ABSTRACT

People with high dark triad levels, consisting of subclinical narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, can have a destructive impact on their team members, subordinates, and the organisation. Recent research has even found that the higher the leadership position, the more dark triad traits were displayed. As coaching is often for people in (higher) leadership positions, the following study with 64 coaches investigated the dark triad traits among their clients and how this affected the coach as well as the coaching. The results show that the higher the client’s leadership level was, the higher their dark triad level was perceived and, thus, the more anxious and distressed the coaches were regarding the client, leading to less coaching success. Although the coaches did not name a definite strategy for dealing with such a client, the results showed that the higher their approach motivation was, the more successful the coaches was. The results depict the danger of high dark triad levels amongst coaching clients and its influences on the business coaching, implying theoretical and practical considerations.

摘要

具有高黑暗黑社会水平的人，包括亚临床自恋、马基雅维利主义和精神病，会对他们的团队成员、下属和组织产生破坏性影响。最近的研究甚至发现，领导职位越高，表现出的黑暗黑社会特征就越多。由于教练通常是为处于（更高）领导职位的人提供的，以下对 64 位教练的研究调查了他们客户中的黑暗三合会特征以及这如何影响教练和教练。结果表明，客户的领导水平越高，他们被感知的黑暗三合会水平越高，因此，教练对客户的焦虑和痛苦就越多，导致教练成功率较低。虽然教练们并没有给出一个明确的应对这种客户的策略，结果表明，他们的接近动机越高，教练就越成功。结果描述了教练客户中高黑暗黑社会水平的危险及其对商业教练的影响，暗示了理论和实践方面的考虑。