestructible)."

Highlighting the need for staff cohesiveness through team building corporate events, Mr Trickey added: "Dark side characteristics are found in almost everybody's make up."

Recently, the retaining of good staff after the recession was highlighted, with Razor Suleman - the chief executive of I Love Rewards - emphasising the need to invest incentives and recognition into workers to ensure they stay after the downturn.

Written by James Farrior ADNFCR-2060-ID-19368044-ADNFCR

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"Dark side personalities" could undermine leadership initiatives

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