What to Do if you Have Unwittingly Hired a Psychopath

 I wrote recently in an article “How to Avoid Hiring a Psychopath” how academic research studies had shown that between 3 and 4 percent of the corporate management population have a tendency for psychopathic behavior. That is, they appear outwardly normal, but have no empathy, remorse or guilt and can destroy team morale and entire companies – they were termed ‘psychopath lite’ or ‘Seductive Operational Bullies’ (SOBs).

Let’s be clear about the level of psychopathy we are dealing with; SOBs are not likely to invoke a reign of psychological terror on your organization, however, if left unchecked, they can still be potentially very damaging to the morale and productivity of your business.

Is it hard to imagine how psychopaths who have such a small representation in management (3-4 percent of the population) can wreak so much havoc? Well, it is easy when you think about it; the one too many influence of the psychopathic manager means that, at his/her pinnacle, he/she can impact, influence, poison and demoralize an entire organization.

In the first part of the article we identified what you can do to avoid hiring psychopaths in the first place, and I outlined four strategies that can you use to achieve this.

But, what if you have unwittingly hired an SOB? What strategies do you take to manage it? Can you really afford to leave it alone and hope it will go away on its own? Odds are it will not; although SOBs have a range of damaging traits, they also exhibit the traits needed to get to the top, such as gamesmanship, risk taking, domination, and impression management. So, left unchecked the psychopath may progress and there will be a snowball effect of demoralization and disharmony that follows.

So, what are your options? If you have hired a psychopath, what can you do about it? I have provided some tips that I have outlined below on how to build a psychopath proof company culture.

The first strategy is simple: freeze them out, fairly of course. Psychopaths crave power, money and status and if they cannot get more of it, they become impatient and leave your organization. Make sure your internal promotion process screens out SOB behavior, using the tips I outlined in the first article How To Avoid Hiring a Psychopath.

Another approach argued by Kets De Vries, a professor at INSEAD’s Leadership School, recommends that you build a “coaching culture where trust and openness prevail and where people can speak their mind.” Ideally, you will develop a culture built around values of fair play and respect to counter the culture that rewards and encourages the progression of the SOB.

Kets De Vries also suggested that it was important to identify the SOB, and look out for behavioral clues, such as a lack of remorse/guilt, bullying, abuse or excessive reliance on manipulative tactics. If you see talented individuals leaving a team you should investigate why. Use exit interviews to see if any staff have been driven away by bullying tactics.

Another approach was to create a safe, whistle blowing culture and/or develop a grievance policy so junior employees feel free to speak up and express concerns about colleagues and superiors without recrimination.

Kets also suggested it was worth creating a culture which encouraged teamwork as this is an environment that psychopaths do not like and this may encourage them to leave

And of course, you need to take action to address the problem which involves calling them to account (which is something that psychopaths do not like) by using KPIs linked to deliverable outcomes.

Good luck in dealing with your SOB.