Recognizing Personality Types : Part 1

The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership
by Michael Maccoby, Ph.D.

A provocative examination of the essential - and widely misunderstood - personality type of today's most innovative leaders.

What is it that Oprah Winfrey, Jack Welch, Martha Stewart, and Bill Gates all have in common? According to psychoanalyst, anthropologist, and consultant Michael Maccoby, it's not just enormous success and celebrity - it's narcissism. In The Productive Narcissist, Maccoby proposes a new paradigm of modern leadership and zeros in on one common character trait: the narcissistic personality. Challenging prevailing leadership theories, Maccoby argues that today's most innovative leaders are not consensus-building bureaucrats; they are "productive narcissists" with the interrelated set of skills - foresight, systems thinking, visioning, motivating, and partnering - that he terms "strategic intelligence." Rejecting the negative stereotype of the individual who is destroyed by a pathological preoccupation with himself, Maccoby redefines the productive narcissist as the personality type who is best suited to lead during times of rapid social and economic change. At the same time, he makes clear that narcissistic leadership doesn't always mean successful leadership and that narcissists lacking strategic intelligence are fated to crash and burn.

Beginning with an examination of the crucial role personality plays in the workplace and an analysis of the primary personality types (a questionnaire allowing readers to evaluate their own personalities is included), Maccoby makes an eye-opening case for how narcissism has been misunderstood and how throughout history narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future. While narcissism can be extraordinarily useful-even necessary-for effective leadership, Maccoby shows how it also has a distinct downside when narcissists become unrealistic dreamers and harbor the illusion that only circumstances or enemies block their success. Strategic intelligence is the hallmark of the productive narcissist, and by elucidating its key qualities - and how they can be developed - Maccoby illuminates both what it takes for narcissists to truly succeed and how to work with them most effectively.

Based on over thirty years of first-hand experience consulting with business leaders around the world, The Productive Narcissist redefines the way we understand and relate to today's leaders.

Chapter 1

Let's start out with a question I have asked hundreds of people at work: Can you describe your personality? If you're like most people, you don't have a ready answer. You may cite temperament traits such as "upbeat," "reserved," and "outgoing," or behavioral traits such as "dependable," "caring," and "hardworking." Some people focus on a key part of who they are, like "I play to win" or "I never give up." You may type yourself according to a work role - engineer, designer, manager - or a lifestyle label - parent, spouse, single. Very few people think of themselves as having a personality type that encompasses how they habitually meet the challenges of work and social relationships, the deep-rooted way they resolve the human needs to survive and prosper physically and emotionally, to make life satisfying and meaningful.

Imagine that you work in a small, successful technology company. You report to a manager who is known throughout the office as the "numbers guy." He sets the budget for your department, keeps an eye on the bottom line, and runs the office infrastructure. If you have a proposal for a new initiative, you know you won't get anywhere with him unless you've done your financial homework - worked up a spreadsheet or a detailed profit-and-loss report. How do you know this? Because you've seen how he reacts whenever he's approached without the financials in place; he can be rude, dismissive, even blow up at anyone who ignores his need for facts and figures. You and your colleagues like to complain about him, thinking that his obsession with the numbers gets in the way of more creative or spontaneous ideas. Nevertheless, you take his concerns into account whenever he pops into your office to ask a quick question, or when you need something from him, or whenever you're called upon by him to make a snap decision at a staff meeting. There's a pattern to his behavior, a typical, habitual response that you and your colleagues have noticed over time. He's not just playing a role; you think he's expressing his personality. You may even have a name for his behavior, calling him "anal," or a "little picture" person, behind his back.

