6 ideas
Managers sort into four psychological types, each defined by what energizes them. The craftsman is driven by making something well. The jungle fighter is driven by power, and the company man by security and belonging to the organization. The gamesman is driven by the thrill of competing and winning as part of a team.
The gamesman treats work as a game played for glory. He is fast-moving, fair, cooperative within the team, and energized by new options and risk. He wants to win without destroying others, which suits him to lead innovative, technology-driven, team-based organizations better than the other types.
Corporate structure rewards the traits that fit its competitive environment and filters out the traits that don't. Large, fast-changing technology companies therefore push gamesmen into top leadership. The dominant managerial character shifts as the demands of the organization shift.
Corporate careers reward qualities of the head, such as initiative, flexibility, cooperation and self-control. The same careers leave qualities of the heart undeveloped, including compassion, loyalty to principle and the capacity for deep attachment. Judging a manager by performance alone hides this emotional underdevelopment, which the psychoanalytic interview is designed to reveal.
Because the gamesman's identity is tied to winning, he struggles to find meaning once he stops winning or ages out of the contest. Detachment and a lack of deep commitment leave him vulnerable to depression and a sense of emptiness in midlife. His strengths as a player become his limits as a person.
Managerial behavior can be explained by motivations the managers themselves may not recognize, and in-depth interviews and projective tests can surface them. Studying character rather than job title shows why people in identical roles act in very different ways. It also shows how work itself shapes the personalities of those who do it.