I make it a rule to challenge at least one deeply held assumption every month. This month I have been challenged by two recently published books that have stimulated a rethink for me.
The first is Poisonous People, by Leanne ten Brinke, published by Simon and Schuster. I’ve taken an interest in people with “dark traits” ever since I managed to extract myself from a malign business arrangement several decades ago. I thought I had gained the insight to recognise the combination of Machiavellianism and high narcissism, only to find myself a few years back ensnared in the manipulations of another, smarter individual, who abused my trustingness and generosity. Having once again extracted myself, I determined that the only strategy for dealing with such people was to avoid them like the plague.
That’s one option in ten Brinke’s tour de force on working with people, who exhibit psychopathy, narcissism and other malevolent traits. She provides both checklists and case examples to help recognise tell-tale behaviours. In addition, she provides tactics for resisting them and preventing them exercising their worst traits. That’s what stimulated my rethink. Among the useful items of advice:
• Before taking on a new role, talk to people already in the system and ask who they would advise you to trust most and least. While people often find it hard to pinpoint specific sociopathic behaviour, they are very good at sensing who they can’t feel fully at ease with.
• A common tactic amongst high narcissists is to come to a verbal agreement with you about something, then abrogate it when it suits them. Always take notes and circulate them to make this harder for them.
The second book is Alexandra Robuste’s Gentle Leading and Neurodivergence, published by Routledge. I have learned a great deal in the past three years co-facilitating supervision groups for neurodivergent coaches. One of the key lessons is the diversity of neurodiversity. Another is how difficult it is to drop masks that enable ND people to appear to conform to social norms. The supervision groups provide one place they can do just that.
Robuste provides the clearest exposition I have seen of the diversity of traits associated with each of the ND labels she explores. (It’s not exhaustive – she does not cover aphantasia or procedural deficit disorder, for example. But she does cover all the main labels we encounter in the workplace.) She makes a compelling case for placing all of these into a kaleidoscope of resources available for leadership. Great strengths often also come with corresponding weaknesses. Effective leadership comes from harnessing the strengths and compensating for the weaknesses, either by redesigning the context or by creating teams of people with complementing traits.
This is not a quick read, because it is so packed with detail. It is one that I will refer to frequently, however.
©️David Clutterbuck, 2026