For six days, the world’s eyes were on the Ever Given, the container ship stuck between the banks of the Suez Canal. Although a unique news story, maritime disasters are more typical than most of us realize. According to the insurer Allianz, 41 large ships were lost in 2019 and 46 in 2018. Over the … Read More
A Thank You to HBO Max “Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests”
Thank you, HBO Max, CNN Films, and the creators of ‘Persona’ for addressing why poorly developed tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) should not be used in high-stakes settings. For years, many organizational psychologists have warned against measures such as the MBTI. To quote an international expert in personality research and testing, “its … Read More
Perspective and Proximity in an Advice Culture: When Opposing Ideas Combine to Create Better Decisions
We use Proximity to describe the reality that people closest to the situation have more accurate information — and Perspective to describe the reality that people who perceive a situation from a distance can see how everything fits together. But those with the advantage of proximity struggle to see the unintended consequences of their choices … Read More
You Cannot Win in 2021 with a 1947 Hierarchical Organizational Structure
Elegant and Efficient In 1947 on the heels of the Allies’ victory, organizational theorists adopted Max Weber’s bureaucracy ideas from the 1920’s and gave birth to the modern hierarchical organizational structure. Inspired by the military, this paradigm would lead the United States and other capitalist countries into an age of productivity that the world had … Read More
The Fall of Trust
Stephen M. R. Covey claimed in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is “the one thing that changes everything” – if removed, it can destroy the most thriving economy, the most powerful government, the most successful business, and the most influential leadership. Business Replaced Government as Most Trusted Institution For 20 years, Edelman … Read More
The Core of a True Leader
In the hope of figuring out how to treat families, one of the most innovative and iconoclastic psychologists, Murray Bowen, discovered the core of a leader a decade before anyone mentioned emotional intelligence. As technology has given us greater access to how the brain functions, scientists have found even more support for this theory. In … Read More
Heroes Cannot be Leaders
–While in the role of a hero, one cannot be a leader; while in the role of a leader, one makes heroes of others.– In a society where leaders and heroes are revered, the above statement may startle you. However, the term heroic leader is an oxymoron. In 2020, the Philadelphia newspapers referred to football … Read More
Are High Scores of Self- Deception on Pre-Hire Assessments More Common Among Young People?
Are your Twenty-Something Employees Full of $%^& I received a call from a client asking if there was something wrong with PsybilⓇ, our assessment system. He had just assessed a set of candidates and 7 of the 8 had self-deception scores higher than the 80th percentile. After making sure our system was working, I called … Read More
Solve Problems, Make Inspired Decisions by Understanding your Thinking Biases
It’s astonishing how many smart business leaders struggle with solving problems. We don’t mean these leaders are indecisive or complacent — far from it. In fact, in some cases, leaders make decisions too quickly, with an incomplete data set and/or inaccurate assumptions; in other cases they hesitate to decide, lacking a clear decision-making process. Just … Read More