Human Delusion Article II
 

Approximate Read Time: 2 Mins

For years we have been told that top executives are an elite group of perfect beings. This is the legacy of a generation who dominated leading roles in big business, in politics and the media over many years. A generation whose values were driven by a desire to be seen as successful, and embracing the trappings of success was at the core of their self-promotion. They increased their earnings, their power, their expenses and their self-importance because "they were worth it".

What told them they were worth it were two attractive, if misleading propositions: (1) the concept of so-called 'leadership' perfection and: (2) the so-called shortage of "leadership talent". Leadership perfection comes from the magical school of business, which argues that you can create leaders who are practically perfect in every way. Just about every, again so-called, leadership book written in the last 30-40 years results from this thinking and just about every performance appraisal reinforces it.

In this mistakenly called leadership lexicon, we have bought into the idea that, like cosmetic products, we can work without blemish and have positive results every time. This is the antithesis of reality and a denial of our own humanity.  Few of us are without fault, and certainly the same applies to CEOs. The "war for talent" was propounded by McKinsey and others in the 1980s-90s. It argues that talent is finite and potential limited, and that success results from getting the very best and then paying them to stay, regardless of cost. Major adopters could be found in financial services, banking, corporate business etc. and, of course politics. In business and public-sector organisations today there are still many believers. Just look at various public and private organisations justification for the size of the pay packages at the top.

This thinking bolstered the demand for CEOs to get a greater and greater share of the profits in the enterprise, with bonus plans increased, while the power of 'ordinary' people declined. Of course most managers don't get rewarded excessively – they work hard and are conscientious. Nevertheless, there are those who look after themselves rather than looking after their workers, their customers, their shareholders and their communities.