![]() ![]() Especially if you’re in a leadership position, assume you have weaknesses and think about them regularly. It’s a mature capability to look in the mirror and recognize that you are not above it all. The psychological counterweight to omnipotence is owning your flaws. One way to gauge whether you’ve reached “peak omnipotence” is if your decisions are met only with applause, deference, and silence. If no one tells you “no,” you have a problem. This is especially true if fewer and fewer of the people around you are willing and able to keep you grounded. But, the higher you climb on the ladder, the more it can become a liability. Sometimes the rush you get from bold action is what’s required to make breakthroughs or real progress. In the dinner party example above, it is no coincidence that the CEO’s entitled and condescending behavior comes after a day of strategizing and masterminding the next big moves. They feel they have the right to skip or redraw the lines. Crossing a line feels less like a transgression and more like what they are owed. To the omnipotent leader, rules and norms are meant for everyone but them. Omnipotence. Many moral lapses can be traced back to this feeling that you are invincible, untouchable, and hyper-capable, which can energize and create a sense of elation. So how do you know when you, or your team, is on the road to an ethical lapse? Here’s more on how to identify omnipotence, cultural numbness, and justified neglect in yourself and on your team, and a few tips on fighting each dynamic: It is about navigating the vast space in between. For that majority, moral leadership is not simply a question of acting in good or bad faith. What starts as an ‘innocent’ fudge in order to not disappoint ‘the Street’ - say, trade-loading at quarter-end, turning a blind eye to rising insurance losses, or drawing down a ‘cookie-jar’ reserve - can become the first step toward full-fledged fraud.”īuffett’s note is important because it’s really about the majority of us: neither saints nor criminals but well-meaning leaders who sometimes fail to consult their moral compass while speeding ahead in a landscape full of tripwires and pitfalls. “…have seen all sorts of bad corporate behavior, both accounting and operational, induced by the desire of management to meet Wall Street expectations. Warren Buffett, explaining Berkshire Hathaway’s practices in the annual letter shareholders, notes that he and vice chairman Charlie Munger While it is hard, if not impossible, to find evidence that leaders in general have become less ethical over the years, some are sounding the alarm. The same dynamics come into play when much bigger lines get crossed in the corporate arena: allegations of corruption at Nissan, sexual harassment charges in the media sector, privacy breaches at Facebook, money laundering in the financial sector, and pharmaceuticals’ role in the opioid crisis. ![]() Finally, we see justified neglect: when people don’t speak up about ethical breaches because they are thinking of more immediate rewards such as staying on a good footing with the powerful. Second, we have cultural numbness: when others play along and gradually begin to accept and embody deviant norms. First, there’s omnipotence: when someone feels so aggrandized and entitled that they believe the rules of decent behavior don’t apply to them. This scene encapsulates three psychological dynamics that lead to crossing ethical lines. If you were present at that dinner would you let the CEO know that you disapprove of his language and behavior? Would you try to set a better example? Or stay silent? This seems to please the CEO, who responds with his own derogatory quip. After the waiter walks away, someone makes a joke about the man’s competence. “You really need to up your game here,” the CEO replies. The waiter tries to explain, but to no avail. “Am I the only one annoyed by the view? Why is there construction happening today?” he demands to know. The group tries to move on but is once again interrupted by the CEO. A young waiter quickly finds the manager who explains that there are no other tables available. “This isn’t the one that my assistant usually reserves for me,” he says. The group is looking forward to having dinner together, but the CEO is not happy about the table and demands a change. doi:10.1126/science.On a warm evening after a strategy off-site, a team of executives arrives at a well-known local restaurant. ![]() The spread of true and false news online. The truth is out there: accuracy in recall of verifiable real-world events. Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism. An overview of the neuro-cognitive processes involved in the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of true and false memories. The Visual Mandela Effect as evidence for shared and specific false memories across people. ![]()
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