Inherently, in any organization, there are always a few narcissists. These narcissists may be of two types as defined by psychologists. The first of them are those whose parents lavished material and emotional benefits on them, so they grew up attaining an abnormally high self-esteem for themselves. The others are those who grew up the other way, and lacked an emotional support so started dreaming up grandiose ideas which never happened. Mentoring a narcissist is a critical component of the talent management capabilities for professionals tasked with this unenviable task. Firstly, the mentor himself/herself needs to build on one’s own empathy as chances are that a poor first impression on the mentee may have wrecked the relation right at the beginning. The superior must be very patient and a good listener to discern what real issues the narcissist may be facing. The tactic of mirroring often works where instead of opposing the grandiose beliefs about one’s own self, the mentor actually agrees on them for a change. Debates on the Socratic tradition may also help. Crucially, one needs to be authentic and so lead with the real feelings. As mentoring a narcissist is always such a psychological challenge, the mentor must take care not to lose oneself in the process.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/09/how-to-mentor-a-narcissist

Uploaded Date :06 October 2017