Psychological Affect of Being a Board Member

I don't remember what was said in the last thread on this subject, but the truth is, the answer varies from person to person. Some people can take on a leadership position (whether it's a HOA board member, bank president or even student council body president) and be just fine, while others change for the worst. I don't think it's so much about the power (actual or preceived) that the position brings, it's really about that person's make up before he or she assumes that position of power.

Maya Angelou has said when someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them. You have to look at people and watch how they handle the little things - if they're nitpicky and seem to demand their way all the time on the small stuff and no one puts them in check early (and sometimes often), they can become difficult to handle when given even larger amounts of power.

Then we have the people who have magnetic personalities - the ones that can talk anyone into doing damn near anything. Sometimes other folks find these personalities hard to resist and go along with them, no matter how ridiculous the idea really is. Before you know it, the organization is in an uproar and by the time people shake themselves out of their stupor, it takes a long time to clean up the mess.

People have to be willing to speak truth to power and a LOT of us have trouble with that, especially when we are the only ones who are willing to stand up and question what's going on, rather than accept the BS most people throw our way. Some people are too afraid to say anything, while the others back off after Ms or Mr. Magnetic twist things around to make it sound like the one asking the question is the one with a screw loose. And some can do it in such a way that the person posing the question soon believes them.

Yes, power can corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is why people have to pay attention to who they're electing to the Board, Congress or anything else. They really do have the power and have to be willing to exercise it and demand answers. But of course, that's too much for some people and so they sit and watch while the maniacs slowly take over.

Seems you didn't know these people as well as you thought you did. They were always stupid........ they just lacked any power to do financial damage. Now they have it.

It still DOES not give a psycho-analytical answer to the question...maybe there is none

I may be wrong, Alex, but I understand a psychological approach as dealing with the lone unique individual and the effects of his/her personal biography/history on her/him. The effects of his upbringing in his immediate family, for example. It seems to me that psychology tries to answer the question of motivation. WHY does she abuse alcohol? WHY did he leave his wife? WHY is she a bully? WHY is he so shy?

On boards, though, we're talking about a small group of people and there's social interaction among several unique personal biographies with the relationships that emerge from the group context. For better or for worse, what emerges from this interaction is going to be a different animal than any individual biography. We cannot predict in advance what the outcome, which always is in flux, will be. I believe that this is called social psychology. or small group analysis.

So to look toward psychology for answers might be off target.