What Role Do You Play in Leadership? (Erotic Type)

What Role Do You Play?
As a leader, you are forced to deal with all types of people. Below are descriptions of the various types that present

themselves in an organziation. Imagine you are designing or navigating a major project in your organziation. Choose 1 of

the following types and identify a negative and a positive to having them on the team. How will you navigate and/or

inspire them. Be sure to cite relevant research to support your position, keeping in mind APA and the Graduate Discussion

Rubric.

Erotic Type
You want to please. You need to be liked and accepted. You flourish when everyone in the group gets along. You enjoy

talking with others and getting to know them, though sometimes you are overly interested in their personal backgrounds.

Because relationships are so important to you, you can be dependent and needy.

Possible Sources:
https://books.google.com/books?id=0SsbAkCd9gYC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=erotic+type+leadership&source=bl&ots=B8XBqZJ7tz&sig=02

j7sv1a4NntAQaSRUbtkpzXOHE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r1dXVaSjMovOsAWswIDICQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=erotic%20type%20leadership&f=f

alse

academic.regis.edu/tharring/ppt/Leadership/11_PowerPoint.ppt

Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Smith, N. (2010). Themes from Ascent of a Leader. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 16 May 2015, from

Themes from Ascent of a Leader from Nathan Smith

The Project that I would be navigating:
Student Academic Success Center at the Technical Education Center with centralized student services.

The issue:
The Technical Education Center typically operates differently than the main campus (community college). All of our

students are commuter students with a focus on trades. However, there are day and night classes, but only the day classes

have personnel available to serve the students. Retention for night students is typically lower than that of day. Perhaps

having personnel available during all times that students are attending would help students feel connected and they might

be able to receive the support necessary to complete their academic programs. Another issue is that personnel at TEC have

always been allowed to do what they want. I like them all and I don’t want to burn bridges. I want everyone to get a long

and just be available to help the students.

Here is an Example of what it might look like when finished this is for the narcissistic type, I chose erotic:
As a leader, you are forced to deal with all types of people. Below are descriptions of the various types that present

themselves in an organization. Imagine you are designing or navigating a major project in your organization. Choose 1 of

the following types and identify a negative and a positive to having them on the team. How will you navigate and/or

inspire them.
Narcissistic Type
You are an individualist. No one tells you what is right, what to do or what your values should be. You are confident and

proud without being vain. You have a clear vision of what you’d like to accomplish and will do whatever it takes to get

there. As long as people assist you in fulfilling your vision, you get along well with them. Your sense of humor helps.
I chose the narcissistic type. With this type, there are some clear positives and clear negatives. On the positive side,

narcissists are confident and visionary and they attract a following. According to Maccoby (2000), “Productive

narcissists have the audacity to push through the massive transformations that society periodically undertakes” (p. 70).

In a team atmosphere, a productive narcissist would best serve the team as the leader because they could set the vision

and motivate followers. I would navigate and inspire them by putting them in some kind of leadership role. Many great

historical leaders were productive narcissists: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford are a

few examples (Maccoby, 2000). However, as we discussed in an earlier course, there is also a dark side of leadership that

can be manifested through narcissism (McIntosh & Rima, 1997).
On the negative side, narcissists are preoccupied with themselves. They are also sensitive to criticism, are poor

listeners, lack empathy, dislike mentoring, and are extremely competitive (Maccoby, 2000). In addition, “One of his

greatest problems is that the narcissist’s faults tend to become even more pronounced as he becomes more successful”

(Maccoby, 2000, p. 73). I think in a team environment people may tend to follow narcissists because narcissists are so

sure of themselves, but people aren’t drawn to them in a relational way which is needed to build trust. With putting a

narcissist in a leadership position, I would be careful to make sure the team received some of the relational

encouragement it needs through other means so the team maintains cohesiveness. The team would need to be balanced by the

inclusion of marketing, obsessive and erotic personality types as well. With narcissists it seems to be all or nothing.

As Northouse (2013) suggests, “Because the narcissist takes risks, the result can be wonderful or disastrous” (pp.