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People in positions of power become cynical about the motives of their colleagues. And that means they think less of themselves
We’ve all heard celebrities and life’s highest flyers complain that ‘it’s lonely at the top’. It’s tempting to think - uncharitably, perhaps - ‘too bad, so sad’; after all, feeling isolated in this way is the price of achieving fame and power beyond the reach and imagination of the vast majority of us. But might it also affect people whose success and influence is less visible and exotic?
The path to achieving any sort of power usually involves getting on well with others, listening to their points of view, and showing them they’re valued and appreciated – characteristics necessary to building and maintaining strong relationships. However, after power has been bestowed, these attractive and trust-building virtues all too often disappear. As Dachar Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, writes: “This is the heart of the power paradox: the seductions of power induce us to lose the very skills that enabled us to gain power in the first place.”
Previously warm interactions become distinctly chilly as cynicism replaces camaraderie. Writing over fifty years ago the political scientist Hans Morgenthau poignantly described how a powerful person, unable to shrug off the suspicion that he is a target for manipulation, distrusts his relationships:
