Hubris in leadership can destroy your team. Here’s how to avoid it.
“I Alone Can Fix It”
One of the most dangerous leaders I ever worked for believed he alone could fix the financial problems of our organisation by withholding the information and details we all needed to do our jobs.
He was juggling pots of money and line items trying to make something add up that simply couldn’t be done.
He needed our input, and he needed our action, in order to rebalance the work and outlays to solve the problem. Instead he hid this from us, making it impossible to contribute to any solutions.
He didn’t recognise our value, and worse, he didn’t recognise his own limitations.
This created calamity and disaster for the company, and in turn, for all of us who worked there.
This was one of my first and hardest lessons that I took with me when I became a leader and manager myself. It is one that I consider most important.
Never try and fix anything alone.
We have only to look at the words of a current infamous world leader, a strong and stable genius, who in 2016 notoriously said in a campaign stump speech,
“I Alone Can Fix It”
This leader was referring to all of his country’s problems, restoring law and order, improving the economy, and building a wall.
Three years on we don’t have evidence that he alone could fix those problems. In fact, we have evidence to the contrary.
Alienating one’s allies and teammates often means that not much gets done, and in the process, performance and outcomes deteriorate.
Sometimes whole businesses (or even countries) can fail.
Politics aside, we can see this on just about any scale in any kind of business.
Whether you are part of a team of 2 or 200, or indeed a whole government, working together to solve both big and small problems, or simply to make things better for everyone, makes good business sense.
If you’re the leader, it’s particularly important to understand what underlies your belief that you alone can, or maybe even should, fix it, so you don’t fall into this trap and make grave mistakes.
Often as leaders we can get a bit lost in the weeds. We get overwhelmed by decisions and problems and we keep our head down, focused on fighting the next fire and feeling sure if we just try harder we can fix it ourselves. Besides, our teams are busy with their own work, right?
And often our motivations are sound- we want to protect our teams from the bad information and stress that comes with some of our company’s toughest problems.
Sometimes we just need a reminder to stop, lift our heads, and look at the big picture. When we do this we are more likely to find solutions, but more importantly, we can see how pulling the team together to solve some of the more complex issues is in fact more efficient and effective.
These sorts of “I alone can fix it” moments are blips in the road, a common mistake that leaders make when we forget to stop and look up.
Less common and by far more dangerous is a leader afflicted with hubris. If you have ever worked for a hubristic leader, you will know the sorts of amplification of problems that this characteristic brings.
This is a much bigger problem than mere misguided pomposity or being lost in the weeds.
But what is hubris? In essence, hubris is excessive pride or overconfidence. It can be difficult sometimes to see what the big danger of hubris can be- after all, isn’t pride and confidence in one’s work healthy? And doesn’t this positivity attract people, customers, business, to you?
Hubris means that you have taken that confidence to a dangerous level. You begin to overlook the small signs of slipping performance, or fail to see that all that juggling you are doing is not going to fill the budget black hole.
“Hubris is potent and perilous.”- Prof Eugene Sadler-Smith
You forget to look up and recognise the value and necessity of keeping your team involved in the ongoing effort for better performance and better business. You truly believe that you alone can fix it.
Hubris can also cause you to overlook the small things that, particularly over time, can have a big impact on performance and success. Hubrists often think that these details are beneath them, and therefore are inconsequential. Of course they are not, and ignoring these can also lead to a company’s downfall just like those big, complex problems can.
Hubris is the weakest link in any organization. -Gerard McClean
There are whole movements of academics devoted to highlighting, understanding, and combating hubris in leadership- its effects can be that destructive.
Here are a few key elements of leading that I believe are essential for ensuring you don’t fall into the hubris trap:
Commit to using a simple model for continuous improvement: This helps you see problems early, and keep communication with your team open so that you are all working together to keep those problems from becoming bigger.
Show humility in leadership: This means you get comfortable saying “I don’t know” or “I need help”. You ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening. You stretch your team and invest in their development.
Use critical thinking and discernment: This is the classic head and heart, or head and gut check-in that helps you more accurately gauge circumstances and therefore find solutions. Hubris clouds this ability more than almost anything else. Stay tuned in, and avoid the pitfall of thinking you alone know it all.
Build a strong and united team: The idea of the “united front” is one of the most powerful tools a team can have in their business strategy. A united front is created through loyalty, integrity, and honesty. It will not only make you a more effective and successful team, but it can help you weather big challenges you may face.
…hubrists arrive at false ideas about their capabilities. They become deluded by inflated self-evaluation, over-estimate what can go right, under-estimate what can go wrong, and are arrogant and contemptuous towards the advice and criticism of others. Hubristic leadership is fuelled by prior successes and praise,…it […] can cause strengths to morph into weaknesses and bring out unintended negative consequences.
From Hubristic Leadership, Eugene Sadler-Smith
Hubris in leadership endangers your business. It alienates your team. It can quickly turn small problems into large, destructive ones.
Commit to your team, listen to your gut, practice some humility, and build a strong and effective leadership for a successful business.
My first book, Becoming a Fearless Leader: A simple guide to taking control and building happy, productive, highly-performing teams is out now. You can find access to a free pdf workbook that accompanies it on my website. If you do read my book, I would love to hear your comments.
I write about how I became the founder of a tech startup as a non-techie, over-40 female with no entrepreneurial experience, and all I am learning along the way. You can see more here. If you think this might be helpful for others on their entrepreneurial journey, please recommend and share.
