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This study seeks to answer questions that have been raised regarding the precise nature of the relationship between narcissism and charismatic leadership. Specifically, we test a model that portrays the roles of socialized vision and visionary boldness as mediators in the relationship between narcissism and attributions of leader charisma. Our findings suggest that narcissism is positively related to vision boldness but negatively related to socialized vision. In turn, both aspects of vision are positively associated with attributions of leader charisma. These results add clarity to the literature regarding the personal basis of charismatic leadership by providing insight into how aspects of visionary communication may mediate the indirect relationship between narcissism and attributions of charismatic leadership.

Complex contexts and environments require leaders to be highly adaptive and to adjust their behavioral responses to meet diverse role demands. Such adaptability may be contingent upon leaders having requisite complexity to facilitate effectiveness across a range of roles. However, there exists little empirical understanding of the etiology or basis of leader complexity. To this end, we conceptualized a model of leader self-complexity that is inclusive of both the mind (the complexity of leaders' self-concepts) and the brain (the neuroscientific basis for complex leadership). We derived psychometric and neurologically based measures, the latter based on quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) profiles of leader self-complexity, and tested their separate effects on the adaptive decision-making of 103 military leaders. Results demonstrated that both measures accounted for unique variance in external ratings of adaptive decision-making. We discuss how these findings provide a deeper understanding of the latent and dynamic mechanisms that underpin leaders' self-complexity and their adaptability.

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