Egoist with help. Narcissistic disorder is a great way to ruin your career and marriage. And that's when you'll get your

It's no secret that there are stars in the world who earn their fame with scandals: the same Kim Kardashian attracted millions of subscribers with candid photos and videos, and her husband Kanye West is unlikely to be able to live a month without a provocative post on Twitter. But for many other celebrities (and just public figures), any sloppy statement can cost their careers. American stars under special public scrutiny: after the scandal with Weinstein, the old sins of celebrities began to actively emerge. Only for some it is violence and harassment, and for others it is an unsuccessful Twitter joke from a decade ago, but public opinion punishes everyone equally. Let's see how people treated the controversial posts of media personalities 7 years ago and what they are being judged for now.

Disaster jokes

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried has always loved cynical jokes, and for the time being, he was forgiven for this. He was the one who delivered the first one about the September 11 tragedy: “I wanted to buy a ticket for that plane, but there were no direct flights. I was told the first stop was the Empire State Building." Only three weeks have passed since the attack, but, oddly enough, the indignant Americans did not throw the presumptuous comedian off the stage, but simply booed him with the words: “Too early.” That day, Gottfried was able to continue the show.

But in 2011, employers denied the comedian a second chance. Gottfried was known not only as a professional joker, but also as an actor voicing cartoon characters (it is his voice that the parrot Iago from Aladdin speaks). In 2011, Gottfried did not have the same star roles: he voiced the character of the Aflac insurance company, which was actively working in Japan. And then a “brilliant” thought came to his mind: why not joke on Twitter about the Japanese tsunami? It all started with a post: “The Japanese are so cool that they don’t go to the beach, but the beach goes to them.” But Gottfried did not stop there: he wrote 11 more tweets, one worse than the other. Aflac did not appreciate this approach to its clients and immediately fired the comedian. Yes, and since then he has not been called to television once again, but before this incident, Gottfried often appeared on famous evening shows.

Justification of the criminal

The person who first collected a million subscribers there was also burned on Twitter. In 2011, actor Ashton Kutcher was going through hard times. His wife Demi Moore threatened to divorce, and users of his favorite social network brought down a flurry of criticism on the actor. The fact is that Ashton in his microblog stood up for the coach of the football team of the University of Pennsylvania Joe Paterno, who was fired after 46 years of successful work with students. It would seem that what's wrong with Kutcher's words? But the actor did not know that Paterno was harboring a pedophile at work: his assistant had been raping the guys from the national team for many years, and the coach who knew everything did not even think about stopping the series of crimes. Ashton Kutcher quickly apologized for getting into the business without preparation, and decided to leave Twitter. So he could not only save his reputation, but also return his wife: Demi often complained that Ashton spends much more time on Twitter than with her. But Kutcher's strong-willed decision did not save the family (and the reputation still remained tarnished).

Messed up accounts

fake news

But the PR director of Leroy Merlin, Galina Panina, did not confuse the page: she wrote a post on her own Facebook that so outraged the public that the company had to fire the unrestrained director. Panina shared with her friends and subscribers a story about how football fans, celebrating the victory of their team in one of the matches of the Moscow World Cup, burned a girl. Commentators quickly realized that the story was completely fake: in Novoperedelkino, a girl really burned down that night, but the fans had nothing to do with it - she didn’t want to live for a long time and set herself on fire. In addition, the girl worked at Leroy Merlin and could well have known Panina, so the author of the post was suspected not just of disseminating unverified information, but of deliberate stuffing.

At this stage, the conflict could still be hushed up, but in the next post, the director said that she “opens the fleece”, that is, removes people who offend her. And the subscribers themselves were already offended: the story (with the obligatory quote about “fleece”) immediately spread through the media and social networks, users suggested boycotting Leroy Merlin. The company had no choice but to fire the troubled employee.

