Hubris Forum, in association with Surrey Business School

Organised by Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith and Dr Graham Robinson

5 December 2018, 13:30 – 16:30 GMT

66 MS 03, Surrey Business School, Rik Medlik Building, Stag Hill, Guildford. GU2 7XH

The event is free, but registration is required.

The worlds of business and politics are plagued currently by an epidemic of hubris. Look no further than recent events in Donald Trump’s Presidency or the leadership of Tesla, Carillion and a host of other organizations that have been infected by hubris. Its damaging effects are pervasive and persistent; ten years on from the financial crisis we’re all still counting the cost of hubristic leadership at Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland to name but two. And nobody wants to be next.

Hubris is a potentially lethal cocktail of over-confidence, over-ambition, arrogance and pride. It’s a malaise of powerful and successful leaders, fuelled by prior success and media praise, which feeds off the collusion and conformance of followers. When it’s allied to contempt for the advice and criticism of others it can cause leaders in all walks of life to recklessly over-reach themselves and inflict damage—both financial and reputational—on themselves, their organizations and its employees.

The Hubris Forum will bring together leaders and managers from a wide variety of organizations with business school researchers in order to understand the causes and consequences of hubristic leadership and work out what we can do to prevent it taking hold and causing harm.

By attending the Hubris Forum you’ll have the opportunity to find out more about the latest research into hubris, have your say on what you think should be done, and network with colleagues who are interested in understanding and fixing the causes and consequences of hubris.

The Hubris Forum will be facilitated by Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith and Dr Graham Robinson from Surrey Business School’s ‘Hubris Project’.