Introduction to Predatory Leadership

By Matt Kramer

This work evolved from the question “what can we do to make the world a better place?” Additional questions – what makes it worse? Are the destructive factors applied consciously or unconsciously? How much of the problem results from acts, policies or decisions generated with the intention or knowledge that someone will suffer as a consequence?

What appears to be lacking in public dialogue is an understanding of the nature of those who cause harm in the world.

I do believe that most people are good. I used to believe that within even the most evil was a spark of goodness that could be tapped to create a transformation from evil to good. Now, older and wiser, I see that often what appears to us to be the greatest evil is truly not evil in the minds of those who actions cause harm to others. In their minds, they are the victims; those they hurt asked for it: “You made me do it.”

I am a mediator, a student of people and stories. While I have taken a course in couple’s therapy at UCLA, I am not a psychologist. I am seeking people with expertise to expand, verify or correct, and help bring this conversation into the public forum.

Below is a cobbling of ideas – I have yet to organize them into a cohesive and accessible order. It is easy for me to go in any number of directions in expanding this theory – that the psychological makeup of a few (4% according to Martha Stout – The Sociopath Next Door) has had a hugely destructive impact upon humanity. I do not believe that violence is man’s default behavior. I believe that with some study, we can create new ways to understand the nature of leadership, how the worst people are able to become our leaders (in all arenas) and how to create the kind of change that could transform society into a truly nurturing environment for all. At best, such a change will take at least two or three generations – our human desire for instant gratification is one of the obstacles to achieving that goal.

I hope the following is of interest.

Matt

Preamble – I have been told that I lack a succinct theory describing the paradigm resulting from the rule of predatory leaders. I’m starting with an attempt to define the theory.

Theory of Predatory Leadership – While it is generally taken for granted that the degree of violence and corruption experienced in the world today is a logical result of man’s nature, in reality, it is the nature of a very small segment of the population – the predatory leader - that is the source and driving force of events, policies and conditions that cause harm to others.

The psychological (and possibly physiological) makeup of the perpetrators is measurably

different than that of the general population. Over thousands of years evolution has been impacted to the extent that in government, military, religious and other organizations, perpetrators and victims to collude in conscious and subconscious ways resulting in the complicated nature of today’s status quo – a condition in which most people are passive and apathetic when it comes to engaging in making changes outside of their immediate sphere of influence. A metaphoric example in nature is the the parasitic wasp Glyptapanteles which turns its host into a suicidal body guard. ( http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080605_glyptapanteles.htm )

Those who do work to make a difference are divided into two camps. One group is comprised of the predators and parasites who exploit the resources and efforts of humanity without any regard to the consequences; the other is defined by the work of those who seek to heal the damage and improve the conditions within which we all live.

I recently received a reply to my writing from a therapist who, in general, supports my sentiments. However, in reading the original article below, she said she couldn’t identify my theory. That tells me I have a lot of work to do to get this idea into a presentable shape that will make it more accessible to readers. This is one of the areas where I am seeking help.

After reading her response, I went to Google and asked the question: What is a theory?

From one of the websites, I gleaned the following:

One sentence description: a theory is a tested and testable concept which is used to explain an occurrence. Or, from the same site:an explanation or thought which was based on observation and testing.

With those thoughts in mind, I wrote this first section to serve as an introduction to the theory of predatory leadership.

As a student of the world, I have often observed a repeating occurrence: people in positions of power initiating actions and policies that result in great harm to large numbers of people and to the environment. I have a theory that, if proven, could explain how these people are different than the majority of the population and how they are able to prevail to the extent that their actions appear to be widely condoned, often without question, until the consequences of their arrogance is so egregious that people finally rise up against them.

My hope is that when this theory is defined, widely understood and accepted, it can form the basis of dialogue and strategy for preventing “toxic” or “predatory” people from gaining such power while at the same time, establishing systems to identify and encourage capable people of a conscious and compassionate nature to earn positions of leadership necessary to support and maintain a peaceful and

nurturing society.

I also believe that such a theory can be used to create standards by which the actions of such people (and the organizations they rule) can be publically assessed and recognized for the damage they cause.

