Leadership Failures

In his new book Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership, Dr. Tim Irwin explores lessons to be learned from leadership failures. One particularly interesting finding, one powerful observation Dr. Irwin makes is that in leadership success "character trumps competence" and while leaders also have to be competent, it is their character failures that result in melt downs. One specific flaw the author identifies is an ever increasing narcissism, a blind, self-deceiving, arrogant self focus. Unfortunately that characteristic generally also makes a leader uncoachable. Dr. Irwin, known for his prior book Running with the Bulls without Getting Trampled, writes Derailed not to just evaluate how six particular CEOs failed, but more importantly to help us recognized characteristics in ourselves that could lead us to fail. A particularly challenge for powerful, successful leaders is to retain humility yet it is just that humility that is perhaps one of the most endearing, powerful and energizing characteristics of successful leaders. For a free Derailed Personal Risk Assessment, visit www.drtimirwin.com/derailed/assessment.html