Right now, I am working on putting together a spread sheet for my upcoming website and a page called Lisa’s Library. This is an inventory of all the books I’ve read over the years, well not all of them, but the ones that have “stuck” with me. One of my little treasures I had buried in one of my bookcases, The Dictionary of The Future by Faith Popcorn. I loved this book. It was published in 2001. I just skimmed through it and found this little nugget I thought I would share: Pg. 80 EGO Audits-huge, unchecked management egos are the Achilles’ heel of American business, resulting in major corporate blunders and billions of lost dollars. It happens when those in power refuse to take criticism or listen to (let alone accept) alternative options. As a defense against this ego damage, companies will institute ego audits, conducted by outside experts, who will interview senior management and report back on defensiveness, openness to new ideas, and refusal to back off an idea because “I thought of it.” If you get a bad ego audit score, you might be sent for counseling, so you can get in touch with your inner consensus-builder. See also productive narcissists. Pg. 76 Productive Narcissists-a term coined by Michael Macoby, an anthropologist and psychoanalyst, to define a certain kind of business leader who is aggressive, possesses a vision, and who can convince others to follow as he or she sets out to break the rules. The downside is that these narcissists are over sensitive to criticism and impatient and thus have horrendous listening skills. According to Maccoby, Bill Gates, Jeffrey Bezos and Larry Ellison are productive narcissists and their personality type is what reigns supreme in our business culture. In many ways-although they work in a less formal and more fluid environment-they are throwbacks to the Morgans and Carnegies and Rockefellers, and have less in common with the post-war, consensus-building, risk-averse leaders of the generation before them. This was published in 2001. It’s now 2014, what are your thoughts on these little nuggets?
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 22:30:49 +0000
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