September 13, 2010
Hubris—that false sense of superiority—is a funny thing. It can afflict even highly intelligent leaders who never know they have it because they are afflicted. But there’s hope. If you attune yourself to hear warnings from below—that is, if you adopt a degree of humility, the opposite of hubris—you may absorb enough warnings to avert disaster.
April 12, 2010
When actor Ed Asner was swept into office as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on the promise of helping merge with two sister unions, he made a rookie leader’s mistake that opponents of the merger used to scuttle the alliance. He failed to realize that when he spoke in public, he was presumed to be speaking as president of the guild, not for himself.