How to Tell If Your Boss is a Psychopath

Psychopaths can thrive in the business world and easily maneuver themselves into positions of power; some of their personality traits are perfect for leadership. They can be excellent at their job, but they can also be bad news for employees. These are individuals who enjoy being reckless and have no qualms with hurting people; in fact they enjoy it. A psychopath likes to win at whatever they do and will not care about how they achieve this.

Psychopathic bosses are master manipulators and will have no problem sacrificing your career if it benefits them. The real danger is that these people could seriously harm your future by setting you up as a fall guy for their mistakes. For this reason it is important to be able to tell if you are working for an individual with this type of personality disorder.

What is a psychopath?

Psychopaths have a personality that is described as being predatory. They are unable to feel remorse and find enjoyment in doing things that would be considered taboo. A psychopath really can do the most horrendous things and have no feelings of guilt. The common vision of the psychopath is the serial killer, but the vast majority of psychopaths are not killers; most serial killers are psychopaths though.

A strange quirk in the make-up of the psychopath means that they are unable to appreciate the feelings of other people - they lack empathy. They have a recognized personality disorder that is believed to be genetically inherited. At present there is no real treatment option for the condition.

True psychopathic behavior is fairly rare, but it is almost certain that all of us have dealt with an individual like this in our life. The percentage of psychopaths in certain professions will be higher than the general population because they attract this type of personality.

How to tell if your boss is a psychopath?

The difficulty with determining if your boss is a psychopath is that they share so many similar traits to effective leaders. The psychopath is obsessed with themselves, but most leaders are at least a bit narcissistic. These are people who love to dominate and assert themselves but again these are behaviors associated with many managers. They tend to be able to hide their reckless behavior.

Discovering if your boss is a psychopath is not easy; it will take a lot of careful observation. Here are some things to look out for.

- The complete give away is their total lack of compassion and empathy. They know how to say the right things but if you watch them closely you may be able to tell if this is an act. There response to terrible events can come across as shallow.

- They take foolish risks and seem unable to handle tedium.

- They will tend to have many sexual partners.

- The often act impulsively and show little self-control

- They will lie and otherwise involve themselves in manipulative behaviour

- These are people who refuse to ever accept any responsibility for mistakes

What should you do if you think your boss is a psychopath?

Working for this type of boss is taking a huge risk. If they don't directly cause problems for you they will cause problems indirectly because eventually the company will suffer because of their actions. If allow yourself to become close to the psychopath they will get enjoyment out of causing difficulties for you. For this reason it is a good idea to remove yourself from the situation if you have good reason to believe your boss is a psychopath.

Sources

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss-quiz.html

http://www.crisiscounseling.com/Articles/Psychopath.htmhttp://www.hare.org/links/saturday.html