At this point, I call this a theory of Predatory Leadership. My theory is that many people in positions of power were able to attain those positions because, possessed with an abusive or sociopathic personality, a combination of determination and drive, and exceptional expertise in exploiting and manipulating human nature, they were able to out compete (or eliminate) any competition that stood in the way of their goal.

One reason they prevail is that, as predators on their way up the ladder, they are able to convince many of their followers that they are acting selflessly on their behalf when, in reality, they see their followers and others as a resource to be used, mined and exploited with truly no concern for their welfare. When they obtain control of the army, the reins of the corporation, the top position in their church or religion, etc., their position may be such that they have to maintain an outer façade of concern, or they may control such powerful forces that they can openly act on their agenda.

One of the reasons this condition is repeated is that outside of a few academicians, few understand the elements involved and can see the overall and complex picture.

Some of the elements include:

<>-<> A public lack of understanding of the nature and behavior of the abusive or sociopathic mind. (As with squares and rectangles, I believe there are commonalities and differences between abusers and sociopaths.)

<>-<> Akin to the medical profession prior to the discovery of microbes, a complete lack of awareness of how such personalities have formed, shaped and infected all facets of society since early history. (It is my hope that this theory or something like it can become the microscope through which humanity can finally recognize and understand the infectious nature of their predators.)

<>-<> A desire on the part of the average person to want someone else to be in charge, someone to take care of them, etc. As a result they are more open to accepting the outright lies of their leaders. When a sociopath says to his constituents, “Your problems are the fault of those ‘others’ and when I get rid of them for you, your world will be all right”, enough people support and believe the leader to the extent that dissenting voices are easily marginalized or eliminated.

<>-<> An ability to create confusing environments in which truth is obscured and false premises are accepted as truth.

Prologue

"It is too difficult too judge us . . .  because what we did goes beyondhuman imagination." Jean Hatzfeld (excerpt from an interview with aperpetrator of the Rwandan genocide)

    *   *   *There are wonderful things happening in the world today. All over theplanet, thousands, if not millions of people are making bold andpowerful efforts to end war, eliminate disease and famine, and, ingeneral, make the world a better place for everybody. However, inaddition to the resistance experienced from those entrenched in thestatus quo, the idealists face silent and relentless efforts tomarginalize their work. I believe, if it were not for these obstacles,both visible and invisible, the majority of humanity's challenges couldbe conquered within a very short time.

I have attended many lectures, seminars, conferences, rallies, marches,etc., to support the cause of peace, overcome inhumane corporatepractices, and stop unnecessary war. Over and over again, I hear peopletalking about ways to heal the damage. Sincere and heartfelt statementsare made about how we can do things better, improve governments andmobilize for change. But I have never heard anyone name the core problemlet alone talk about how to eliminate it. The problem, the source ofmost of humanity's misery, is the predatory leader. Until we understandhis nature and the successful methods he uses to achieve his goals, wewill not prevail against him.

Many feel that it is inevitable that people in power will succumb to theexploitive opportunities of their position (power corrupts . . .) andwhen idealistic youth ask why such people are in power and why don't wechange, their wiser elders shrug their shoulders to say, "That's the wayit's always been and that's how it always will be."

I disagree.

I believe there exists a systemic process yet to be publicallyidentified that very efficiently exploits the positive traits of humannature. The predatory leader is adept at employing this process. Itallows those who are willing to do anything for power to outcompete

those who have the capacity to be compassionate leaders of conscience.Its workings are generally unknown and we coexist with it in a way thatis similar to the way medicine coexisted with viruses and bacteriabefore Pasteur's work revealed the microscopic agents of disease. Theconsequence is that over and over again, we passively allow the worstpossible people to work their way into positions of power and control.

My primary goal is to educate people about the invisible nature andpractice of predatory leadership - how a small percentage of sociopaths,abusive personalities and those who single mindedly seek to dominate andcontrol in their arenas are the major creators and contributors to ourpainful history and devastating conditions of our present day debacles.The first step towards an effective, healing change is to bring thissubject into public dialogue and encourage brainstorming on reinventingthe ways and means people have available to earn a place in positions ofleadership.