Cynical jokes from a decade ago

It's unlikely that James Gunn, the director of the successful Guardians of the Galaxy comic book, could have imagined that in 2018 his career would be destroyed by tweets from a decade ago. Even less did he expect the tweets to be exposed to the public by Mike Chernovich, an outspoken American nationalist, Trump supporter and notorious fake news and conspiracy theorist. It was he who came up with the so-called "pizzagate" - the theory according to which the Clinton family and other high-ranking Democrats took children to the basement of a pizzeria and staged orgies there. Oddly enough, this frankly slanderous story found its listeners, one of whom even broke into the indicated pizzeria and opened fire on it. As a result of the intrigues of the conservatives, Clinton lost the election, and James Gunn lost his seat. And only Mike Chernovich, who openly opposes any manifestations of tolerance, won.

It must be admitted that the jokes on James Gunn's Twitter were really dirty and frankly provocative: in them, the director ironically justified pedophilia and sexual violence, and also spoke very rudely to people of other nationalities and sexual orientations. In his defense, Gann frankly admitted that he started his career as a provocateur - he tried to attract the attention of the public with taboo statements (in the end he succeeded). Over the past 10 years, he has grown as a person and realized that themes of love and interaction evoke a much greater response in the hearts of people and in his own soul. He began to openly support all minorities and tried to give joy to every person on Earth with his works. Gann emphasized that his Twitter of the 2009-2011 sample. should not be seen as an absolute evil. It contains a lot of bad, absolutely not funny and unacceptable jokes from a person to whom all these topics were alien. He has long since apologized for every anti-social tweet, and now, many years later, he is doing it again.

The message turned out to be quite touching, but it did not penetrate the harsh American public. Gunn's supporters primarily point to his talent as a director, as well as the reputation of those who made accusations against the director, but so far, James Gunn remains unemployed.

Ridiculous post about the opponents of the existing regime

The young "Miss Turkey - 2017" Ytyr Esen also got caught in the old posts. In June, three months before the main victory in her life, the girl published a very strange message. She wrote that now, during her period, she "bleeds in honor of the martyrs who bled a year ago." On that day, Turkey celebrated the anniversary of the suppression of the military coup. The girl not only allowed herself an inappropriate comparison, but also mentioned the participants in the coup in a positive way.

In September, Ytyr was officially recognized as the most beautiful young Turkish woman. And, while the girl was preparing to sign contract after contract, the organizers of the competition checked her page. It was then that a strange entry was found. The crown was taken away from Ytyr, referring to the fact that Turkey cannot present to the whole world a person who is so incorrect in his remarks.

Use of forbidden words

The creator of several fashion projects Miroslava Duma and her friend, designer Ulyana Sergeenko, like millions of other people around the world, were very fond of the work of Kanye West and Jay-Z. But they did not know that not everyone and not always can quote rappers.

In January 2018, Ulyana Sergeenko invited her friend to her fashion show. She signed the invitation with a quote from West and Jay-Z's favorite song: To my niggas in Paris. Girls sometimes called each other a forbidden word, as if classifying themselves among those cool guys about whom their favorite musicians sing. But the cool guys themselves did not appreciate the innocent fun of the girls: when they saw the ill-fated invitation on Miroslava's Instagram, they raised an international scandal: white people cannot use n-words in any form. They can't call each other that, they can't quote black musicians, they can't allow themselves any comments. Not far-fetched insults and even calls for reprisal rained down on the girls. Western stars were urged to boycott Ulyana Sergeenko, Miroslava Duma lost her place in her own company. But one of the accusers of the Russians - the model of Afro-Jamaican origin Naomi Campbell - public opinion forgives intentional insults and even fights. This is not for you to write on Twitter.

Quoting the same song almost ended in scandal for the Oscar-winning Gwyneth Paltrow. She tweeted a picture from Jay-Z's Paris show with the caption, "That's right, niggas in Paris!" Gwyneth later explained that it was not an insult, but the title of a song, and everyone calmed down. Surprisingly, the same explanations in the mouths of Russian women seemed unconvincing to the American public. But now, six months after the scandal, the girls are already getting better: Ulyana Sergeenko recently returned from Paris Fashion Week, and Miroslava Duma launched a new ambitious project.

