Put down the chain saw and pacify your inner beast. In her second feature in the series, Rhian Morgan talks to Prof Kevin Dutton about how leaders can unleash the good psychopath inside themselves to maximise business success

What’s the difference between Jeffrey Dahmer and a CEO? Not much, as it turns out. The difference, according to Oxford University’s Professor Kevin Dutton, is just that one is a ‘good’, psychopath while the other is ‘bad’.

How can you be a good ‘psychopath, you may well ask? Well, it’s all down to how far you are able to control the dials on your personality. A bad psycho has the volume on high, while a good psycho can adjust the controls accordingly.

There are apparently more psychopaths in Britain’s boardrooms than there are in Broadmoor. Go tell that to Peter Sutcliffe or Charles Bronson. I interviewed Prof Dutton on what he believes the psychopath can teach us. But why did Prof Ditton decide to specialise in psychopathy in the first place?

“In my first book, Flipnosis, I spent some time with some of the world’s top con artists. They were psychopaths. They weren’t violent but they were ruthless, charming and fearless. If psychopaths could be so brilliant at persuasion, I mused, what else might they excel at?

“Plus, my father (a real life Del Boy character) was a psychopath so I wanted to figure him out! He was utterly shameless and couldn’t give a damn about anything. One of the things he used to do regularly – in full public view – was argue with traffic wardens who were writing out tickets for illegally parked cars. He was so persuasive he’d often succeed in getting them to put their books back in their pockets…only then to reveal, with a cheeky wave goodbye, that it wasn’t even his car!”

A 2005 study showed that the psychopathic traits of superficial charm, egocentricity, independence, and restricted focus are more common among CEOs than criminals. How important are these characteristics, along with a lack of emotion, to business success?

“In order to succeed at anything you need two things. Firstly, the requisite skill set necessary to do the job. Secondly, the right kind of personality that enables you to optimally operationalise that skill set. Nowhere is this more true than business. No matter how many MBAs you might hold, if you don’t have the ruthless streak to fire someone if they’re underperforming, the self-belief to stick to a long-term strategy, the ability to take a risk when necessary, the mental toughness to bounce back after a setback, the capacity to compartmentalise and focus on the issue at hand, the controlled impulsivity to grasp an opportunity when it presents itself…then you’re going to go under!

What advice would you give business leaders on how to develop their skills?

“The answer to this question would usually take 80,000 words to write. Let me shorten it to 20…Buy The Good Psychopath’s Guide To Success – How To Use Your Inner Psychopath To Get The Most Out Of Life!”

And what tips would you give on how to be more persuasive?

“First of all, practise! If you want to lose weight, you don’t do it just by reading books and learning the theory. You eat less and exercise more. So if you want to be a better persuader start persuading! You may be rubbish to start but the only way to improve is to hone your skills in everyday life.  Take a leaf out of my old man’s book…have a crack at traffic wardens – an instant influence workout! Secondly, remember the acronym SPICE. SPICE stands for simplicity, perceived self-interest, incongruity, confidence and empathy – the DNA of a militant strain of persuasion that doesn’t just turn the tables but kicks them over (see Flipnosis – The Art of Split-Second Persuasion for more.) If you combine all five components in the one message it’s irresistible.

Here’s an example:

One evening, at the close of a lavish state banquet for Commonwealth dignitaries in London, Winston Churchill spots a fellow guest about to steal a priceless silver salt-cellar from the table. The gentleman in question slips the precious artefact inside his dinner jacket, then quietly makes for the door.
What is Churchill to do?
Caught between loyalty to his host and an equal and opposite desire to avoid an undignified contretemps, he suddenly has an idea. With no time to lose, he quickly picks up the matching silver pepper-pot and slips it inside his own jacket pocket. Then, approaching his ‘partner in crime’, he reluctantly produces the condimentary contraband and sets it down in front of him.
 “I think they’ve seen us,” he whispers. “We’d better put them back…”

In the Great British Psychopath Survey 2011, the most psychopathic profession is CEO. Other professions with psychopathic characteristics are lawyers, the media, surgeons, and the clergy. Why do you think these professions score highly?

“Power, ruthlessness, decisiveness, coolness under pressure, self-confidence, narcissism, persuasiveness, focus, a coruscating capacity to fake empathy even if you don’t feel it…do I need to go on?

“Example 1 (medicine): One top neurosurgeon once said to me (rather poetically): ‘I have no compassion for those whom I operate on. That is a luxury I simply cannot afford. In the theatre I am reborn: as a cold, heartless machine, totally at one with scalpel, drill and saw. When you’re cutting loose and cheating death high above the snowline of the brain, feelings aren’t fit for purpose. Emotion is entropy, and seriously bad for business. I’ve hunted it down to extinction over the years.’

“Example 2 (religion): One middle-ranking minister once told me: ‘I don’t believe in God. I’m just good at Him.’

But does it matter that there are lots of psychopaths in leadership? Surely, we should be developing empathy?

“Perhaps you should be asking that question to the shareholders of various banks who lost billions during the financial crisis a few years ago or those who worked hard all their lives to find that their pensions had gone down the drain!

“To be absolutely clear, I’m not saying that psychopaths are good for business, period. What I am saying is this: deployed at certain levels, within certain contexts, and in certain combinations, psychopathic personality traits can predispose you to success in a number of professions, including business.

“Putting it into perspective, there are two types of leader: those who bring their skill set to the team around them and motivate both the team and themselves to achieve elevated levels of performance and those who do the opposite: who are simply interested in what they can ‘get out of it’, who manipulate the combined skill sets of the team to make themselves look good. It’s the latter lot you need to look out for!”

How would you advise someone who is high on the spectrum, to dial down the extremes so that they can be more successful?

“The treatment of psychopaths is a nuanced and far-reaching question and there really isn’t the space to go into the ins and outs of it here.
“Suffice it to say that psychopaths have traditionally been difficult to treat because they are rarely bothered themselves by the consequences of their actions: it’s usually others who suffer the most.

“As one bad psychopath in a maximum security unit once said to me when I told him that he had ruthlessness, fearlessness, charm etc all dialled up too high: ‘So, what you’re saying is I’ve just got too much of a good thing!’

“However, it may be worth mentioning one thing to someone who has the dials up too high: one of the overwhelming differences between good and bad leaders/managers is how they apportion blame and credit. Good leaders credit others when things go right and blame themselves when things go wrong. Bad leaders do the opposite: they look in the mirror when things work out and point fingers when they don’t.

“That simple research finding should give all of us reason to take stock – no matter where you are on the psychopathic spectrum!”

So how can I tell if I, or a colleague, is a psychopath?

“Without proper, in-depth psychometric assessment you can’t for sure. But as a rule of thumb look out for the following tell-tale signs:

• They are manipulative – they love to make people jump
• They play on pity – they will often appeal to sympathy
• They are parasitical – they get others to do the work
• They are deceitful – lying is second nature
• They are charming – but the charm is only superficial
• They are narcissistic – other people don’t matter
• They are never to blame – whatever it is it’s always someone else’s fault
• They are good actors – they can fake all kinds of emotions to get a reaction or result
• They are risk takers – financial, social, physical…you name it
• They are power hungry – and are attracted to positions or professions that offer it
• They are ruthless –  they can behave harshly, even brutally without batting an eye
• They lack empathy – they’re great at gauging how you feel but can’t feel how you feel
• They lack conscience – guilt is just a non-starter

The Good Psychopath’s Guide to Success, How To Use your Inner Psychopath To Get The Most Out of Life is available at all good book shops and online retailers. Follow Kevin on Twitter