The Dark Side of Personality in Leadership
The HDS is the only personality assessment that examines the dark side of personality.
The dark side consists of 11 derailers, which are best thought of as coping behaviors or strengths that become weaknesses when they’re overused during times of increased stress and pressure. Measured using percentiles on 11 scales, the derailers can be grouped into three general categories of stress response: Moving Away, Moving Against, and Moving Toward.
One good analogy is to consider how people might react if a bear were to enter the room. Some might be inclined to run away, others would try to fight the bear, and the rest might try to placate the bear by offering it some food. Regardless of how you think you would respond to the bear, however, you might not be correct. In fact, people you know personally or professionally might have a better idea of how you’d respond to the bear. That’s because other people tend to be more objective judges of our behavior than we are.
For that reason, this assessment is validated using observer descriptions of behavior, which means it provides information about how others are likely to perceive someone, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect that person’s self-image. In other words, leaders often aren’t aware that they’re prone to these behaviors or that this is how others see their reputations. As you learn about each derailer, you’ll see how that can be problematic for leadership performance.
Moving Away
The Moving Away derailers may seem different at face value, but they all share the flight response. In the workplace, people use these to manage feelings of inadequacy by avoiding connection with others.
Excitable
Leaders who score high on the Excitable scale tend to be energetic and enthusiastic. When stressed, however, their behavior can become volatile. They might become frustrated, moody, or irritable easily. Prone to discouragement and giving up on people or projects, Excitable leaders might also seem to lose direction at times.
Skeptical
Scoring high on the Skeptical scale means a leader is likely to be perceptive about the intentions of others. While generally a political advantage, this can turn into mistrust, cynicism, and negativity under stress. Sometimes quarrelsome or fault-finding, Skeptical leaders might also be inclined to hold grudges when they perceive that they’ve been mistreated.
Cautious
Cautious leaders are careful and fastidious decision-makers, and they tend to be risk averse. When overused, their strengths can result in indecision, delayed action, and even avoidance if failure, criticism, or embarrassment seems likely.
Reserved
While they tend to be invulnerable, independent, and task focused on a day-to-day basis, Reserved leaders can seem unsocial, unfeeling, and withdrawn when stressed. When they retreat, others might find them unapproachable.
Leisurely
The Leisurely leader is likely to seem friendly, polite, and approachable at first. But this overt cooperation sometimes masks resentment and a private agenda. When derailing, these leaders are likely to feel their work is unappreciated. They can seem irritable, uncoachable, stubborn, and passive aggressive.
Moving Against
What the Moving Against derailers have in common is the fight response. When people use these behaviors to cope with self-doubt and stress at work, they tend to dominate and manipulate others.
Bold
Fearless, confident, and self-assured, Bold leaders expect to succeed. Under stress, however, they may seem to have an unrealistic view of their abilities and talents and expect deference from others. This can lead them to appear arrogant, entitled, hypercompetitive, and even combative or intimidating.
Mischievous
Mischievous leaders are charming, adventurous, and willing to test the limits. But limit testing can lead to unnecessary risk taking and deliberate rule breaking, adventurousness can become impulsivity and unpredictability, and charm and persuasion might veer into deception and manipulation.
Colorful
Leaders who score high on the Colorful scale tend to be fun, entertaining, and comfortable in the spotlight. Inclined to seek leadership positions, they might self-promote to the point of seeming self-absorbed, dramatic, or attention seeking. Their curiosity and enthusiasm for ideas can make them prone to overcommitment, boredom, and distraction.
Imaginative
Imaginative people make strategic, creative, and innovative leaders. But their unconventional behavior might seem eccentric at times, and their confidence in their creative ideas can sometimes make those ideas hard to understand. Their curiosity and expansive thinking might also make them seem unfocused or lacking in follow-through.
Moving Toward
The Moving Toward derailers emerge when people try to manage their insecurities by building alliances.
Diligent
Scoring high on Diligent means a leader is likely hardworking and detail oriented with high standards of performance. But when Diligent leaders aren’t self-monitoring, they might refuse to delegate and seem micromanaging or even controlling. They can be meticulous to the point of inflexibility and perfectionistic to the point of seeming obsessive.
Dutiful
To be Dutiful is to be compliant, respectful, loyal, and eager to please under typical circumstances. Then, when stress crops up, Dutiful leaders can be indecisive, ingratiating, and conforming. Their desire to preserve the status quo and gain approval can lead them to be overreliant on others and disinclined to stick up for their subordinates.
Consider Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, as just one example of a derailed leader. A self-proclaimed “change agent,” she was perceived by her subordinates as a self-promoting attention seeker.9,10 Over her six-year tenure, HP lost more than half of its value and thousands of employees.9 When HP’s merger with Compaq didn’t go as planned, Fiorina didn’t respond well to the pressure. She ignored feedback from the board and refused to delegate responsibility.9,10 When she was later fired, HP’s market value increased by $3 billion on the same day, and it became clear that her reputation had been unfavorable among investors too.9
But this is just one example. Derailment is a surprisingly common side effect of leader stress, and it can happen to anyone because everyone has a dark side. Most people have two or three high scores on the HDS, and for those who don’t, moderate scores are more meaningful in predicting derailers. Even before 2020 tilted the business world on its axis, the base rate of leadership derailment was 50%.11 And now, with stress levels skyrocketing, leaders who aren’t already experiencing derailment are certainly at risk of it.
