Sublime

I’ve watched too many leaders shield themselves from task conflict. As they gain power, they tune out boat-rockers and listen to bootlickers. They become politicians, surrounding themselves with agreeable yesmen and becoming more susceptible to seduction by sycophants. Research reveals that when their firms perform poorly, CEOs who indulge flattery

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to

As it happens, you find that effective leaders put their egos in the service of others, not themselves,

I learned early on to respect that taking up a role that represents change and loss to some people can be costly. Sometimes the assassination is physical—but usually people go after your character, your competence, or your family, and you can be scapegoated, marginalized, seduced, or otherwise neutralized.

The lesson is clear: you should always watch your back, but be particularly wary and sensitive to what is occurring during times of economic stress. That is when political turmoil and the use of power are likely to be at their peak.

Overconfidence and insensitivity lead to losing power, as people become so full of themselves that they fail to attend to the needs of those whose enmity can cause them problems.

In many organizations, dissenters get marginalized, silenced, or even fired, which deprives the organization of their valuable, if unpopular, service.

So don’t automatically buy into advice from leaders. It could be accurate, but more likely it is just self-serving. People distort reality.