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The Shadow Side of Leadership

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Handbook of Top Management Teams

Abstract

This chapter explores the origins and manifestations of the failure factors in leadership. It reviews some of the psychological pressures leaders face, such as the loneliness of command, addiction to power, fear of envy, depression and narcissistic behaviour. It makes a distinction between two forms of narcissism: reactive and constructive. Furthermore, it explores the relationship between personality, leadership style, culture, strategy and organisation. The article concludes by making a number of suggestions of how to cope with dysfunctional leadership behaviour.

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© 2010 Manfred Kets de Vries and Katharina Balazs

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de Vries, M.K., Balazs, K. (2010). The Shadow Side of Leadership. In: Bournois, F., Duval-Hamel, J., Roussillon, S., Scaringella, JL. (eds) Handbook of Top Management Teams. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230305335_19

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