Why it pays to have a narcissistic boss: Companies run by women with “a little ego” are more successful (but not men!), according to study

From YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, many bosses at the biggest companies have been women over the years.

Now, a study has shed light on the secret to his success, and it may be due to his ego.

Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark examined the personality traits of CEOs and found that a higher level of narcissism in female CEOs was associated with better company performance.

However, the same effect was not found for narcissism in male bosses.

“We found that narcissistic female CEOs outperform their male peers in terms of corporate performance,” the researchers said.

The researchers suggested that narcissism may improve the performance of female CEOs because they may be better able to “exploit the positive sides” of the trait, “while moderating its dark side.”

That is, they can use their narcissism to appear as an impressive leader and, at the same time, curb the narcissistic tendency to exploit others.

Study co-author Dr. Tom Aabo explained that narcissism has three facets: grandiose exhibitionism, which comprises vanity, self-absorption and superiority; leadership/authority: the “positive side” that encompasses the desire to lead, the aspiration for power and the belief in one’s own power to influence; and exploitation/entitlement (E/E), the really dark side.

“The E/E facet is the most disturbing, as it is related to aggression, counterproductive work behavior, and reluctance to forgive,” Dr. Aabo said.

‘The E/E facet is generally related to the ‘dark triad’ personality, which includes impulsive antisociality and Machiavellianism.

«The interesting thing in our case is that other studies have shown that the E/E facet shows the greatest gender difference.

“Women tend to be more agreeable than men, and greater agreeableness is also seen when comparing male and female executives.”

The study design could not separate the three sides of narcissism in individual participants, but it is likely that female CEOs’ “greater agreeableness” created a “superior balance between the three trait facets, especially a less E/E facet.” dominant”. for a certain degree of narcissism,” said Dr. Aabo.

Social role expectations can also limit the behavior of female CEOs, she said, in that women are assumed to be more nurturing and nurturing.

“Therefore, while CEO narcissism has been linked to unethical and questionable behavior, this is likely to be less severe in the case of narcissistic female CEOs,” he said.

And third, women “show higher rates than men of evolutionary traits related to empathy, which could further constrain the dark sides of narcissism,” she said.

“In evolution, when we were hunters and gatherers, women took care of the family, especially children, and gathered fruits, etc., while men were hunters and warriors,” he said.

“Some recent evidence shows that this picture is not so black and white, but women needed more empathy in their roles than men.

“Psychological literature says that we are still born with a brain calibrated for our time as hunters and gatherers.”

For the study, researchers studied CEOs running 859 non-financial and non-utility companies in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 1,500 stock index between 2007 and 2020.

They analyzed the CEOs’ language during four separate Q&A sessions of quarterly earnings conference calls spread across their tenure.

They focused on leaders’ use of first-person singular pronouns, i.e., ‘I, my,’ versus first-person plural pronouns (we, our), since research has shown that leaders More narcissistic people tend to use more first-person singular pronouns and fewer first-person plural pronouns.

They looked at question-and-answer sessions rather than presentations, since the former are “unscripted and more likely to reveal the CEO’s true personality,” they added.

And they found that companies led by female CEOs who are 25 percent more narcissistic than the average female CEO were significantly more successful.

Dr Aabo said: “If a woman is in the top half of narcissism among CEOs, it is associated with (and likely causes) a 13.9 percent increase in profitability and a 13.5 percent increase in percent in valuation than an average woman. director.’

Comparing men and women, researchers found that narcissistic female CEOs are associated with 10 to 20 percent better corporate performance (10 percent better profitability and 20 percent better valuation) than male directors. equally narcissistic male executives.

The study is published in the journal Finance Research Letters.