{"id":6877,"date":"2018-11-15T09:21:29","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T17:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/?p=6877"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:28:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T21:28:41","slug":"spot-narcissistic-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/spot-narcissistic-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Spot Narcissistic Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to popular belief, narcissism isn\u2019t necessarily a negative quality in the workplace. Like any other characteristic, it has its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/fulfillment-any-age\/201201\/the-healthy-side-narcissism\">strengths and weaknesses<\/a>. Narcissistic employees are usually charismatic, motivational and good at uniting others to achieve common goals. \u00a0However, they are also usually poor listeners, sensitive to criticism and highly competitive. Consequently, leaders need to be able to identify narcissistic employees to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.humanresourcesonline.net\/you-asked-how-should-leaders-deal-with-narcissistic-employees\">train<\/a> them to enhance their strengths while managing their weaknesses to help set them up for success.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10731 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036.jpg\" alt=\"Two professionals engaged in a focused discussion with laptops and documents on a meeting table.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shutterstock_194204036-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But, before you can help narcissistic employees, you need to be able to identify them. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.humanresourcesonline.net\/six-things-you-can-learn-from-a-candidates-social-media\/\">ScienceDaily<\/a>, narcissism is \u201ca personality characteristic that can involve grandiose exhibitionism, beliefs relating to entitlement, and exploiting others.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>\u00a0So, how can you screen for narcissistic employees before the interview?<\/h4>\n<p>A new <em>Open Psychology Journal<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/benthamopen.com\/FULLTEXT\/TOPSYJ-11-163\">study<\/a> indicates that looking through employees\u2019 social media for selfies and images is a good starting point. Swansea University and Milan University researchers recently discovered a connection between selfie and image posting on social media and increasingly narcissistic behavior. The researchers monitored personality changes in 74 participants aged 18 to 34 during a four-month period.<\/p>\n<p>The study assessed participants\u2019 social media use, including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, and found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People who used visuals excessively in their social media posts had an average 25 percent increase in narcissistic behavior.<\/li>\n<li>Per the measurement parameters of the study, this increase pushed many participants past the clinical cut-off for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.<\/li>\n<li>Participants who used Twitter and other social media for verbal postings did not exhibit excessive narcissistic traits. However, the more narcissistic they were going into the study, the more verbal postings they made as time passed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Phil Reed, a Psychology Professor at Swansea University, believes there is a link between narcissism and the use of visual postings on social media.\u00a0 He stated that before this study was conducted, it was not known if narcissists use this form of social media more, or\u00a0if the use of social media has perpetrated a subsequent growth in narcissism. The results of this study show that posting selfies can increase narcissism.<\/p>\n<h4>How can you spot narcissistic employees during the interview?<\/h4>\n<p>Some narcissistic employees will make their excessive self-interest abundantly clear from the word go. However, most are obviously going to hold back their less than desirable traits to make a good impression during the interview process. Furthermore, narcissists generally make spectacular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/advice\/relationships\/narcissistic-personality\/\">first impressions<\/a>, confusing the situation even further. Fortunately, there are some behavioral patterns that can expose a potential employee\u2019s inner narcissist even if they are on their best behavior.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Personal pronouns<\/strong> \u2013 A group of leading U.S. psychologists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/25822035\">found<\/a> that the amount a person uses the first person singular (I, my, me) compared to how much they use (us, we, our) is a red flag for narcissism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extremely positive and extremely negative words<\/strong> \u2013 Narcissists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/5-types-people-who-can-ruin-your-life\/201808\/how-spot-narcissist-in-3-steps\">tend<\/a> to refer to themselves and their actions with exceptionally positive words and disparaging language when speaking of others.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Victim words<\/strong> \u2013 Narcissists overwhelmingly see themselves as superior but also as victims. When referring to negative experiences, narcissists will paint themselves as the victim of the situation and sidestep any accountability, pinning the blame on others.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Appearance<\/strong> \u2013 Not all people who take exceptional care of their appearance are narcissists, but most narcissists pay special attention to their appearance. They also tend to use material items to externalize high status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While narcissistic employees can make fantastic contributions to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/en\/library\/51672\/business\/soft-skills\/course\/enhancing-your-productivity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">productivity<\/a>\u00a0and work culture, leaders need to be able to recognize these individuals to properly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/en\/library\/51740\/business\/leadership\/course\/emotional-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leverage their strengths<\/a> and minimize their weaknesses straight out the gate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to popular belief, narcissism isn\u2019t necessarily a negative quality in the workplace. Like any other characteristic, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Narcissistic employees are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[4001],"tags":[1785,158,1779,1011,1773,1775,1781,1787,1783,1777,1791,1793,1789],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Spot Narcissistic Employees - KnowledgeCity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Leaders need to train narcissistic employees to enhance their strengths while managing their weaknesses to set them up for success.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/spot-narcissistic-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Spot Narcissistic Employees - 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