Despite the economic downturn, the IT industry is doing relatively well and there are good career opportunities in many of its areas. This doesn't mean that IT professionals don't need to work hard to achieve a career that will allow them to keep their jobs and continue their professional growth. Here are ten of the most common mistakes IT professionals make that can jeopardize their careers.

1. Not improving their technical skills. This is the biggest IT professional mistake. Naturally, no one wants to return home after a hard day's work and continue to think about work, read technical literature and practice their skills. New technologies develop very quickly, and if you do not practice, your professional level will decrease. The fact that yesterday you were in demand on the labor market does not mean at all that your resume will be of interest to someone today. For a successful and long-term career, an IT professional must keep their technical skills up to date.

2. Do not develop communication skills. Technical skills are the main component of an IT career, but not the only one. A successful career (and not just as an IT professional) also requires interpersonal skills. Due to the nature of the job of an IT professional - as a rule, no one sees him until something happens - it is especially important to develop effective communication skills, both verbal and written.

3. Don't think about the future. Many IT professionals mistakenly believe that today's job market will continue into the future. Alas, what you do today, tomorrow may be no longer needed by anyone. Read online publications, communicate with colleagues. You need to keep your finger on the pulse to be aware of new trends and changes in the IT field. In addition, this information will help you choose a company whose financial stability will provide you with a long-term career.

4. Refuse offers within the company. You did a good job at your job, you were noticed and offered to go for a promotion in another department, so why not accept? Companies prefer competent and talented employees who are already part of them, rather than someone from the outside, even with a great resume. If the management of the company sees you as a promising employee, you will surely cope with the new job, even if you have not done it before. Among other things, the fact of promotion will perfectly decorate your resume. For the employer, such a specialist is more attractive than a person who has sat in one place, regardless of the reasons.

5. Use the wrong programming technologies. There are many programming languages ​​you can dedicate your life to, but unfortunately not all of them can lead to a viable career. Perhaps from the point of view of the work itself, languages ​​\u200b\u200blike Python or Ruby are more convenient and productive, but from the point of view of building a career as an IT specialist, they are inferior to .NET technologies.

6. Do not specialize in anything (are not generalists). If you want to make good money in the IT field, you have two options: you can choose one in-demand specialization or become a generalist who can lead any project and learn as you work. Unfortunately, many IT professionals do not have a sufficient level of skills in both the narrow and broad sense. You can't call yourself a "Windows System Administrator" if you don't understand how the entire Microsoft software stack works. Also, you won't make much progress if you only know C# or Java for web programming. Of course, you will not be left without a job, but you can forget about high salaries and career opportunities. A career can be made only by having deep knowledge in a certain area or by being a specialist with a fairly broad profile.

7. Don't want to be leaders. The only way to get a decent salary is to move to a management position (not counting external consultants and developers who specialize in rather complex areas). And it doesn't matter if you like it or not. Even if you see yourself as a consultant or freelancer in the future, working as a manager will give you an idea of ​​what you will have to face sooner or later. For example, you may find that working with documents and constantly communicating with people is not to your liking. It is better to find out by working for a company than by starting your own business.

8. They only work for money. Many go into the IT field only because of relatively high salaries with a sufficient number of vacancies, and not out of love for this work. There is nothing wrong with the fact that, wanting to improve your financial situation, you move from one job to another. But in order to build a truly successful career, you must first of all care about the job itself, and not about how it affects the state of your bank account. You must show your best. People who came into the IT field just for the sake of money immediately catch the eye. They rarely get promoted, don't get a raise, and have uninteresting resumes.

