[ yet another meaningless micropost ]
From time to time people get to read the autobiography, or memoirs of a specific time when a highly successful individual reached their peak. Fascinated by their success and seeking to improve their own status, these followers* copy the behavior they read about. Interestingly, if this behavior is assholic and abusive even more easier. Someone with psychology studies would have more to say here, I’m sure. In my “communication radius” this is very easy to observe with people who want to copy successful sports coaches, and you can see this pattern crossing over to other work domains too.
It is not easy to understand that someone can be an asshole whose brilliance may make them somewhat tolerable to their immediate workplace, while the other way round does not stand: assholic behavior does not generate brilliance. Solutions do.
If you think you’re brilliant, just pick a hard problem and solve it. I know, it’s …hard.
[*] Leadership programs and books create followers, not leaders.
Managing organized complexity 