============

 Below is a draft article on the subject of predatory leadershipfollowed by two email responses from academics in the field ofleadership. While the researchers state that they are unable to getinvolved themselves, the nature of their response gives me some hopethat this idea will be interesting to people who have the resources andexpertise to study it more deeply.

I have outlined some goals at the end of this email. I am particularlyinterested in the perspective of psychologists, historians, politicalscientists and sociologists. It will be extremely valuable to see howthe predatory leader shows up in different arenas such as corporate,political, educational, religious, military, health care as well as inother cultures.

You can access a rudimentary website on the subject atmostpeoplearegood.com. A more robust and interactive site is currentlyunder construction. You may have ideas, suggestions or referrals; anyinput is welcome.

All the best,

Matt Kramer http://www.mattkramer.com 707-795-6057

Predatory Leadership: A New Buzzword for Corrupt Times

by Matt Kramer

Next to plagues and natural disasters, corrupt leaders may be thegreatest contributors to past and present states of human misery. Thisarticle begins to explore the historic and the current nature ofpredatory leadership and its impact on humanity. The first step towardcreating effective change in the methods available to those who worktheir way into positions of leadership is to understand how such peoplethink and act, and how they are able to attain the power they seek.

There was a time, in my naive youth, when I assumed that somewherewithin even the most evil of us exists a spark of compassion and thepossibility of reform. But now, from my perspective as an older andwiser man, I no longer believe this to be true for a specific percentageof the population.

In my work as both a business and family mediator, I have had cases inwhich one of the parties was either uninterested or too self-interestedto display any commitment to sharing responsibility for the conflict onthe table. Instead, they fell into one or more of these categories:

1. They were expertly skilled at exploiting and manipulating everyopportunity to get what they want.

2. They were adept at confusing and camouflaging the issues to the pointthat a fair resolution could not be reached .

3. They appeared incapable of any behavior other than bullying andmanipulation to the extent that the mediation ended without resolution.

Throughout my years in practice as a mediator I became fascinated withthe ease with which these abusive, narcissistic personalities were ableto control their spouses, employees, children and other primaryrelationships, and began to formulate my theories about "predatoryleadership."

For the most part, I support a generalization that "most people aregood." In 30 years as a business professional and world traveler, I havehad, at most, two incidents in which I encountered people whointentionally wished me ill. In general I've found the vast majority ofhuman interactions to be positive experiences fueled by healthyintentions.

So what is different about the minority? According to Martha Stout (TheSociopath Next Door), 4 percent of the population has an undiagnosed(and perhaps outwardly invisible) personality disorder that combines a

narcissistic obsession for self entitlement with a lack of capacity forempathy. What happens when a member of that minority attains a positionof social, corporate, political or religious power?

There is endless research on the symptoms of sociopaths and abusivepersonalities, and for a quick overview, here are a few primaryexamples. These traits might be present in a predatory leader (likesquares and rectangles, sociopaths and abusive personalities share somecommon characteristics):

. In their minds, they are the only victims. In their public trials,Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic never acknowledged they wereresponsible for causing harm to others; their major efforts in thecourts were to direct attention to how badly they, themselves, werebeing treated.

. They lack the capacity for compassion, empathy, shame or guilt.

. They make every effort to prove their actions are the fault ofsomebody else.

. They often exhibit symptoms of narcissistic or borderline personalitydisorder.

Research shows that the brains of abused children and sociopaths arephysiologically different from those who were raised with the nurturanceeach child deserves from birth. Sociopathic behavior indicates that theylack the capacity for empathy and they appear to be incapable of takingresponsibility for the harm they have caused others. In my ownobservations, within the abusers operates a mechanism that worksdesperately to keep them from ever acknowledging they did anythingwrong. It's almost as if they are being controlled by a overpoweringsubconscious belief that they will self destruct if they ever reallyconnect with either the nature of their submerged shame or fully graspedthe degree of pain and suffering they inflict upon others.

I correlate my own experience as a mediator with a quote from a reviewof "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout:

"We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but inThe Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals thata shocking 4 percent of ordinary people - one in twenty-five - has anoften undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is thatthat person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoeverto feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans,

therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, yourneighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all andfeel absolutely no guilt."