9. Distance themselves from the rest of the company. You can go headlong into work and not notice anything that is happening around. Even if it suits you, it does not contribute to career growth. For a successful career, it is very important to interact with other employees of the company. First, you make the right contacts. It is quite possible that the marketing manager will soon need someone from the IT department to launch an important web project, and your acquaintance will play into your hands. Second, you share your ideas with other people. By communicating with them, you can learn where new technologies work well and where not so much and what needs to be done to improve the technical service in the company.

10. They do not know the labor market. The labor market for IT professionals is quite volatile. As technology changes, so does the demand for different skills. Their demand is influenced by many factors. For example, VB6 and COBOL have been in demand for much longer than expected due to the massive use of this code that needs to be maintained. The same goes for Java. Even if new code replaces it tomorrow, people will need support for Java applications for decades to come. However, maintenance work is usually uninteresting and does not pay very well. At the same time, the emergence of new technologies is not always accompanied by the emergence of a large number of new vacancies. It is important to monitor the state of the labor market, even if you are not looking for a job. Keep in touch with HR managers and other IT professionals to get an idea of ​​what jobs are in demand, who is applying for them with what skills, and how much they are willing to pay.

Based on materials

Before I mustered up the courage to go from a miserable corporate vice president to a coach, writer, and success speaker, I didn't know how to get out of a career in marketing that didn't work for me for a variety of reasons. Despite the fact that outwardly she was “successful” (that is, I made good money, bore great responsibility, received many bonuses, managed large projects, etc.), emotionally it was a disaster.

When I look back on these 18 years of corporate life, I realize that my true talents and abilities - the ones that make me feel alive and needed by others - were completely underused. Therefore, I often felt that the success I achieved did not bring the desired satisfaction. The work and results that I focused on in my corporate positions rarely matched the real me or matched my true values ​​and ideals.

Like 87% of employees around the world, I didn't feel connected to my job and didn't see the point or purpose of the career I worked so hard for.

Despite all the “smart” decisions I made in building my career, at 41, I found myself broken and lost.

Why was I in such pain and dissatisfaction with my career? The reason was a series of critical career decisions that I thought were smart and right, but ended up failing me. And the key mistake that I made over and over again was that I did not understand: what is given to us easier and most joyfully, for which we have natural abilities - we should rely on these talents in work instead of to focus on skills that cause us difficulty or demotivate us. Moreover, if the results we aim for in our work do not meet our core values, we will suffer.

I work with hundreds of professionals every year and see five career decisions that often backfire and lead to ruined careers and painful failures. More than 95% of professionals who come to my firm for career assistance make at least one of these mistakes, and on average they make three of them at the same time. These mistakes in making decisions about our careers deprive them of great opportunities, enjoyment of their work, and true success.

Here are the five key decisions that let us down:

Choose only "safe" options

It is understandable that professionals want something safe and secure for their career and profession. The problem is that nothing is "safe and secure" today except your abilities and your willingness to develop and use them. Entire industries and spheres disappear or take on a new look. Many over 45 professionals I have worked with stop updating their knowledge and skills and find that companies are replacing them with young professionals who keep abreast of innovation and new trends in their field.

Middle-aged professionals sometimes admit that they simply can't keep up with the required pace, but they feel that it's too late to change anything. It is too risky, too incomprehensible, too scary to achieve significant change. And they are afraid of losing a lot of money. So they stay where they think is safe, only to find out later that it was the most unsafe decision they could have made.

Advice: stop worrying about security. The only safe thing you can do is grow yourself and use all your knowledge to help others grow. What is the scariest thing you would like to do? Think about what it would take to fulfill this terrible desire, or some version of it that would allow you to make good money and would be in line with what you know about yourself and who you want to be in the world.

Not making full use of your most valuable talents

What most corporate employees don't realize is that each of us has great innate talents and abilities that the world needs and organizations need to thrive. It is important to find your strengths (often they are not obvious precisely because certain tasks are so good for you) and learn how to apply them in a way that will contribute to the growth of organizations and people around you.

