I recently saw this documentary about a woman who fooled the world into thinking that she had created this new product that would revolutionize the way health technology and medicine worked for the every day person. This elaborate scheme turned out to be a total fraudulent company and it ended with the CEO under massive scrutiny and has charges against her. Now, this has me wondering how this situation got his far and why was it as successful as it was up until the very end?
Elizabeth Holmes, CEO and founder of Theranos; what used to be a blood-testing startup company that screened blood in a more “efficient” way for different medical conditions – is now a woman behind bars who committed fraud. She was described by many as a successful entrepreneur and that even at a young age she excelled as a top student. Her university teacher stated [Holmes] was a silent leader who carried herself with poise (Dunn, 2019). Yet in a 2019 documentary about the rise and fall of her multi-billion dollar company – in her adult life, she was seen as a demanding, manipulative, narcissistic and ultimately unethical. Holmes not only conned her way into fraud but also manipulated her employees and everyone around her into believing that what she envisioned would come to fruition and be something for the greater good but advertently disregarded those of her peers and employees.
Now this seems to me like Holmes had specific traits that distinguished her from the rest but ultimately not in the best way. While she was a very successful person, to what cost? How far did she go to get her way? An article by Malone (2021) states that Linda Neider, the current chair of the Miami Herbert Business School’s Management Department referenced a Gelsinger article on leadership style in which he notes that a culture must be developed where teams feel comfortable enough to express divergent viewpoints. “Clearly that was not the case at Theranos, where teams were not even allowed to communicate transparently, let alone raise issues that might go against what Holmes hoped to hear.” This is only tell-tale sign of the other side of a good leader.
As I stated before, Holmes was seen as a narcissistic person, amongst other things. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary (n.d.) defines Narcissist as, “an extremely self-centered person who has an exaggerated sense of self-importance.” Being narcissistic is known as one of the dark-side personality traits that leaders tend to possess which in return leads them down this path of failure. Holmes depicted traits of narcissism as well as very masculine mannerisms in all of her interviews and as how she represented her company. And it may get confusing at times because narcissism tends to merge with the traits of the Five Factor Model which are considered to be positive and that of a good leader. The dark-side traits usually only become obvious after a leader has been in the position for a period of time (PSU WC, 2021, L02) which in Holmes’ case became more obvious as she became more engulfed in becoming this powerful CEO billionaire and her finally came to light.
How does one become self-aware that we may be going down the wrong path into a world of no return? I think that we must take a step back and honestly analyze the choices we make as leaders. I always feel like there is a very thin line between being a good leader and a bad one and it only takes a wrong word or move to put you in either of those directions. Holmes steered closer to narcissism and way from self-confidence. Northouse (2019) uses Steve Jobs as an example to identify what self-confidence looked like. It is stated that Jobs was never doubtful of his capabilities, of his products abilities to change the world even if everyone else thought different. Holmes, oddly enough, looked up to Jobs and aspired to be a female version of him but unfortunately she lacked integrity and the traits to make her a successful and valued CEO and leader. She possessed some of Stogdill’s surveyed traits (Drive to exercise initiative in social situations, vigor and persistence in pursuit of goals, to name a few) which ironically enough were identified during a time where male leadership was prevalent (Northouse, 2019) which has me wondering if she too, studied certain leadership traits to fit in to the male dominant society! If only Holmes was able to pinpoint her “dark side” in leadership and have insight of her own personality and how to properly and effectively use her power and influence to do good.
References:
-Dunn, T., Thompson, V., & Jarvis, R. (2019). ABC News Network. ABC News. Retrieved October 4, 2021 from
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/theranos-employees-describe-culture-secrecy-elizabeth-holmes-startup/story?id=60544673
-Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Narcissist. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/narcissist
-Malone, M. (2021). Theranos Trial Highlights The Dark Side of Leadership. Retrieved on October 4, 2021 from
https://news.miami.edu/stories/2021/09/theranos-trial-highlights-the-dark-side-of-leadership.html
-Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership. Theory and Practice. Trait Approach. (pp.19-41). Sage Publishing.
-Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2021). PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules/items/32790516