leaders are selfish 1

In the human society, sometimes there is no assigned leader in a unit, such as a leaderless team. When there is a leader, the person usually occupies the higher position in the hierarchy and possesses more resources (both tangible and intangible), including but not limited to, a safer habitat, admirations of followers, psychological leverage to act on their own will and a sense of entitlement. As the rank of hierarchy grants leader lopsided influence over resources, the drive for monopolistic control induces selfish decisions, just like Lord Acton’s famous saying, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

However, leaders are not always selfish. How a powerful person exercises the benefits his or her position depends on the interplay between one’s psychological traits and the situation. An experimental design study[2] found that, although most leaders facilitate achieving group goals, when a leader’s position is not secure and he or she has a strong motive to show dominance (which reflects an approach in which individuals value orders, attain and use power via force, and selfishly manipulate group resources), the leader prioritizes his or her own desires over group success.