Paddy Upton, "It’s not about the
truth"
Psychopaths in
business, politics and sport, by Paddy Upton (They sound like Jimmy Saville!)
‘Corporate psychopaths’ are possibly the biggest threat facing
modern-day business, politics and sport; where they currently flourish and are
highly rewarded.
During three previous professional assignments, I found myself being
highly frustrated as I tried, woefully unsuccessfully, to manage a uniquely
destructive individual. Each was highly successful, well respected in their
field and admired by many (except the few who worked closely with them). They
were also uniquely manipulative and destructive. Eventually the environment
around them became untenable, soul destroying and often impossible for others
to survive in.
On each occasion I spent an inordinate amount of my time thinking about
how to help the individual to lead in a more constructive manner. Nothing
seemed to work. I found myself doubting my professional ability and wondering
what the hell I was missing.
More than 10 years later the penny dropped. Sometime, whilst working
with the third such individual, I remembered a strange thing that Professor Tim
Noakes once said years back about Hansie Cronje – that he suspected Cronje was
a psychopath*. It never resonated with
me at the time because I thought I knew Hansie well and had a high regard for
him. Although his involvement in match-fixing never quite made sense?
Psychopaths, for me, were callous murderers who tortured animals as
young children. Not Hansie. And then I learnt that psychopaths could show up
either as criminals or as highly intelligent and successful ‘corporate
psychopaths’.
I wish I had known about this cunningly destructive animal earlier. It
may have saved me much wasted time and energy, and unnecessary frustration,
confusion and illness. As I began researching the corporate psychopath, I was
surprised to learn that several colleagues, friends and acquaintances also had
endured harrowing experiences with a charmingly tyrannical boss. I was far from
alone. The most worrisome discovery I made was how abundant they are in
society; one in 100 people is a psychopath, amongst business leaders they are one
in 25 and they are even more common in certain industries. Although there
doesn’t seem to be any research on psychopaths in sport, it is highly likely
they also exist in this field.
Despite their common occurrence, psychopaths operate quite successfully
and largely unnoticed. Harvard Medical
School psychologist Martha Stout says that, “People see psychopathy in their
personal lives, and they don’t have a clue that it has a label or that others
have encountered it.” Corporate psychopath researcher Clive Boddy suggests that
“they present as very likable people and lead us to believe that they are our
friends. Then one day, we wake up too late finding ourselves a victim of their
conniving ways”.
Who are they?
To the casual observer they are intelligent, charming, charismatic, have
alluring personalities and appear very friendly. They are brilliant at creative
or strategic thinking. They have outstanding communication skills and are
highly persuasive, making it easy for them to inspire and manipulate others. They
have an uncanny ability to spot and exploit a weakness in a person or a
loophole in a system. They have massive self-belief, operate well amidst chaos,
are calm and unemotional under high pressure and make difficult decisions with
remarkable ease. They do whatever it takes to win.
Most of these attributes are sought-after leadership skills, and thus
undetected by most people, the psychopath cleverly navigates their way to
high-ranking positions in business or political structures, or to the top of
their sport. They make all the right moves, charm their superiors into
rewarding and promoting them and accumulate all the right contacts. Up until
this point their strengths work for them, and even for others. And then the
shit starts.
The further a psychopath rises up the corporate ladder or hierarchical
structures, the more they are able to accumulate power, status and money. They
have a grandiose sense of self-worth, and are entirely self-serving. They will
do as they please and take what they want by lying, cheating, deceiving and
breaking rules and laws. They will callously use, abuse and manipulate others,
particularly subordinates, as pawns in their own game. They operate without
guilt, shame or remorse. Regardless of the chaos, damage or hurt they cause to
people and organisations, they do not take any responsibility for their
actions.
The following are the eight main characteristics of a ‘corporate
psychopath’, according to Professor Robert Hare, a psychologist and the world’s
leading authority on psychopaths**.
• Glibness/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of
self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Cunning/manipulative
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Emotionally shallow
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept
responsibility for own actions
Psychopaths in
business and politics
Corporate psychopaths seek positions that give them access to power over
others and the chance to get things for themselves. Financial institutions,
stock exchanges and IT companies are amongst the most fertile environments for
them to flourish. As long as they deliver profits and raise stock prices, most
corporations are willing to overlook their manipulative, deceitful, callous,
verbally and psychologically abusive and exploitative ways. An ex-CEO of one of
the biggest investment banks in the world admitted that they used psychometric
testing to recruit corporate psychopaths because their characteristics were
perfect for senior corporate finance roles! They make great salesmen and can
sell ice to Eskimos with their smooth talking, manipulative, guilt-free and not
entirely honest ways.
