Narcissism (Photo credit: videocrab)
In the past, narcissists’ egos were fueled by research that claimed that those who were self-obsessed were actually more creative. Luckily, a recent study out of Cornell University found the opposite—narcissists are not, in fact more creative, although they're often perceived that way.
Researchers had over 200 students fill out a narcissism questionnaire to gauge each participant's level of narcissism, answering questions like, “How much do you enjoy being the center of attention?" They then instructed participants to pair up and pitch movie ideas to one another and evaluate each others' concepts.
Here's where it gets interesting: When the evaluators knew how narcissistic someone was, they gave higher scores in creativity. However, when they graded the pitches on paper, the narcissistic pitches were not seen as more creative. Moral of the story: Narcissists are not necessarily more creative, but their charisma convinces people that their ideas are better.
This speaks to the importance of confidence in the workplace—especially in sales, marketing and pitching. Rather than fighting off -- or fighting with -- a narcissistic team member, here are three ways to keep their ego under control while potentially boosting that bottom line:
1. Don’t be fooled by narcissists. Identify the egotists in your environment and be hyper-aware of their ideas. Do not let their charisma and confidence in pitching trick you into thinking that they have an above-average idea.
2. Get it in writing. If possible, get ideas in writing to help team members review them objectively. Set up a process of sending ideas through email before or after meetings to give co-workers space to evaluate ideas on paper.
3. Leverage your egotists! If you have someone with great confidence and charisma—even if they are a little self-centered -- use them when you need to pitch ideas, get sales or sell products. Make sure they speak to large groups and lead presentations; their confidence will be infectious.
Warning: Two boosts competition, but three's a crowd. The Cornell researchers followed up their first study with a very interesting experiment. They broke 292 participants into groups and had them come up with creative ways for a company to improve its performance. Amazingly, the groups with two narcissists actually came up with better ideas than groups with none or one, leading researchers to conclude that when two egomaniacs are in a group, their competitiveness ignites more creativity. However, when more than two egotists were together, their competitiveness undermined the group's efficiency.
In conclusion, a small dose of narcissism can truly propel your startup -- just be sure it heads in the right direction!
Vanessa Van Petten specializes in social and emotional intelligence research and development. The focus of her company Science of People is to research youth behavior and help adults keep up with young adults. Her company also works with brands and individuals to help them improve website traffic, sales and branding.