Advice: many people can't even answer the question "What are you good at?". If you can't answer it, then you won't be able to speak convincingly about your talents and you'll miss out on money, opportunities, and promotion. If this is your case, then it's time to identify your true natural talents that you have possessed since your youth. Consider how these talents have helped organizations, teams, and individuals grow and prosper. What results were you able to achieve and others could not, thanks to what you do and know. Then determine how you can best use those talents to shine in new roles that are interesting and meaningful.

Do not move into a new area that would allow you to match changes in the market

I am a big fan of the idea of ​​doing work that inspires you, because inspiration gives your work novelty and interest and pushes you to look for new directions for this flow of energy and striving for amazing results. Where inspiration fails people is that they think it's enough for success, but it's not. And they refuse to see that the world has changed and the old ways of being successful don't work. They need to switch. For example, I know many musicians, artists and creative people who can no longer earn as much as they need because the business model in the art world has changed. And yet they refuse to apply their creativity in a way that generates income.

The "switch" I'm talking about is a shift in a direction that taps into everything you've learned and learned, but allows you to channel your energy into where your skills are most needed. For example, after my corporate career, I became a family therapist. While I enjoyed every minute of the learning and preparation that goes into becoming a therapist, I didn't enjoy or grow in this professional role—with all the day-to-day tasks and demands of being a therapist. But my dissatisfaction with the profession of a therapist prompted me to switch to a new role - as a coach, writer and speaker on success.

This role allows me to use everything I have learned as a therapist and bring to bear my experiences as a leader, manager, and writer. And running my own business allows me to use my knowledge of marketing, research, management and product development. When the switch is properly planned, it allows you to play to your strengths without losing.

Advice: explore and "try on" five different directions that would allow you to use everything you know, but direct your forces in the direction that will give you everything you need and want.

Not to understand that you are not just a profession or position

I hear from hundreds of corporate employees who stay in the same job for many years that in their mind this is all they are. They are cut off from the outside world. They don't make new contacts or use LinkedIn to build their profile or community. They do not communicate with colleagues outside the company. They shrink, hide. They do not attend conferences or industry association meetings. They don't learn anything new. They believe they are their job. In short: they are familiar only with their limited role and function and do not go beyond this within the organization.

Advice: if you are reading this text, then you most likely want to radically change your career. Set aside time this week and this month to go beyond one role and employer. The world is big and beautiful and full of amazing people doing great things and sharing great ideas. Join this world.

Start connecting with former colleagues on LinkedIn and building your personal brand. Give references and testimonials, update your resume, connect with recruiters, meet ten new people a week, and build new relationships. Change the title of your LinkedIn page to not only talk about your current job, but everything you have been and are in your profession. Start talking about your plans and ask for help, even if your ideas of what you would like to do are not yet fully formed.

Don't try to keep growing

Finally, there is one career decision that will inevitably lead to failure - the decision not to grow and acquire new skills, because you think that you are good in your current place. Right now, I'm working with three new clients who did just that: they failed to make the effort to grow and acquire new skills or hone existing ones. They did not take advantage of the opportunity to reimburse the costs of training at the expense of the employer and take the necessary additional courses.

They knew that they did not correspond to the current positions and could not demonstrate high results, but they did not try to correct the situation. They chose to turn down an exciting new project in another department because they were afraid of failing or didn't think they needed to move in that direction. And they refused to look for a new job until they were forced to leave their current one.

Advice: it's simply impossible to achieve the success and influence you dream of if you don't grow. Getting out of your comfort zone is not just a pleasant experience. It is vital to success, happiness and growth. Identify today three ways to start growing and learning and go beyond your self-image today.

Translation by Natalia Balabantseva

Funny yellow emoticons unobtrusively conquered the whole world, replacing the usual words and breaking even into a closed and conservative business language. Meanwhile, psychologists are sure that there is nothing good in this, because emoji translate a business conversation into too informal communication, which does not always have a good effect on professional relationships. Your partners may doubt the seriousness of your company's intentions, seeing in the abuse of emoticons infantilism and familiarity.

