How Emphasizing Followership Can Combat Leader Narcissism

Recently, in a blog post and publication, we suggested that certain HR practices can fuel leader narcissism in organizations (Mitchell, et al., 2026). Leader-centricism may be to blame because there is a tendency to hire, promote, and develop leaders who are self-centered and self-promoting. Another strategy for combating leader narcissism is to focus on the followers. Here are four ways to do this:

1. Change the Leader Mindset. There is a pervasive belief that leaders create leadership, but leadership requires a collaboration between leaders and followers. Once we realize this, we can stop viewing leaders as the epicenter of leadership and move beyond an HR focused solely on leaders and leader development. Redefining leadership as composed of both leading and following will limit the primary focus on those at the top and consider more holistic ways of developing leadership.
2. Change Leader Selection Practices. In leader selection, we ask candidates to focus on their past accomplishments—which may be advantageous to more self-centered, narcissistic individuals who are focused on (and expert at) articulating how their personal efforts have led to success. Instead, candidates should be asked about how they accomplished successful outcomes with others. Giving greater weight to selecting those leaders who have a sense of “we-ness,” rather than being “me-focused.” In hiring and promotion, emphasis should be placed on relationship-building skills, team orientation, and developing and including followers, instead of an individual’s personal accomplishments.
3. Change Leader Development into Leadership Development. If leadership is created by leaders and followers collaborating, then developing only the leaders is not only an ineffective strategy, but it reinforces the idea that leaders are more important—potentially fueling leader narcissism. Development programs should include followers, and the emphasis should be on relationship-building skills and organizational culture development—areas that promote leaders and followers working together.
4. Change How Leaders Are Evaluated and Rewarded. Simply looking at how the performance of most leaders is evaluated—with a focus on exerting influence, decision-making, strategic thinking, and leadership “presence”—focuses primarily on the leader, omitting followers in the leadership “equation.” To keep from reinforcing a narcissistic viewpoint, more attention should be given to leaders’ relationship-building efforts, supporting others, and emphasizing shared efforts and responsibilities.

The dramatic discrepancy between top-level leaders/CEOs and rank-and-file employee pay (in many cases exceeding a 200-to-1 ratio) also could encourages narcissism as these financially well-rewarded individuals often see themselves as better, and more important, than followers.

In sum, by putting leaders on a pedestal and selecting, developing, and rewarding leaders, while neglecting the importance of followers and followership in co-creating real leadership in organizations, it is no wonder that there seem to be so many self-centered, narcissistic leaders. The antidote is to recognize the importance of followers in the leadership equation and select and develop leaders who best appreciate that their leadership effectiveness relies on the power and potential of followership.

This post was co-authored by Ron Riggio and Toby Newstead.