Is Your Boss a Psychopath?

Alan Deutschman tries to make the case that psychopathy in American businesses needs to be rooted out or we'll suffer through more Enrons.

Corporate psychopaths, according to Deutschman, are those who lack feeling and compassion with no sense of remorse or guilt. Also, they are only interested in self, willing to steal, manipulate, or lie to make money without having the interest of the company at heart. So, he points to such 'luminaries' as Andy Fastow and Leona Helmsley.

Of course, we all have a negative opinion of them both. Fastow, for one, conned everyone he worked with and stole millions, cooking the books in the process. However, isn't some kind of psychopathy indeed necessary in business? If I were to bring on a CEO, I would want one that is not hamstrung by emotions. I'd want a CEO who had a plan and a way to bring about the success of the company, even if it meant radically altering the lives of many people. And indeed, even self-interest isn't a deal breaker, as long as the psychopath understands the causality between the company's success and his own. Certainly, all of that brings along the risk of hiring an Andy Fastow, but under normal conditions, his success would have been limited had those above him done their jobs. Such is capitalism.

What really brought down Deutschman's case for me, however, was comparing the American situation with those of Europe. Really, if I had been Deutschman, bringing in Europe's lagging economy as a case against psychopathy wouldn't have been my first choice.

As for America, I find it amazing that there are still people like Harvard psychologist Martha Stout decrying America's individualistic culture like it was something to be avoided. Sorry, but living a life in an ant colony isn't my idea of a good time. There are certainly times when teamwork may produce good results in company, but only those willing to risk it all and not be bound by groupthink become truly great.