Child psychiatrist Jack Westman estimates that each typical sociopathwill cost society $3 million over the course of his lifetime, butsociety does virtually nothing to address this condition. In connectionto Westman's statement, I personally support a number of well meaning,humanitarian organizations in which sincere, motivated people rally tostop war, heal the planet, stop famine, etc. As I listen to theirimpassioned speeches, I'm reminded over and over again, "These folks aretalking about healing huge and significant damage but nobody is talkingabout how to eliminate the source of problem."

The source is complex, insidious and in many ways, well hidden. At thesame time, it is publically visible in a way that makes the horribleacceptable. The consequences of war is sold to the public as a solutionbecause the other side, led by similar leaders selling the samepropaganda to their people, is making demons out of the firstpopulation. In this way, the predatory leaders are partners in crime;they need and use each other's pathologies to justify their own.

One of the greatest challenges is to define this complex issue in a waythat is accessible and interesting to people who could be motivated toeffect change. The first step is to bring the discussion to the generalpublic so that more people have the opportunity to develop and carry outsolutions.

PREDATORY LEADERS UNMASKED

For examples of predatory leaders we can immediately point to obviousexamples of Hitler and Stalin who used dirty tricks, propaganda,demonization of innocent people, war and assassination to achieve theirgoals. But more pervasive and less obvious are the millions of pettytyrants working at all levels of society, including:

. Government bureaucrats and corporate administrators, many of them inpositions to make life miserable for hundreds or thousands of peopledaily.

. Employers who exploit and take advantage of employees.

. Abusive police officers who bully their neighborhoods

. Abusive gang leaders who bully their neighborhoods

. Abusive teachers who intimidate their students

. Religious clergy who abuse their following

. Corporate decision makers who hide or lie about toxic elements intheir products or lay off their work force in exchange for using slavelabor overseas.

. Insurgents who plant bombs and the people who recruit and train them.

. The domestic abuser who emotionally or physically terrorizes his/herfamily.

These are a few examples of people who decide to act -- consciously orsubconsciously -- to exploit and oppress others for their own benefit.While there may be wide variations among these groups, they share acommon mindset that includes an unchecked sense of entitlement coupledwith a disregard for others that serves as the foundation for oppressivedecisions and actions.

One particularly dangerous aspect of predatory leaders is that theiragendas, often couched in a message that they are "helping theirpeople," provide opportunity for sociopathic personalities with fewerleadership skills to thrive in service to their leaders. In suchservice, a man who would be imprisoned for rape and murder in a peacefulenvironment can join or form a militia where his crimes are excused,overlooked or even requested as he carries out his mission. This appearsto be happening in Darfur today.

I will relate a brief story about a friend of mine who has the potentialto be a humane, compassionate and effective political leader. He was onthe ground floor of the national political arena and his friends andcolleagues had high hopes for him. But in his professional environment,advancement in his field meant he had to compromise his conscience andmorals so thoroughly that he chose to drop out. He would ultimately bereplaced by someone who lacked similar conscience and was sufficientlyself serving that he could do the dirty work necessary to move up in theorganization.

This is one of the key reasons that we find ourselves with malevolent,exploitive and murderous people in positions of power. While they maynot be proactively murderous, they are sufficiently bureaucratic inmid-level positions to move through the ranks of the regime,corporation, military unit or religious institution while serving theirown narcissistic agendas. The inhumane consequences of the bureaucratic

nature of managed health care are a current example.

In 1972 my friend took some time off from his studies at Harvard to workon George McGovern's presidential campaign in New Hampshire. He did sowell that he was hired to run the state campaign for one of the Dakotas.He told me about how excited he was to be meeting the top players in theDemocratic Party and that he could see making a career of this work. Itold him I looked forward to voting for him in 30 years.

A year later he dropped out. It wasn't that the competition was tootough; he thrived on competition. The problem was that he was beingasked to do things that were too filthy for his conscience to bear. Butthere were plenty of others waiting in line to do the dirty work, andthey would advance as a result. In this situation a potentially greatleader was marginalized while a sociopath forged ahead in the sameorganization.