To work a lot

It sounds extremely illogical and as an absolute contradiction to common sense, but it is true: working 24 hours a day, 7 or even 5 days a week is extremely unproductive. The fact is that being in constant fuss, you start working on the machine, which is why such useful skills as creativity, a fresh look and passion for work gradually begin to leave. In general, holidays, weekends and lunch breaks were invented for a reason - they do not allow your eyes to blur, and your head to get tired completely and irrevocably.

foul language

According to a survey by Career Builder, one of the largest job search sites in the US, 81% of employers consider obscene language to be a sign of unprofessionalism. On the other hand, the employees themselves tend to treat leaders who do not shy away from a strong word worse. In a word, when you really want to express everything that has accumulated in your soul, it is better to keep your mouth shut. And then suddenly the promotion is just around the corner, and your tongue is unclean ...

Write with sarcasm

Unfortunately, this is fraught with big problems and total misunderstanding. Jokes and sarcasm in letters are hard not only to understand, but simply to notice. Especially if you are not very familiar with the interlocutor. It is better to keep all the sharpness to personal communication and not create uncomfortable situations.

Consider yourself an unshakable authority

Have you seen the movie The Devil's Advocate? Remember what Al Pacino said there about vanity, selfishness, favorite sins ... That's it, you should not exalt yourself above everyone else, it does not end in anything good. Remember: there are always people who understand something better than you; learning from colleagues is normal and even right; Do not be afraid to ask questions and not know something. In short, you are not the ultimate truth and you can well afford to take off the crown and put away the scepter until better times (that is, until "never").

“Everything is poison, everything is medicine,” said Paracelsus. This book is about how exactly our brightest virtues turn into critical flaws. It is dedicated to destructors - the strengths of the leader, out of control. Each of these qualities is useful to some extent, and sometimes even necessary, in order to succeed. However, in stressful situations, they can uncontrollably gain strength, seriously undermining the effectiveness of the leader and sometimes leading to disastrous consequences. Examples of destructors are attention to detail that goes to perfectionism, or self-confidence that turns into overconfidence. The book details the eleven most common destructors, provides numerous real life examples, offers self-diagnostic tools, and many practical tips and tricks. At the same time, the book is by no means a "guide for self-accusation and self-flagellation" - on the contrary, it is imbued with optimism and the deepest respect for the uniqueness of each individual. She is a guide that will lead you to the light side of the force. The book was also published under the title The Dark Side of the Force. Leadership patterns that can cost careers and businesses.”

A series: ECOPSY Library

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by the LitRes company.

Introduction

Which of the following options best explains why leaders fail?

Ineffective response to a competitor's new technology, product, or service;

Failure to develop a clear vision or set the direction for the business;

Failure to implement a brilliant strategy;

Poor communication with the board of directors;

The loss of talented people and the inability to find a replacement for them.

Whichever of these options you choose, you are right - but only partially. Yes, senior executives, like other leaders, fail because they do something (or don't do something) that is very costly to their companies, damages their public reputation, undermines competitive advantage, or results in the loss of good employees. But if you take a closer look, these answers only point to the visible causes of failure, and not to the underlying reasons that force leaders to do all these wrong things.

CEOs and other top executives of companies are almost always bright, sensible business leaders with vast experience and an excellent track record. However, the average CEO tenure at the largest companies is shrinking more and more. Magazine covers are full of stories about fallen idols. In a very short time, senior leaders have gone from "people of the deepest admiration" to "people who do not deserve the slightest trust." Why do such obviously gifted leaders still make bad decisions, alienate key employees, miss opportunities, and overlook obvious trends and paths?

