![\"black-and-white-city-man-people\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/black-and-white-city-man-people.jpg\")
<\/a>In order to get ahead, are you willing to step on someone else\u2019s toes? Often in times, success might call for a change in the game in order to reach the top, but why does it seem that many people in the business world make it higher corporate ladder by trampling over others in order to get what they want.<\/p>\nResearch, conducted by University of Bern psychological scientists Daniel Spurk, Anita Keller and Andreas Hirsch, found that employees that exhibited Dark Triad traits\u2014psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism\u2014are more likely to reach the top of the corporate ladder than those who don\u2019t display the traits.<\/p>\n
According to The Association for Psychological Science, many employees who scored high on the trait test were related to higher salaries and more leadership and management positions.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that even though the Dark Triad may possess some negative qualities that could hurt career advancements, it also showed that people who displayed these qualities could quickly climb up the corporate ladder.<\/p>\n
But could the charm outweigh the manipulation?<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with high scores of Machiavellianism tend to crave power, control, and status \u2014 hence, they tend to actively pursue leadership positions and prestige. On the other hand, nobody likes working with a selfish jerk \u2014 Psychopaths often have difficulty working with other people, and are prone to impulsivity,\u201d Association for Psychological Science said, in an interview with the scientists.<\/p>\n
The survey asked participants to rate Dark Triad traits such as \u201cI tend to lack remorse,\u201d \u201cI tend to want others to pay attention to me\u201d or \u201c I tend to manipulate others to get my way,\u201d as well as providing up-to-date information about their current careers. As a result, the researchers found that certain dark traits help people get to the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether bad guys get ahead or fall behind seems to depend on the type of dark trait\u2026Narcissism was positively related to salary, Machiavellianism was positively related to leadership position and career satisfaction,\u201d the researchers wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science<\/i>.<\/p>\n
According to Spurk, Keller and Hirschi, the most successful individuals are that who display the trait of Machiavellianism\u2014they are good at manipulating their way to the top in order to rise to a leadership position, but if their dishonest actions are exposed they may lose their charm.<\/p>\n
However, it is the Narcissistic individuals who earned the most money because they believe they are most deserving of special opportunities, but their constant need of attention could become tiring on a company or supervisor.<\/p>\n
Unlike the Machiavellianism and narcissism trait, the participants who scored high on psychopathy were negatively linked to success\u2014The researchers narrowed it down to the psychopath\u2019s aggressive and impulsive behavior that held the employee back.<\/p>\n
Before considering to change your game, these traits have a dark side, hence their name. These characteristics easily can make or break your corporate ladder climb. These people who display the dark traits in the workforce are often seen as a more attractive candidate for a job because of their ambition, assertiveness and charm. Gary Zeune, founder of The Pros and Cons, a speaker\u2019s bureau, said to beware of co-workers who show potential signs of bullying and forceful charisma.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeware of a colleague who tries to be way too nice for what they’re asking you to do,” Zeune said.<\/p>\n
Gabrielle Sharp<\/strong> New ambitions on are the rise and with the start of the New Year a promotion may be on your list of things to achieve in 2016, but stepping up might require new strategies to get to the top. In order to get ahead, are you willing to step on someone else\u2019s toes? Often in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2030],"class_list":["post-12936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-gabrielle-sharp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3mE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12937,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12936\/revisions\/12937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExecutive Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"