Narcissistic and Machiavellianism Leadership Form (Essay Sample)

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Leaders are developed through a vast array of commitments, knowledge, patience, the relevant experience, and more significantly the ability to dialogue and establish good working relationships aimed at achieving the set objectives. Therefore, it is safe to say that making a leader is an endless process that requires both education and training. A good leader is obliged to ensure not only a cohesive working environment but also a coherent one that guarantees the achievement of the common objectives. Effective and efficient leadership is indeed indispensable to the smooth running of an organization. Different styles of leadership are characterized by various elements that could be flawed or thewed. This paper aims at elucidating the similarities and differences that exist between the concepts of narcissistic and machiavellian leadership as well as their pros and cons.
Narcissistic leadership is one whereby a leader only cares about himself or herself. They have the propensity to put themselves ahead of the rest. They think highly of themselves and believe they are special. Nevertheless, this form of leadership is characterized by a high degree of arrogance, hostility, and insensitivity. When interpreting any information, they factor in their reputation leading to a substantial bias aimed at favoring their interests while undermining those of others (Paulhaus, 1998). People in these positions perceive others as inferior and futile. A narcissistic leader is focused on the failure traits of a leader on a derailed path. Empirical scholars contend that narcissistic leaders earn their social status through dominance and aggression.
Machiavellianism on the other hand focus on achieving goals mainly through manipulation without putting morality into consideration. This category of leaders goes by the saying the end justifies the means. They are believed to be cynical, calculative, and immoral based on their actions. Both of these leadership styles have adverse negative impacts at work. A high degree of distrust and poor work satisfaction is the major repercussions that develop other impacts such as elevated turnovers and negligence (Carlson, Simnine and Thomas, 2011). For this reason, the quality of the connections that are developed by leaders and their followers is highly contingent upon the leadership style. However, if leaders choose to build empowering relationships with their followers regardless of possession of negative traits, the quality of their relationship will be high.
Additionally, the quality of relationships between leaders and followers is highly dependent on the attitude and behavior of the followers themselves. For example, is a narcissistic leader who has autonomy over narcissistic followers, the latter tend to comprehend their leaders and accept them regardless of their negative features. The same is also true for Machiavellianism. In some instances, narcissistic followers are attracted to narcissistic leaders. The same is true for Machiavellianism. This explains why some people question why and how other people were hired. The latter gives clear and comprehensive pictures without blemish about themselves without feeling an inch of guilt. Unfortunately for them, their real capabilities become known with time and hence their true identities come to light. They create higher expectations about themselves owing to accomplishments that they did not achieve themselves.
Narcissism is a characteristic possessed by an individual and is considered a disorder. There are manifold narcissistic leaders across the world for instance Jack Welch who is the ex-chairman as well as the Chief Executive Officer of General Electric. They believe that they ought to dominate and depict self-centered behaviors so that they can be recognized.
On the other hand, Machiavellianism leaders tend to be liars and use others as scapegoats. They are opportunists who are bound to take advantage of other people's shortcomings with an ill motive of covering their shortcomings. They focus on exploiting other people and detest being exploited  (Willie et al, 2012). They disregard their opinion, concepts, and behaviors. Both of these leadership paradigms have a sense of bitterness being the center of their behaviors. Besides, they lack a sense of emotional connection with others thereby portraying less concern and lack of understanding to others. However, extreme capacities of these leadership styles are uncommon in the general public albeit many people have various extents of darkness in their personalities.
Narcissistic leadership just like any other form of leadership has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages include career advancement by the leaders and the emergence of group leadership paradigms. Firstly, career advancement results from a strong desire for prestige and power. This comes along with financial prosperity because the leaders are motivated by their desire to always be ahead of the rest and hence in the long-run they become competitive. However, their rise in power and wealth is not valued in an organization (Willie et al, 2012). Secondly, narcissism gives a prediction on the first impression as well as the chances of being chosen as a leader. The signs of leadership emergence are based on the ability to be assertive or confident and possession of good speaking skills although they need to be accompanied by intelligence. One major disadvantage of narcissistic leadership is that it hinders the ability to work as a team. These leaders are quite confident and authoritative hence can be perceived as effective and efficient leaders. What is not known is their inability to disseminate information among members of a group. Lack of clear communication while working in a group of different people causes chaos and misunderstandings and consequently alleviation of performance of the whole team (Nevicka et al, 2011). Additionally, the presence of narcissistic traits in a group tends to dominate the whole group and does not give opportunities for others to indulge in the discussion.
Another disadvantage of this form of leadership is that it causes elevation of hormones causing stress leading to amelioration of susceptibility to illness (Reinhard et al, 2012). Moreover, narcissistic leaders use power for their benefit (Carlson, Simnine, and Thomas, 2011). They have the propensity to use their followers to win credit for something and hence are always disliked especially because of their arrogance, lack of patience, and ungrateful (Carlson, Simnine and Thomas, 2011). Many people would be reluctant to work for a leader with such traits.