The Hubris Hazard And How To Avoid It

"Hubris is something we've all seen in action and experienced all too often. It's a significant occupational hazard and a serious potential derailment factor for leaders, organizations and civil society. Hubristic leaders - intoxicated as they are with power, praise and success - behave in ways that, if left unchecked, invite unintended and unforeseen negative consequences which impact destructively on individuals, industries, economies and nations. Despite numerous examples throughout history of hubris' destructive consequences, it nonetheless appears to be an ever-present and growing danger. Leaders seem blind to the hazards of hubris and oblivious to the lessons of history. Prevention is better than cure and understanding the nature of the hubris hazard and the associated risk factors will help leaders and managers improve their personal performance and avoid derailment and, even more importantly, protect the wellbeing of employees and the resilience of their organizations over the long term. This book explains the characteristics, causes and consequences of hubris, and shows how to combat the significant hazard it poses to managers, leaders, organizations and civil society. With contemporary examples, each chapter explores a particular 'hubris risk factor' and shows how the risk can be managed and mitigated and exposure to the hubris hazard minimized. The Hubris Hazard, and How to Avoid It offers practical guidance and action points for managers and leaders on how to recognize hubris in themselves and others and what to do to combat it when it arises. It will also be useful for business and executive coaches and leadership trainers and developers"--

Hubris is something we’ve all seen in action and experienced all too often. It’s a significant occupational hazard and a serious potential derailment factor for leaders, organisations, and civil society. Hubristic leaders - intoxicated as they are with power, praise, and success–behave in ways that, if left unchecked, invite unintended and unforeseen negative consequences which impact destructively on individuals, industries, economies, and nations. Despite numerous examples throughout history of hubris’ destructive consequences, it nonetheless appears to be an ever-present and growing danger. Many leaders seem to be blind to the hazards of hubris and oblivious to the lessons of history. Prevention is better than cure and understanding the nature of the hubris hazard and the associated risk factors will help leaders and managers improve their personal performance and avoid derailment and, even more importantly, protect the well-being of employees and the resilience of their organisations over the long term. This book explains the characteristics, causes, and consequences of hubris, and shows how to combat the significant hazard it poses to managers, leaders, organisations, and society. With contemporary examples, each chapter explores a particular ‘hubris risk factor’ and shows how the risk can be managed and mitigated and exposure to the hubris hazard minimised. The Hubris Hazard, and How to Avoid It offers practical guidance and action points for managers and leaders on how to recognise hubris in themselves and others and what to do to combat it when it arises. It will also be useful for business and executive coaches and leadership trainers and developers.

The Routledge Critical Companion to Leadership Studies offers a rich and insightful overview of critical leadership studies for students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners. The volume draws together 35 chapters from 56 authors who represent the vibrant diversity of the critical leadership community. It includes chapters from emerging and preeminent scholars who share an interest in directing leadership theorizing, development and practice toward the aims of liberation, justice, and equity. The Companion is organized into six themes: (1) philosophical perspectives on leadership; (2) processes, practices, and power dynamics in leadership; (3) diversity and leadership; (4) leadership education and development; (5) lessons from the dark side of leadership; and (6) reimagining leadership and leadership studies. The book has been curated to serve as a "go to" resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic staff, and researchers seeking to understand the current state of play on a given topic, as well as inspiration for how they might contribute to its development. Each chapter provides a comprehensive yet succinct review of contemporary literature and offers the reader avenues for future research. Leadership practitioners will also find provocative ideas among these pages to help them interrogate and transform the ways they lead.

Investigating the societal, economic, financial and reputational costs of hubristic leadership, with insights into the characteristics and causes of this phenomenon, and recommended safeguards to avoid hubris from happening in the first place. As research into hubristic leadership becomes increasingly popular following recent political developments, the book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to investigating this form of leadership. Outlining what causes hubristic leadership in the first place, the author looks at how it’s potentially destructive consequences can be anticipated and avoided through an informed stance of moderation, critical analysis and reflexivity. Examples are drawn from business and politics including the Lehmann Brothers, BP and Deepwater Horizon, Blair and Bush in the Iraq Invasion, NASA, and Donald Trump. Ideal reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students in business and management, leadership, and organizational behaviour. Check out the Hubris Hub for further information on hubristic leadership, including a regularly updated blog written by author Eugene Sadler-Smith.

This book develops the notion that companies can succeed on the basis of risk management, much as companies compete on efficiency, costs, labor, location, and other dimensions. The reality of risk and how it impacts companies is that it is much more definite, often catastrophic and looks more like a shock. This is striking, as a difference between firms on risk different than a marginal difference in operating efficiencies, for example. Competing on Risk Management requires a discipline, a commitment to using information and recognizing shocks and then acting upon those to redistribute assets. This book will examine how leading firms that compete on risk have done this and showcase best practices and impacts to the capital structure of firms and their organizational formation.

This edited collection surveys and analyses the multidimensional problem of Hubris syndrome, and its deleterious effect on leadership within organisations. The study develops an extended metaphor of the social and political ill of Hubris as a virulent, communicable disease of dysfunctional leadership, illustrating its ubiquity and potential for serious harm. Taking a biological perspective to understand the possible underlying mechanisms as well as the environments in which hubris has been found to thrive, contributors emphasise the notion of prevention over cure. Divided into three sections, The Leadership Hubris Epidemic examines psychological, neuroendocrinological and neuropsychological approaches to the biology of Hubris, explores factors that encourage or inhibit its growth, and finally provides methods for preventing or retarding its development. This book has huge interdisciplinary appeal and scholars of biology, psychology, sociology, management, and politics will find the topic extremely useful, as well as anyone who is interested in the structure and governance of organisations.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to decision-making in an MCDM framework. Designed as a tutorial, it presents the main concepts and methods to be applied, together with essential background information. This includes the concept of nondominance, Simon’s bounded rationality, Tversky and Kahneman’s prospect theory, and the concepts of behavioral vs. mathematical convergence and premature stopping put forward by Korhonen, Moskowitz and Wallenius. The book concludes with a non-technical review of many popular decision algorithms, including the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), VIMDA, and a number of classic interactive man-machine algorithms. In essence, the book is a “one-stop” source on everything you need to know about managerial decision-making in the multiple-criteria setting.

"Everything worth winning in life boils down to teamwork and leadership. In my positions as a businessman, athlete, community leader, and University trustee, there are tremendous parallels between all of these endeavors that mirror an extreme team sport such as medical technology. Understanding the game, defining the game, playing your position at your highest performance, and helping others play their best game. Advanced Health Technology represents an incredible opportunity to level up the game of healthcare and highlights the multiple disciplines – or positions to be mastered – while laying out winning plays to make that next level happen." Ronnie Lott, Managing Member, Lott Investments; Member, Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Trustee, Santa Clara University Healthcare stakeholders are paralyzed from making progress as risks explode in volume and complexity. This book will help readers understand how to manage and transcend risks to drive the quadruple aim of improved patient experiences, better patient and business outcomes, improved clinician experience, and lower healthcare costs, and also help readers learn from working successful examples across projects, programs, and careers to get ahead of these multidisciplinary healthcare risks.