Over the centuries, the nature and path to power has become so infectedwith the poison of sociopaths and the opportunists who gild theirpockets by serving the abusers in power, that a majority of the generalpublic accepts such abuse as inevitable and feels powerless to doanything about it. This happens not just in the corporate, government,military and political arenas, but also in educational, non- profit andreligious institutions. Most average folks complacently leave leadershipto others, and when this happens, ruthlessly competitive goal seekerswho will do anything to achieve their goals pervade all aspects ofculture and society.

For the sake of this discussion, from the Oxford English Dictionary, anapplicable definition of leadership is "a person or thing that leads."

Consider the position that all individuals are leaders in their ownlives by virtue of the fact that on conscious and subconscious levels,they make leadership choices about every action they take. These choicesare as personal as selecting a school for their children or asfar-reaching as the decision to follow a leader who preaches harm toothers.

This raises the question about the distinction between sociopathicpersonalities and the actions of those who become enmeshed in theirpolicies. How do we discern between a conscientious person who harmsothers because if they don't follow orders they'll suffer as aconsequence (soldiers, intimidated employees or abused family members),and a sociopath who follows a murderous leader because the leaderprovides an opportunity for the sociopath to "legitimately" impose hiswill upon others without suffering any personal consequence.?

Look at how leadership shows up in the nuclear family. To many, an idealfamily is one where mother and father share roles as parents and leadersof the family. In many families in which one parent is abusive andcontrols the rest of the family, there is no room for shared leadershipor any independent initiative on the part of other family members. Oftenthis dysfunction is not visible outside of the family; friends will say,"I thought they were the perfect couple." This example of dualpersonalities exists in all forms of predatory leadership.

In the broad spectrum between the domestic abuser and the dictator of anation, they share a common pathological mindset. It is the lack ofunderstanding about how these sociopathic and abusive minds functionthat enables such toxic entities to get into positions of power over andover again.

CAN PREDATORY LEADERSHIP BE HEALED?

With the goal of healing leadership, we can create a public dialogue,encourage research and develop ways to educate consumers, voters,corporations, families, educators and others, especially school agechildren, to identify abusers before they complete the path to power.With this education, bullies will have much less power in a schools,neighborhoods and offices, and adolescents will be better able tounderstand the difference between toxic and healthy romanticrelationships. An additional benefit of such education is that peoplewill make better choices for their marriages, there will be lessdivorce, less abusive behavior and children will have a better chance togrow up in healthy, non-abusive homes. A program like this, carried outon a national basis, can go a long way towards breaking the cycle ofabused children growing up to be abusive parents and abusive leaders.

On the larger scale, I envision a manual of identified actions andbehaviors that would unmask the those parading publically as benevolentleaders while behind the scenes, their actions are ruthlesslyexploitive.

In current events, the self serving interests of the predatory leaderswere exposed in Burma in the wake of the recent cyclone devastation.Millions of dollars of aid and thousands of relief workers are standingby while thousands of Burmese are dying from lack of potable water,disease and starvation. The "leaders" are withholding their permissionof a full scale rescue effort because, according to a Reuters' reportpublished on May 9, 2008:

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams

from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run Myanma Ahlinnewspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly building up forsurvivors of Cyclone Nargis."

Reading between the lines with an insight to the pathology of thesociopathic leader, I know that what is happening is that those in powerfear losing control. If thousands of foreigners gain unrestricted accessto a population that has been rigidly denied contact with the outsideworld, Senior General Than Shwe would face challenges to the tight griphe has held on the nation since 1992. Maintaining that control is muchmore important than doing everything possible to alleviate thedevastation in his country.

Epilogue

Researching and developing programs to fight predatory leadership is along term project and it is bigger than me. I do not want to own it orprofit from it. I want people to gain tools and insights to protectthemselves from the predatory personalities who lack conscience andempathy - a significant element in their ability to cause pain and harmto others as a byproduct of their pursuit of their goals.

Short term, my goals are in the following order:

1. Enlist fellow humanitarians to collaborate on research and developingprograms that will effectively address this monumental challenge. Theend result - maybe a couple of generations away - will be a paradigmthat includes a holistic process for identifying potential predatorsbefore they attain power, redirecting them elsewhere and, at the sametime, identifying and nurturing potentially compassionate leaders.

