Is there someone you work with who lives in their own world, a fantasist who inhabits a parallel universe ? Their stories may be harmless, their behaviour pathetic but their ability to ignore reality is more that just an irritation if they ever get in a position of power.
A fantasist is much more than a liar. We all lie sometimes, to protect ourselves, or gain some advantage, or to spare someone’s feelings. Liars lie for a purpose but fantasists just make things up. True, the fiction is usually to make them sound more important and their life more interesting but they tend not to plan the lie beforehand. It leaps out of their brain, on the spur of the momentum. Like the colleague who invented exotic holidays and the follows it up with photos of the places they had visited and the friendly locals they met.
The liar knows they are lying whereas for the fantasist once the lie leaves their lips it becomes the indisputable truth. Fantasists can never be wrong. When their fragile story is challenged they have a tendency to turn nasty.
Harmless or pathetic when inventing a more exciting life for themselves outside of work but problematic even dangerous when applied to the work place. At work the fantasist is likely to be lazy, miss deadlines and generally fail to deliver trusting instead in their ability to bluff their way out of trouble. Despite issues of competence and attitude they keep applying for posts they are neither qualified for or capable of doing. However having no qualms about claiming the work of others and inventing a plausible back story they get interviews. To the surprise of those who have worked with them they do get appointed due in a large part to an interview process that mistakes confidence for ability and charm for substance. It also helps that interviews panels don’t provide the time for in-depth questioning and as such they are ideally suited to the talented bluffer. This is how you end up with someone completely out of their depth in a senior post.
Such an individual has no insight into their own behaviour. They hold no particular values or beliefs, even their opinions are not clearly expressed making it easier to claim that events have proved them correct. Events and outcomes which in any case will be interpreted to support their view of the world irrespective of what the finance section, operational managers, ,”experts” or the performance figure say.
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