Leading with NLP

40 Leading with NLP

the shadow side

‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts

absolutely.’

Lord Acton

All virtues flip into vices when taken to extremes and leader-
ship is no exception. Leaders must develop others to become
leaders, otherwise leadership can sink into a self-serving
authority, where power becomes its own justification. All types
of leaders face this danger.
The dark side of the authoritative leader is an authoritarian
leader. An authoritarian leader demands unquestioning obe-
dience and in order to achieve it must either undermine their
followers’ self-trust, so that they cannot think for themselves, or
threaten dreadful consequences for disobedience. In extreme
cases, authoritarianism dehumanizes the followers – they be-
come instruments of the leader and not people in their own
right. Unquestioning obedience is always suspect except in ex-
ceptional situations such as armed combat and even then
higher values of shared humanity continue to operate – obey-
ing orders has never excused war crimes. In business, ‘boss’ is
shorthand for an authoritarian leader.
Coaches work with colleagues to help them and improve
their performance. The dark side of a coach is a jehu – a
wonderful word that means ‘a furious driver’ and conjures
up a picture of a charioteer in the final stages of a chariot
race, neck and neck with the next man, whipping the horses
and everyone around him in his desperate frenzy to win.
Coaches can turn into jehus when they try to fulfil their own
unsatisfied needs through others, instead of trying to help
them achieve the best they can in their own terms. They blur
the boundaries between themselves and others and do not
own their own striving. They turn people into slaves.
A healer has patients who need their help. The dark side
of the healer is the quack – someone not so much interested
in helping people as in making fame and fortune from the
remedies they peddle.