Here is a brief excerpt from a classic article written by Daniel Goleman for The New York Times. To read the complete article, please click here.

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Good managers are easy to spot. “Besides intelligence and a knack for strategic planning, they have enormous charm and energy,” said Robert Hogan, a psychologist at the Tulsa Institute of Behavioral Sciences, who has studied thousands of managers. “They have charisma.”

But charisma can have its dark side, Dr. Hogan has discovered. Some top executives, who look good to their peers and their bosses and who do well on most assessments, turn out to be terrible for their companies, he said.

“These are flawed managers, whose glittering image masks a dark destructive side,” he said. “They end up being costly by creating poor morale, excessive turnover, and reducing productivity. Sometimes they can ruin a company altogether.”

Trouble occurs when charismatic leaders rise to the top, only to reveal personality flaws that mattered relatively little when they had less power, he said. In a study presented last fall to the National Assessment Conference, a group of researchers who study job screening and promotion assessments, he said that once these executives are in charge, the flaws can torpedo their careers – and their companies.

The difference between good and bad leaders often comes down to the distinction between healthy and unhealthy narcissism. “A healthy narcissist knows what he’s good at and knows to take advice about what he’s not so good at,” said Harry Levinson, a psychologist who directs the Levinson Institute, a consulting firm in Belmont, Mass., and who has studied managers. “Their self-confidence is the basis of their charisma.”

By contrast, unhealthy narcissists combine an almost-grandiose sense of certainty with a disdain for subordinates. “They are particularly good at ingratiating themselves with their seniors but brutalize their juniors,” said Dr. Hogan. He called Frank Lorenzo, chairman of the Texas Air Corporation, “a notorious example.”

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Daniel Goleman is the author of the international bestsellers Emotional Intelligence, Working with Emotional Intelligence, and Social Intelligence, and the co-author of the acclaimed business bestseller Primal Leadership. He was a science reporter for the New York Times, was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and received the American Psychological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his media writing. He lives in the Berkshires.