“Paranoia, the destroyer.” — Ray Davies, The Kinks
A few months ago, I received a long, detailed email from a CEO candidate applying to one of our client’s portfolio companies. He had just completed our online assessment, but couldn’t find our privacy policy — and that triggered a deep concern. He feared his information might be misused. A bit of online research revealed something telling: he had no digital footprint. No LinkedIn. No X. No Instagram. No Facebook. Nothing.
Before interviews, I intentionally avoid looking at results to minimize unconscious bias. But we never made it that far. He withdrew from the process.
His psychometric scores later revealed two things: a 99th percentile score for attributing failure to others and an 85th percentile score for cynicism. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill cautious executive. It suggested a paranoid leader.
The Origins of Paranoia in Leadership
Most paranoid leaders aren’t born that way — they’re shaped. In many cases, there’s an early-life betrayal or trauma. Abuse, abandonment, bullying — whatever the cause, the result is the same: a profound mistrust of others and a hyperawareness of potential harm.
To be clear, this isn’t clinical paranoia or schizophrenia, like the hallucinations experienced by mathematician John Nash (A Beautiful Mind). It’s something subtler, yet often equally disruptive. It’s a personality pattern, one that distorts reality and causes the leader to interpret the world, especially the workplace, as a dangerous place.
Paranoid but Promoted: Why They Rise
It might surprise you that paranoid leaders often climb high in organizations. Why? Because the same qualities that make them exhausting to work with, hypervigilance and grit, can also make them incredibly valuable.
- Hypervigilance helps them detect threats others miss. Unlike overly optimistic leaders, they’re rarely blindsided.
- Grit, forged in adversity, enables them to push through obstacles others avoid. Many grew up believing that perseverance is the only path to safety.
- And, as Andy Grove wrote in Only the Paranoid Survive, they listen to the Cassandras, those who foresee risk, even if they lack the power to prevent it.
Sanjan’s Story: From Star to Saboteur
We met Sanjan as a mid-level manager with a reputation for precision. He came from a difficult childhood and earned his reputation through resilience. In his first 360 assessment, colleagues described him as meticulous and laser-focused: “nothing gets past him.” His hypervigilance was seen as conscientiousness. It helped him rise.
But five years later, something had changed.
A new 360 was triggered by concerns that he had become toxic. His HR partner described him as “paranoid and delusional.” The same behaviors once praised were now disrupting teams, eroding trust, and alienating his peers.
What Went Wrong?
Sanjan had been promoted to a level where he no longer had full visibility. As a line manager, he was close to the action. As a senior leader, he had to rely on others for information, and that lack of direct access spiked his paranoia.
Sanjan began doubting everyone: peers, direct reports, and even his coach. He micromanaged, made accusatory remarks, and started seeing sabotage where there was none. In one meeting, he passionately implored his team for “clear, accurate, and comprehensive information.” What he was really doing was begging them to stop persecuting him — a persecution he had imagined.
Why Incomplete Information Triggers Paranoia
We all fill in blanks when information is missing — like seeing a triangle in the Kanizsa illusion when there isn’t one. The difference is how we fill it in.
- Optimists default to benign assumptions.
- Paranoid leaders imagine the worst.
This tendency has three layers:
- Cognitive bias: they interpret ambiguity as confirmation of their fears.
- Loss of control: gaps in information feel like threats.
- Emotional escalation: fear turns to distrust, then defensiveness.
Eventually, this leads to a vicious cycle:
- They reject feedback, assuming it’s agenda-driven.
- They micromanage, demanding control.
- They strike preemptively — minor reprimands become full-blown sabotage.
Ironically, these behaviors turn neutral coworkers into adversaries. The paranoid leader’s imagined fears become real social consequences. They create the very dynamics they feared.
Sanjan’s Spiral
Sanjan’s coaching didn’t go well. He believed the coach was conspiring against him. He questioned her credentials, demanded proof of her client history, and accused her of paranoia when she declined to provide references.
He also began interpreting cultural feedback as personal slights. During a multirater assessment, he accused even us, his former advocates, of sabotage. He went from a rising star to an isolated figure inside his own narrative.
The Role of Ego in Paranoia
Paranoid leaders often overestimate their centrality to others. Stanford’s Roderick Kramer puts it this way: “People begin to read their personal story into a situation.”
Sanjan believed he had been intentionally excluded from a key project due to collusion. In reality, his name simply didn’t come up. His belief in his indispensability distorted his perception of routine organizational decisions.
The Turning Point
Eventually, coaching was paused. Sanjan’s original coach lacked the psychological training to break through his defenses. But something unexpected happened: his new girlfriend issued an ultimatum: seek therapy or lose her.
He found a new psychologist. After a few months, he shared a song with me that his therapist had played: “Do You Realize??” by The Flaming Lips. The line that hit him:
“Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?”
The message landed: he wasn’t the center of the universe. And just maybe, his interpretations were flawed.
What Changed
Once Sanjay accepted that his inner narratives might be wrong, reality testing became possible. He began to ask: “What else could be true?”
The change was dramatic. His demeanor softened. His relationships improved. His boss took notice. He was eventually promoted into a strategy role, one where his hypervigilance became an asset, not a liability.
At the time of this writing, he’s engaged. The wedding date is yet to be announced,but his story shows that with insight and humility, even deep-seated paranoia can transform.
Final Thoughts
Paranoid leaders aren’t permanently broken. If their circumstances cause paranoia, circumstances and reason can minimize its impact without losing their grit and vigilance. It is a lifelong process and when left unchecked, their distorted egos and fear-driven behavior return to unravel teams, trust, and careers.
Is it important to identify paranoia in the hiring process? Struggling with managing a paranoid leader? Need to work through your own paranoid tendencies? Reach out, we have solutions.