The Leadership Problem Starts In Grade School. That’s Where It Has To Be Fixed.

The Leadership Problem Starts In Grade School. That’s Where It Has To Be Fixed.

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/opinion/why-we-fall-for-narcissistic-leaders-starting-in-grade-school.html?searchResultPosition=1

This opinion piece appeared on the website of The New York Times on December 29. It is by Dr. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The title of Dr. Grant’s piece is “Why We Fall for Narcissistic Leaders, Starting in Grade School.” It is definitely worth seeking out and reading.

Here are some cogent quotes that pertain to the Oval Office and to the leadership at 1515 Holcombe.

In discussing our current unstable environment of climate change and the threat of AI he says, “those are fertile conditions for authoritarians who promise to restore order to chaos” (like after DePinho) “and narcissists who exude intoxicating levels of confidence and charm” (as in Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and the Trump wannabe DePinho).

“A little grandiosity can be conducive to big, disruptive ideas, but the evidence is abundant that people with high levels of narcissism make for worse leaders. To advance their own interests, they’re more willing to manipulate others, cut corners and even break laws.” Could there be any better examples of this than Dr. DePinho and Donald Trump? I think not.

“As they bask in the glow of yes men and flattery, they’re more likely to double down on ideas that aren’t working.” I’ll throw in Pisters here. I do not believe that there is a single initiative of his, from professionalism to the jettisoning of pediatrics that has really improved life for the faculty or for MD Anderson’s patients.

“They (narcissists) take credit, assign blame and put themselves above the group. They see leadership as an opportunity to seize, not a responsibility to serve.” Again, I think Trump, DePinho, and Pisters qualify here.

“Across multiple studies, people who were well aware of narcissists’ self-serving tendencies still preferred them as leaders for an unpredictable world.” Clearly this applies to the American people and to the UT Board of Regents. No one was fooled. Everyone knew what they were getting except, in the case of the MD Anderson presidents, the faculty, which did not know and did not have a vote on the matter of who was to be president.

Apparently, this is also true in elementary and middle school classrooms. Narcissists are often chosen to lead. It is here that the true qualities that produce good leadership—service, selflessness, and listening—need to be taught.

“Wise leaders balance confidence with humility. They’re secure enough in their strengths to acknowledge their weaknesses and learn from critics.” Let me insert myself here because I thought that my abilities to be a good leader were not at all honed by my medical school or residency training where individual accomplishment was valued and team success was not. I think I have business school to thank for helping me with this as all of our work in the second year was team based. But it was not until I became a vice president that I had to learn the value of surrounding myself with people more able than I to do many things. Interestingly, for me, these people were almost all women who tend to actually be better leaders than narcissistic men according to this op-ed.

As I look back over my 50-year career, I realize that I was not well-trained to be an effective leader. In fact, I was well-trained to be a narcissistic one because I was constantly being assessed and held accountable for my effort as an individual in the classroom, in the clinic, and in the lab. People like me need some kind of reprogramming before they get leadership roles. I think mine happened first in business school. I was further humbled by the MD Anderson faculty who taught me what they needed from me and I got to be a better leader, or at least I thought I did. Oh, yes. All those years of therapy were very helpful, too.

I was never humbled by any MD Anderson president under whom I served—except Dr. LeMaistre who was my idea of a great leader. It was never about him. He genuinely wanted you to succeed. So did Irv Krakoff. They knew how to, as Dr. Krakoff used to say, “bask in reflected glory.” I miss them both. So does MD Anderson.

It has been a long time since MD Anderson had a real servant leader without any narcissism at the helm. It’s been even longer since the United States has had a true servant leader. That was probably George H. W. Bush who, after he was no longer President of the United States, tried to guide MD Anderson as the Chair of the Board of Visitors. Unfortunately, Bush 41’s leadership bonafides never fully rubbed off on the presidents of MD Anderson around him or after him.

Like Shop, Home Economics, and Gym, we need to bring leadership training back into the elementary schools. Then, we could get the right people in the leadership jobs of the future on Holcombe and on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.