Are you optimistic?
A glass-half-full kind of person?
Do you find it easy to deal with change?
Flex your approach to new situations and circumstances?
Are you quite mentally tough?
Able to bounce back from things not going swimmingly?
I have some news.
You might be a narcissist.
Narcissism gets a bad rap.
Much like its dark triad partners – psychopathy and Makavellism – it is often considered only ever a negative thing.
But that’s not quite accurate.
At extremes, the dark triad traits do become personality disorders.
For example, we’re likely aware of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
This is where the “measure” or “level” or the property are above a certain threshold on a spectrum or dimension. It’s a category; You either have NPD or don’t have NPD.
But it is a spectrum, and many people will have varying degrees of trait narcissism that can be advantageous in some contexts.
Indeed, we hire for it.
Think of a prototypical entrepreneur:
🐝 Positive and bounces back
🐝 Sees opportunity in every setback
🐝 Tries new things and pivots quickly
Trait narcissism can be a superpower in this context.
When the entrepreneur becomes a stable business owner, and the context moves from challenger to a more mature model, those same traits might not be as advantageous.
Being optimistic and flexible because “the rules don’t really apply to me” can become a derailer when a mature business is under pressure from a regulator.
Just as being agreeable or extraverted can be a benefit or hinderance depending on the situation, so can dark triad traits.
This is why understanding personality is valuable.
It helps us recognise that personality traits are not good or bad; they’re contextual.
Having the self-awareness to identify when we are derailing ourselves and others with our approaches so that we can modify them, is a muscle that we should all exercise.