2. Develop a more effective website - the current website is a hastysetup to get something online: mostpeoplearegood.com

3. Write one or more books on the myriad aspects of this subject (thesubject would progress geometrically if it could include contributionsfrom professionals in the fields of psychology, poly sci, sociology,history, etc.)

4. Integrate these concepts into our educational curriculum inappropriate ways. For example, I believe there would be a significantreduction in abusive marriages if Patricia Evans' book, "The Verbally

Abusive Relationship" was taught in junior high and high school.

5. Start a non-profit organization to bring in funding for promotion(speakers bureaus?) and to develop research and tools to ensure thedevelopment of the more humane aspects of the world's cultures.

Not too big a task, eh?

Thank you for reading this far. I look forward to interestingconversations and any insights or critiques you may have.

Matt Kramer 707-795-6057 mattkramer.com

Correspondence with Professor Dean Simonton (UC Davis) and ProfessorJack Glaser (UC Berkeley):

Begin forwarded message: From: "Dean Simonton"  Date: September 19, 200712:37:57 PDT To: Matt Kramer  Subject: RE: Introduction to PredatoryLeaders

Hi, Matt ~ Your concept of "predatory leaders" is a very interesting andpotentially useful one. It has some affinity with other concepts in theliterature on political leadership, such as Machiavellian, transactional(rather than transformational), and negative (rather than positive)charismatic leadership. Hence, one of your first tasks would be tospecify how this particular form of leadership differs from these otherforms. Unfortunately, my main research interests have drifted away frompolitical leadership. What little work I now do is restricted to thepredictors of presidential performance ratings. I wish you success. ~Best, Dean

Dean Keith Simonton, PhD Distinguished Professor and Vice ChairDepartment of Psychology One Shields Avenue University of California,Davis Davis, CA 95616-8686

Home Page - http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Simonton/

***************************************************

Begin forwarded message: From: "Jack Glaser"  Date: September 19, 200710:37:19 PDT To: "Matt Kramer"  Subject: Re: Introduction to PredatoryLeaders

Dear Mr. Kramer,

Thanks for sending your message. The idea is extremely interesting, but

it is so far outside my area of expertise that I'm afraid I can't be ofhelp. The social psychologist who is most prominent in the study ofleadership is Dean Simonton. You may wish to look into his work.

Thanks again, and best of luck with your important work.

Jack Glaser

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Jack Glaser AssistantProfessor Goldman School of Public Policy University of California,Berkeley 2607 Hearst Avenue Berkeley, CA 94720-7320 510-642-3047, FAX:510-643-3047 http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~glaserj/

On Sat, September 15, 2007 3:06 am, Matt Kramer wrote:

Dear Professor Glaser;

I learned of your work hearing you as a guest on Forum last week. I amvery impressed reading your C.V.; I hesitate to contact you; you arecertainly very busy. If you do not have time to respond to my query,maybe you can provide an appropriate referral.

I would like to share a theory I am developing on the nature ofpredatory leaders. I have been working as a professional mediator since1994. In the course of my work, I began to study the nature of abusivepersonalities and eventually recognized correlations between thebehavior of such personalities in the domestic arena and practically allother areas of human interaction: corporate, government, educational,religious, military, etc.

I feel this theory will be best served by sharing the development withpeople with different areas of expertise: political scientists,historians, psychologists, sociologists, etc. I do not wish to own thisidea; my desire is to help it make its way into public dialogue - if thegeneral population can learn to recognize the behavior patterns, maybethey will start developing ways to protect themselves in their privatelives and find ways to redirect the predators away from access topositions of power and control. I know this is tricky ground but I don'tknow of any other efforts being made that address what I see ashumanity's primary problem.

Ironically, in my efforts to find partners, my own leadership abilitiesare challenged. When I started talking about this subject a few yearsago, eyes glazed over rather quickly. I have fine tuned my elevatorspeech to the extent that now when I have an opportunity to share theseideas, people actually seem to get it. But the task feels much too big

for me to do it justice. I'd like to see a poly-sci class or a sociologyclass take it on as a course of study. For your review, I will include adraft article I have recently begun to write.