Meta-analytic studies suggest that the gender differences in narcissism have indeed been declining over the past few decades, largely because women have become more narcissistic, rather than men becoming less so. This change reaffirms the danger of encouraging women to lean in or act more like men to climb the corporate ladder. We are only inviting them to strengthen a problematic leadership model and augment rather than reduce current incompetence rates.

Interestingly, toxic cultures can be regarded as the product of psychopathic leaders, because leaders tend to create cultures in their own image. In that sense, psychopathy is self-perpetuating.

Both male leaders with higher EQs and most women leaders display a more transformational leadership style. With this style, the leader focuses on changing followers’ attitudes and beliefs and engaging them on a deep emotional level rather than telling them what to do—think Michelle Obama or Oprah Winfrey.

Even if the essence of leadership talent is universal, the context a leader is in will shape how they behave, ought to behave, and are evaluated. As a consequence, some leaders may be popular in some cultures but not in others (think Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chávez), and many high-performing managers may struggle when they are moved from one culture to another, for example, from Germany to Indonesia or from a nongovernmental organization to a fintech startup.

Standing out, a desirable goal for both employees and leaders, is generally a disadvantage for group activity. As we would expect, people aspire to leadership more often in individualistic cultures, because leadership in itself is regarded as a way of standing out from the crowd. Conversely, collectivistic cultures focus on team rather than individual accomplishments and have stronger preferences for leaders who are low-key and humble. Leaders in individualistic cultures will be given more leeway to make single-handed decisions and have procedural power, while collectivistic cultures will relish consensual and democratic decision making.