Because leaders lead (or should be leading) change they will be consulted a lot. Leaders, by virtue of their position will get attention. You cannot lead effectively if you cannot capture attention of your organization.
People are inherently narcissistic and in one way or another, and varying degrees seek attention. This is not bad or good. What determines the good or bad is how each person, and particularly leaders manage this.
Leaders can easily fall into the trap of switching to a celebrity and not the leader they should be because of all the attention. When unrest prevails in the processes of change leaders are consulted all the more.
When this happens every leader must guard against them being the center of attention. The celebrity complex is when the leader thinks he is and or should be the center of everything. The leader is, in a sense at the center of activity but not the reason or object of it.
The celebrity complex is when leaders think that everything their team does it to serve them. Not so. Leader, in essence, the people in your organization do not serve you, they serve the vision of the organization.
When you are, in one way or another, served as the leader, you are being served to serve and or enable the purposes of the enterprise. Not yourself. The leader being served is a means not the end.
When leaders are seized and succumb to the celebrity complex, they feel insecure when attention is not on them. They, consciously or otherwise, go out of their way to be noticed. To draw attention to themselves.
They coerce the admiration of those they lead. They force loyalty to themselves, as leaders, at the expense of the enterprise. They divert resources that should be serving vision to serve themselves.
In leading change, leaders will get a fair amount of attention, especially in times of turmoil. They must never mistake this attention to themselves, but see it as enabling achieving vision.
Don’t just lead. Lead well. Be bold. Be /ˈherətik/.