You are already engaged in personality typing; in fact, you use these "typing" skills all the time, without even being aware of them. You may not have a manager or colleague who is exactly like this "numbers man" (although many people do), but surely you have a boss, coworker, or colleague whose behavior you can predict with a degree of accuracy. You have a good idea of what certain people will do in any given situation, how some of your colleagues will react to the stress of a group meeting, the demands of a deadline, or a particularly hard-driving boss. You might say about one of your coworkers, "She would never disagree with our boss," meaning that, in your experience, it's not in her nature; you've never seen her do it, and you can't imagine her acting differently. You notice the little smile of pleasure she shows when the boss nods approvingly at her positive statement - or how she turns off when a colleague looks for support to challenge the boss. Even if you can't come up with a label for her behavior, you've done some mental accounting of her personality, and this unconscious typing plays a part in all of your encounters with her.

Each and every day, we are confronted with a flood of people whose personality quirks and qualities baffle and intrigue us, challenging our own ability to "deal" with them, to decide, in a moment, how to act and react in a variety of settings - at home, in school, on the job, and even on the street. We intuitively recognize that there are different personality types, but there is a much better way of looking at people, a deeper and more precise understanding of personality type that can make you more effective in handling all of your relationships, especially in your career. This book is the result of my own endeavors to make sense of personality type, to provide diagnostic and conceptual tools for recognizing and understanding the different types. This "typing" is not a mere intellectual pursuit or parlor game to be played for fun, nor is it meant to be reductive; I believe that a better way of seeing personality can have a profound effect on our view of human nature and the way we interact with people. The example I opened with was meant to show just how much we use this information to bring order and sense to the profusion of personalities we encounter on a daily basis.

Since information about type influences your own behavior, it can only be to your benefit to have a greater understanding of personality type when managing your relationships. The ability to recognize personality type can be learned, and so can applying these insights to your career. When people come to me for coaching, they usually ask: What should I do? What steps should I take to be more successful? I never give advice without first determining an individual's personality type, then exploring the qualities of that type; once a client has a better grasp of his or her own type, we can strategize together. There is no one-size-fits-all career advice. It depends on personality type. Before you can fully understand your own potentialities and shortcomings, how they can work in concert with the personalities of others, and how you can become more productive, you need to define and understand your own personality.

An example from my own work makes clear that an understanding of personality type can have dramatic and lasting effects on your work life. I've been working for the last year with a businesswoman - the Professional Woman - and recently asked her to describe the effect that fresh insight into personality has had on her career. She immediately said that it had changed "everything," that she now sees personality type in everyone, including herself, and that this rush of readily usable data had sharpened her judgment and impacted how she handles a multitude of situations. She told me one particular story about her partner, a difficult and self-centered manager, who was arguing with one of her colleagues. After a few strained exchanges, the boss shouted in frustration, "Why can't you be more like the Professional Woman and just ignore what I say" The Professional Woman used to be the one who had a contentious relationship with her partner, always sparring with him over the right way to handle the business. She used to spend a lot of time trying to change her partner's personality, to fight it, always hoping he would conform to her expectations. No longer: She has become the office model of how to deal with the boss and his personality. This important shift in office dynamics didn't come about through self-help books or psychotherapy (although she had tried those in the past); it was a result of learning more about her own type and that of her partner, and applying some of the lessons of typing to her day-to-day encounters. Only in the last year has she figured out, with a better knowledge of personality, that it is in her strategic interest to ignore a lot of what her partner says in the moment and phrase her own ideas and concerns in a way that allows him to respond positively. Knowledge of personality has allowed her to be a much better partner, a collaborator in the true sense of the word.

Copyright © 2003 by Michael Maccoby.

About the Author

Michael Maccoby, PH.D., is president of the Maccoby Group and director of the Project on Technology, Work, and Character, a nonprofit research center. A psychoanalyst, anthropologist, and consultant, Dr. Maccoby has advised leaders at numerous corporations, from AT&T to Volvo, as well as at institutions such as the World Bank. From 1970 to 1990, he led a research program on leadership and work at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is the author of the bestseller The Gamesman and author or coauthor of seven other books, most recently Why Work? Motivating the New Workforce. He lives in Washington, D.C.