Derailed

Spectacular “Derailments”

When new top managers arrive, everyone expects wonderful things ¬– an easy succession, a brilliant turnaround, careful nurturing of the status quo, and so on. But even the best intentions can go horribly wrong. Studying the failure of talented, successful businesspeople reveals a lot about corporate morality – and about ordinary people. None of the executives discussed here as examples of derailment engaged in criminal behavior. They simply allowed their darker aspects to dominate their decision making. They fell off the tracks due to the same cause that can derail anyone, including successful leaders: “a failure of character.” Derailment means a leader has “gone off the rails,” diverting so far from the company’s goals that he or she has to leave the organization. Derailment extracts a heavy financial or cultural price. A firm can underperform and suffer serious losses. Or the leader can steer the firm away from its “values and culture.” In the worst cases, companies lose both their profits and their culture.

Owning the Dark Side

Your personality has many aspects. To view it with clarity, you “must sometimes look into the darkness...