Clive Boddy attests that the 2008 global credit crunch that continues to
unsettle the world today, was caused by corporate psychopaths. He showed how a
handful of rogue executives in influential positions traded ruthlessly and
recklessly with other people’s money and livelihoods to feed their own power
and greed, inf licting untold pain, suffering and destruction. Most of the
perpetrators still believe they did nothing wrong and refuse to take any
responsibility. Some even managed to convince governments to bail their
companies out.
University of Surrey research on 39 high-level British executives
showed that they were more likely to be superficially charming, egocentric,
insincere, and manipulative, and just as likely to be grandiose, exploitative,
and lacking in empathy as criminals and psychiatric patients. The criminals
only scored higher on being impulsive and physically aggressive.
Politics is another fertile ground for psychopaths. Their position gives
them power over others and access to money. They rise fast thanks to their
excellent communication skills, strategic thinking abilities and charm which is
accompanied by clever yet pathologica l lying, manipulation and deception. Once
in power they are able to make themselves largely untouchable, while serving
their own interests. Their lie-to-your-face whilst deceiving-behind-your-back
behaviour spans building their personal empires and off-shore bank accounts to
leading genocides and major atrocities against fellow humans. Callously and
without any remorse, they bring countries and economies to their knees.
Researchers point to Adolf Hitler, Stalin and Mao as examples as well as to
some current heads of state.
Much of modern day politics is psychopathic in its very nature. Truth is
pathologically twisted, being glib and manipulative is commonplace, words and
smiles are false and superficial, yet behind closed doors malice,
back-stabbing, corruption, being self-serving and abuse of power is equally
commonplace and in some cases even acceptable. Corrupt politicians are left
licking their lips.
Psychopaths in sport
There is little if any research into the existence of psychopaths in
sport. It was unsettling to venture into this terrain as nobody wants to find
dragons in their favorite playground. The unavoidable truth is that psychopaths
exist in sport, as players and as administrators.
They not only exist, but also thrive. With massive self-belief, they
will not stop at anything in order to win, are excellent strategic thinkers and
can spot and exploit weaknesses in opponents. They play and win mind games.
They get the best out of their teammates through positive manipulation, knowing
which buttons to push and what to say to them to motivate and encourage. They
know who to charm and how to impress. Being emotionally shallow, they are
fearless and remain relaxed and calm under the highest pressure. All these
positive attributes support them to become highly successful, gain a huge fan
base and be very popular with sponsors and admiring businessmen.
As their power increases, their negative attributes become more visible,
often after it’s too late to do anything about it. While their adoring fans
have no idea of their condition, their teammates would tell a story you would
not believe, nor want to believe. They might share frustrations of an
increasingly arrogant and manipulative individual who became less and less of a
team player as he moved to serve his own selfish needs, often at the expense of
others. They may speak of someone they struggled to connect with, of someone
greedy for power and of a two-faced liar who they couldn’t trust. They may also
tell of a seeming absence of guilt and remorse.
Their behaviour can create so much negativity in a team that the
majority of the other people’s energy goes towards
limiting the damage rather than driving success. In one assignment I estimate
that over 90% of my input went towards repairing damage and trying to lift
colleagues who had become frustrated, angry, demotivated or resigned. Team
morale went down, enjoyment went out the window, communication decreased and
the team became divided. Performance declined accordingly. In this type of
environment the only person left thriving is the psychopath, believing that all
around him are incapable and deluding himself that he alone is keeping the boat
afloat. This environment is exhausting and soul destroying and eventually can
lead to a ‘normal’ person becoming mentally, emotionally
and/or physically ill.
The reality, however, is that their teammate would never tell this
story. No one other than their immediate teammates would believe them as the
psychopath is a superstar in the eyes of the outside world. Often the whistle-blower
is at risk of being labelled as the sick, bitter or twisted one. I remember the
backlash at the time Professor Noakes suggested Hansie Cronje was a psychopath.
