Leadership and hubris. (2016)

“Zaleznik’s warning (about hubris) resonated in my mind as I learned about James Comey, the head of the FBI, and his October 28 letter to Congress…”

Bert A. Spector, Associate Professor, Northeastern University.
Fifteeneightyfour, cambridgeblog.org, 5 Nov 2016.

“…Harvard psychologist Abraham Zaleznik argues that leaders “develop fresh approaches to long-standing problems and open issues for new options.” In their disinclination to be constrained by the status quo, they are generators of “relative disorder.”

“While mostly admiring leaders, Zaleznik offered a note of caution. They possess “hot personalities” and act on strong emotions often involving love and hate. They may work in an organization but do not really belong to that organization. Rather, they often place their own sense of right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, above those around them. It is hubris – a self-important sense of pride – that separates them from the pack. Or so they believe.

“Zaleznik’s warning resonated in my mind as I learned about James Comey, the head of the FBI, and his October 28 letter to Congress…

“…Leaders can be, and often are, people who put themselves above and beyond their organizations. They can justify actions that lead to ‘disorder’ by calling on their own, presumably ‘superior’ moral compass.”

Read Spector’s article here: Leadership and hubris.

Read Zaleznik’s article here: Managers and leaders: are they different?