True Leaders Believe Dissent Is an Obligation

Edgar Schein, professor emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management, once asked a group of students what it means to be promoted to the rank of manager. "They said without hesitation, 'It means I can now tell others what to do.'" That's precisely the know-it-all style of leadership that has led to so much crisis and disappointment. "Deep down, many of us believe that if you are not winning, you are losing," Schein warns. The "tacit assumption" among executives "is that life is fundamentally and always a competition." But humility and ambition, he argues, need not be at odds. Instead, humility in the service of ambition is the most effective and sustainable mindset for leaders who aspire to do big things in a world filled with huge unknowns. More here