We have coached numerous CEOs and run leadership training programs for senior executives around the world, and we found this issue very troubling - especially in light of the increasing failure of senior management in recent years. Through our previous careers (Dotlich is a former CEO at Honeywell International and Cairo is a professor at Columbia University), we are well versed in leadership theory and have witnessed time and again how bad strategies and other missteps have ruined the lives of leaders and their companies. . We also noticed that many of the failures were due to obvious errors in the implementation of perfectly reasonable strategies. In retrospect, many leaders who suddenly made irreparable mistakes were previously considered strong leaders. What prompted them to do wrong: was it a momentary loss of sobriety of thinking - or something else?

"Something else" seems like a more plausible answer. After all, most of the failures of leaders were not the result of a lack of intelligence. By and large, disaster has occurred when sane and well-intentioned leaders acted illogically, biased, or impulsive. Reading the stories of the collapse of companies, you begin to ask yourself questions like: “Why didn’t the leader understand that he needed to act immediately?”, Or: “How could you not see that with such a strategy the company will not survive?”, Or even: “Why didn’t understand what was happening at all? These leaders could save their careers if they turned to the simplest logic and common sense in the current situation.

Many of these leaders are self-sabotaging, albeit unconsciously. They have enough intelligence, skills and experience to take their company through any test, but for some reason they do not succeed. Something ruins their career. Something that is inextricably linked to themselves - as people and as leaders - and operates below the threshold of awareness.

We found that leaders, like all leaders, are affected by eleven destructors, deeply ingrained personality traits that influence their leadership style and the way they act.

It is very likely that you have at least one of these qualities. For example, you may have a brilliant analytical mind, and your analytical reflex has helped your company avoid the mistakes that competitors made.

However, your propensity to analyze can be distorted when you find yourself in a stressful situation. You become so analytical that you freeze when you need to take action. You continue to analyze even where you already have to make a decision.

Your desire for analysis takes precedence over common sense. However, from your point of view, this additional analysis is eminently justified. This quality is built into you, and it is very difficult for you to step aside and realize that a trait that was your strength at another time has turned into a leadership destructor. You sincerely do not understand what you are doing wrong (after all, this is exactly what has led you to success for many years), and now fate deals you an insidious blow.

The good news is that this blow can be prevented. When you learn to identify and deal with these destructors, you will be able to spot disaster long before it happens and take steps to keep it from harming your career and your company.

We're going to introduce you to these eleven destructors, but first, let's talk about how the extraordinary efforts of a few people contributed to the thoughts and tools you'll find throughout the pages of this book.

Exploring the Causes of the Fiasco

Robert Hogan, a psychologist and professor of industrial psychology, has done groundbreaking research on how the "dark side" of leaders can ruin their careers and create negative consequences for their organizations. His research, which was based on earlier work on disruptive behavior at the Center for Creative Leadership and our own knowledge of personality structure, has given us new starting points for thinking about the causes that lead leaders to fail. In close collaboration with Professor Hogan, we applied his model to practice and developed a special method based on it for evaluating leaders. We then applied these tools (called the CDR International Derailment Report) to evaluate thousands of top executives around the world. Our book reflects the results of this activity.

Ram Charan has also influenced our work. Charan is a brilliant strategist, consultant, and writer, and a former professor at Harvard Business School who teaches many of our leadership training programs. His insightful insights into why leaders fail and how it relates to their misbehaving have been extremely helpful in our work with clients. It was his article, published several years ago in the journal Fortune served as the impetus for writing this book. This article showed how leaders fail because they fail to manage relationships with people, understand the needs of shareholders, and take other steps necessary to run a successful business. In our conversations with Charan, we returned again and again to the question of causes. Why is it so difficult for leaders who are so gifted in everything else to do what needs to be done in the right way? Why do leaders who sincerely want to do things right end up doing things wrong? Charan, Hogan, and many of our clients agree with us: the main reason is not on the surface - many leaders unconsciously limit their ability to act correctly.

