Everybody can tell you where he or she was when they first heard about it. When I saw the headline, I thought maybe that somebody at The Onion got a hold of the New York Times front page. Eliot Ness caught with hookers? How could such a thing be possible? It was like Moses being caught with Pharoah’s daughter. Wait. That happened too.
The fact is, none of us should have been all that surprised by it, least of all those of us who work in business. Eliot Spitzer has simply demonstrated once again that those who rise to the top of organizations are very often the most demented, conflicted individuals in any group.
Symptoms of powerful and influential people across all professional spectra include, but are not limited to:
- Grandiosity: Often displayed in a cavalier belief that one will not be caught doing the things that other people would be punished for;
- Arrogance: Similar to grandiosity, but with a slightly nastier edge and more deleterious effect on other people;
- Cruelty: Bullies abound in senior management of all business entities, including politics, and nobody was more of a bully at his job than Mr. Spitzer. Dramatic bully behavior almost always goes hand in hand with other crazy pathologies, including the desire to be submissive in non-business situations, the way that masochism often accompanies its more sadistic counterpart;
- Addiction: Booze. Drugs. Work. These people do nothing in moderation once they get hooked on their substance of choice. In Spitzer’s case, it was a certain kind of illicit sexual transaction. I’m betting he’s been at it since it didn’t matter.
- Bifurcated personality: This enables the big dude to prosecute prostitution rings with vigor and a certain moral imperative while at the same time keeping Kristen holding on Line 2.
- Rigidity of Character: Necessary for guys who run military-style organizations, but interestingly coupled with…
- Inconsistency: Says one thing one day then immediately does the exact opposite the next.
The only question that remains for those who work for such people and vote for them when they run is why we continue to be grossed out, shocked and scandalized when the very personality attributes that got them to the top manifest themselves in questionable form.