Hubris

By Kevin-James Fenech

Kevin is the founder and owner of JOB Search - jobsearch.mt and FENCI Consulting fenci.eu

Success is invariably always followed by hubris. It doesn’t have to be like this but for some reason it always is. ‘Hubris. It gets them all in the end’.

Anthony Joshua should never have lost to Andy Ruiz last Saturday. Nokia from a position of complete market domination arrogantly underestimated the iPhone. David Cameron should never have called a referendum over Europe. Hubris.

The disgraced Kevin Spacey, ironically, summed it up rather well, when he said: ‘We are all victims of our hubris at times’.  

Personally, I don’t accept the inevitability of hubris but I wouldn’t blame anyone for claiming so.

History is littered with great leaders who achieved a lot and then hubris makes this ugly appearance and when everyone least expects it.

Alexander the Great, Julius Cesare, Winston Churchill, Tony Blair, Putin, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, etc, were/are all victims of their hubris.   

I think detachment from reality and overconfidence, classic traits, can be avoided if leaders are adequately coached and mentored.

I recently re-watched the classic film Coach Carter and the underlying message is simple, powerful and apt. The group is always more important than the individual; hard work and discipline beats talent (always); self-sacrifice and humility trumps (excuse the pun) big egos; everyone has a leadership role to play.

The problem with today’s modI am thinking of Cristiano Ronaldo, Donald Trump or Miley Cyrus, for example, and the one thing they all have in common is an insatiable thirst for individual success and a very big ego.

We need our modern leaders, be they from the world of politics, sports and/or business, to get back in touch with the values of an older generation and a past era.

Jim Collins in his seminal research on Leadership claims that the truly great leaders (what he calls ‘level 5’) have two things in common: humility and will.

In fact, he talks about ‘great’ CEOs who have a genuine humility about their success ‘…the real antithesis of arrogance…’.

Jim Collins explains how great leaders put the ‘greater good’ of the organisation ahead of their own personal egos; how they shy away from personal fame or glorification; how they prefer small steps of improvement by the team rather than big steps by the ‘hero’; or how they prefer a low profile quiet life to a flamboyant high-profile one.

Unfortunately, the modern leader is more likely to have narcissism, egoism and self-love as common traits rather than humility. We need a Maltese version of Coach Carter to mentor and develop our young leaders about the importance of humility, honesty and hard-work.

The Maltese leaders of the previous century understood this only too well. The post-second world war thought them the value of hard work, commitment and patience.

Today, it is almost the default that everyone thinks of no. 1 first and craves for instant (individual) gratification. We need to start nurturing the right type of leaders today and before we run out of them.

What makes a country great is the number of ‘leaders’ at all levels and strata of society; from polyclinics/health centres, local councils, political parties, NGOs, press/media, sports teams, businesses (small, medium & large), social media influencers, etc.

Failure to invest in tomorrow’s leaders, will mean that hubris will reign supreme and Malta will end up like one of those Hollywood films about the ills and decline of American society with a Maltese version of Donald Trump playing a leading role.

And before you remind me that ‘leaders are born not made’. I disagree. Well, I agree that natural leaders are born but that shouldn’t stop us from coaching, mentoring and developing individuals to become future leaders. For example, I observe from afar, the coach of my son’s water polo team (at Under 13 level).

This coach is literally transforming them from boys to young men in a similar way Coach Carter does in the film.

His philosophy: You earn your place in the first seven through merit; no one is big/good enough not to getting the Ferguson ‘hair dryer’ treatment; the collective is always more important than individual glory; commitment and hard-work are more important than natural talent; etc.

I know that irrespective of whether or not these kids make it into professional water polo, they will grow up with values that make great leaders and when they enter the real world, they will be well equipped for whatever life throws at them.

Let’s be frank: we live in an ‘Age of Arrogance’ were hubris is becoming common currency. This having been said we are still in time to change course; yet we must invest in tomorrow’s leaders now. I don’t mean an academic exercise of pontification; I mean mentoring, role models and value-based education.   

From my years of advising CEOs of all types, I think the difference between ‘I serve’ and ‘I lead’ is the different between good/ok and great leaders.

Since the best CEOs were the ones who successfully transformed people around them into fantastic managers or leaders of tomorrow.
Let’s therefore anticipate a hubris epidemic and invest in our future leaders.