Another inspiration comes from Daniel Goleman's groundbreaking work on emotional intelligence, which reinforces our thesis that leaders' failures have more to do with who they are than with how much they know or how bright they are. Goleman's conclusion that the key to success is managing negative impulses fits in nicely with our observations that the most successful leaders are those who have learned to deal with their destructors.

When we founded CDR International a few years ago, we focused on that – the human – side of leadership. Since then, thousands of senior executives from various functions, industries, countries and cultures have been coached or trained by us. We believed and continue to believe that the success or failure of leaders in most cases is determined by how well they interact with other people and how much they understand themselves. However, translating this belief into practical steps was not easy at first. The work of researchers such as Robert Hogan, Ram Charan, and Daniel Goleman has made our task much easier. At the very least, they reinforced our feeling that we had discovered something valuable and important. In coaching many different leaders, we developed an approach that drew heavily on Hogan's work on destructors. Over time, we have refined this approach to the point where leaders can use it to anticipate their weaknesses and anticipate how and where they might manifest. In a number of cases, we have been able to help leaders regain their effectiveness after significant failures. In coaching CEOs and other senior executives, we have found that most of them do not receive enough feedback or rebuff to help them recognize their personalities. When this happens, they gain the ability to tailor their behavior to move from success to success. With introspection and some very simple tools, you can do the same.

A look behind the scenes: how destructors work

Here are eleven destructors that we constantly find in high-level leaders and executives, and which you will learn about in this book:

arrogance: you are right - the others are wrong;

melodrama: you always strive to be the center of attention;

emotional instability: mood swings undermine business;

overcaution: every decision you make is the most important thing in life;

suspicion: you are focused on the negative aspects of reality;

aloofness: you are distancing or withdrawing;

waywardness: rules are made to be broken;

eccentricity: being different is just fun in itself;

stealth: your silence is not a sign of consent at all;

perfectionism: caring for the little things when everything as a whole goes down the drain;

desire to please: the main thing is to become the most popular.

You may immediately think that you know which of the items (or maybe all) concerns you by looking at this list, but most people need detailed information and tools for accurate self-diagnosis, which can be found in the relevant chapters of the book. So don't think about which of the above destructors describes your personality just yet, just remember the following important points.

First (and most importantly), destructors most often appear in stressful situations, but what is stressful for one person will not be stressful for another. For some, stress is caused by rush jobs and tight deadlines, while doing nothing puts pressure on someone. Stress can be anything from trying to capitalize on a great opportunity like acquiring another company to changing jobs and adapting to a different culture. Changes often lead to stress, although there are people who cannot imagine their life without constant changes. The key here is to understand what kinds of stresses you are exposed to and what unleashes your destructors.

Second, the goal of this book is not to eliminate your destructors. This, in general, is impossible: they are part of your personality. They didn't suddenly appear ten or twenty years after your career began - they were always with you, just before, perhaps they did not cause such significant negative consequences. Sometimes it takes many years for a leader to encounter situations or people that become a catalyst for destructors. Until then, their waywardness or eccentricity can be perceived quite favorably by others, since the negative side of these qualities is dormant. In some cases, the organizations themselves may overlook or even feed on the negative traits of their top leaders. Of course, many at Enron were aware that Jeff Skilling overestimated himself. Recent articles characterize Enron as a company steeped in a culture of arrogance. However, while the company was in order, people preferred to deny those aspects of Skilling's leadership style that ultimately led him to disaster. Seeing these qualities through one's fingers was apparently not too difficult, since Skilling's confidence and self-esteem made a significant contribution to Enron's impressive success. However, when the situation went downhill, these behaviors were exaggerated, because they were part of what led to Enron's spectacular collapse, and in hindsight they were seen even as a hindrance to the company's previous success. The goal of this book is to help any leader understand their own destructors, identify when they come into play, and learn how to deal with them.

End of introductory segment.

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The following excerpt from the book The 11 Enemies of Leadership: Behaviors That Can Destroy Careers and Businesses (Peter Cairo, 2003) provided by our book partner -