When exposed, psychopaths are experts at publicly discrediting and intimidating
the whistle-blower and turning the world against them. Professor Hare contends
that they are experts in making other people look bad, crazy or deluded.
The one way that they may be found out though, is through their lying
and cheating ways. They break rules and thus will readily involve themselves in
match-fixing, taking performance enhancing drugs or other means of corruption,
regardless of how successful or how rich they might already be. They do not
believe they are doing wrong. Unfortunately their web of deceit is weaved so
wide, they often end up taking their team and even their sport down with them.
When caught, they will deny, lie, manipulate, launch attacks, serve legal
notices and blame others whilst not taking any responsibility for their
actions. When Hansie Cronje was caught red-handed for match-fixing, he first
denied his involvement and then blamed the devil. At no point did he show any
remorse towards the vulnerable teammates who he manipulated into his web of
deceit, which ended up ruining some of their careers and lives.
At this point, my guess would be that almost everyone who has read this
far and who has followed the case against him, would have thought of the name
Lance Armstrong.
He was the ultimate hero, a role model for everyone, the greatest
cyclist and maybe even the greatest sportsman that ever lived. He was the
cancer survivor and cancer champion who put both cycling and the fight against
cancer on the world map. He was also the ringleader of the most sophisticated
international doping programme sport has ever seen.
He cheated, lied and bullied his way to winning seven Tour de France
titles, and when threatened with being exposed, he covered his tracks,
intimidated witnesses and lied to hearing panels and to the world.
Armstrong claims that evidence of his doping and intimidation scheme,
provided by 26 people, including 11 of his former teammates, is fabricated. He
maintains that he never lied and he vehemently denies having ever doped.
The prosecution suggests that some of the most shocking evidence was
Armstrong’s vindictive, mendacious, vicious character. One report suggested,
“He comes across less like a cyclist, more like a psychopath”. Those who dealt
closely with him suggested Lance’s strong-arm tactics could be likened to the
Mafia.
He forced teammates to follow drug programmes so they could help him
win, threatening to fire them from the team if they didn’t. He paid Michele
Ferrari, one of the world’s leading doping doctors nearly 1 Million dollars
over his career. He flew in private jets, but cut people from his team ‘to save
money’. Armstrong ruthlessly threatened anyone who moved to expose him or his
collaborators, bullying teammates, journalists and fellow professional
cyclists. When team masseur Emma O’Reilly, who helped his drug taking testified
against him, he called her an alcoholic and prostitute in court and set out to
make her life a living hell. In 2011 he threatened ex-teammate Tyler Hamilton
telling him, “when you’re on the witness stand, we’re going to f___ tear you
apart. You are going to look like a f_____ idiot.” Hamilton sums him up, “Lance
used his power to flout the rules, lie to the world, make millions and walk
away scott free.”
Armstrong is still in denial. He remains, like all corporate
psychopaths, completely unapologetic and wholly unconcerned about the impact of
his actions on the people around him or on his sport. He continues to lie, feel
no shame, admit any wrongdoing nor ask any forgiveness.
Armstrong’s first public statements since his banning will be aired on
Oprah on 17 January 2013, via a pre-recorded interview with her. Whatever the
world hears, it will be very clever, very strategic and very much on
Armstrong’s terms.
What Lance Armstrong is to cycling, megalomaniac businessmen are to
economies and lying politicians are to countries. Empires have already fallen,
and will continue to do so if changes aren’t made to the way we choose our
leaders.
Ignore, tolerate or promote psychopaths at everyone’s peril.
What to do about
them?
1 Get rid of them: This option may be very difficult, but keeping them
on is downright dangerous.
2. If you can’t get rid of them, then get yourself out: This may also be
difficult, but the cost on your mental, emotional and physical health will be
too high if you do not. One researcher suggests that the only way to deal with
a powerful corporate psychopath is to move to another country.
3. Screen for them: A more preventative measure is to screen when
appointing people into influential positions in business, politics, religion
and sport where the risk of psychopathy is greatest. This said the risk amongst
business leaders is already one in 25! Some countries already screen policemen
and teachers for psychopathy.
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* I cannot say that Hansie or any of the three individuals I referred to
were/are psychopaths, but their behaviour did lead me to this research.
** It takes a trained professional to diagnose the condition. Psychologists
caution against a non-professional or over-simplistic labelling of someone as a
psychopath