Why Modern Leadership Keeps Trending for All the Wrong Reasons
Nik Kinley (United Kingdom)
Leadership has been trending lately – but for all the wrong reasons. A procession of scandals has dominated headlines: the cap-snatching CEO at the US Open, a high-profile affair, and political figures caught in tax or financial controversies. The stories vary, but the pattern is clear. Time and again, we find ourselves watching leaders undone not by incompetence, but by what power quietly does to them.
Every leadership role carries some degree of power, and every person who holds it is affected by it. Decades of psychological and neurological research show that power reshapes how we think, feel, and act. And it changes not just our behaviour, but the very chemistry and wiring of our brains. The result is that leadership doesn’t simply reveal character – it amplifies it. The ambitious become more ambitious, the empathic more compassionate, the insecure more defensive. In other words, power doesn’t corrupt people; it simply reveals and magnifies what is already there.
How Power Amplifies
Thanks to the work of hundreds of researchers across the world over the past fifty years, we now have a solid picture of the mechanisms involved in precisely in how power amplifies leaders’ character. Three consistent effects stand out.
- Power disinhibits us
First, when people feel powerful, the brain’s Behavioural Activation System lights up. It drives us toward goals and rewards, making us more decisive, confident, and optimistic. This can energise action and innovation, but it also loosens restraint. We become more driven by inner desires than by external cues, more likely to act on impulses and emotions. Leaders smile more when happy, speak louder, and laugh harder, but also express irritation more freely. And over time, this disinhibition can slide from boldness into recklessness.
- Power increases risk-taking
Second, by dulling our sensitivity to threat and reducing the brain’s response to risk, power encourages bolder decisions. So the effects can be hugely positive. They can yield innovation and performance breakthroughs. But they can also lead to huge volatility: greater highs, but also much sharper falls. Because the same neurological shift that fuels courage and decisive leadership also increases the likelihood of overconfidence and overreach – whether strategic gambles, ethical lapses, or personal misconduct. And every leader, however disciplined, is shaped by these forces.
- Power makes us self-focused
Finally, power isolates us and shifts our attention inward. Studies show that powerful individuals focus more on personal goals than collective ones, and are more likely to interpret events in ways that confirm their own views. They rely less on others’ feedback, trust intuition over evidence, and filter information through self-serving biases. Their ability to accurately gauge others’ perspectives falls, and in just about every measure, their ability to empathise decreases. And in this way, power insulates people from the impact of their actions. Added to this, as confidence grows, humility fades. So the extra danger is that leaders can start believing they are right simply because they are in charge.
Why It’s Getting Worse
These dangers of power have always existed. The ancient Greeks knew it and wrote of it. So it’s nothing new. What is new is the intensity of the modern leadership environment. The pressure of it, the pace of it, and the unpredictability of it. All of which have combined to make power harder and more toxic to wield than it has ever been before.
Source: iCN Issue 52 (The Impact of Executive Coaching on Leadership); pages 38-40
About Nik Kinley
Nik Kinley is a London-based leadership consultant, assessor and coach with 40 years’ experience working with some of the world’s biggest companies. An award-winning author, he has written eight books, the latest of which is The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People and What to Do About It, available now.
