May v1i1

LEADERSHIP BRIEFS
EGO IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD LEADERSHIP
Rasmus Hougaard & Jacqueline Carter, Harvard
Business Review, November 06, 2018
On his first day as CEO of the Carlsberg Group, a global
brewery and beverage company, Cees ‘t Hart was given
a key card by his assistant. The card locked out all the
other floors for the elevator so that he could go directly
to his corner office on the 20th floor. And with its
picture windows, his office offered a stunning view of
Copenhagen. These were the perks of his new position,
ones that spoke to his power and importance within the
company.
Cees spent the next two months acclimating to his new
responsibilities. But during those two months, he
noticed that he saw very few people throughout the day.
Since the elevator didn’t stop at other floors and only a
select group of executives worked on the 20th floor, he
rarely interacted with other Carlsberg employees. Cees
decided to switch from his corner office on the 20th
floor to an empty desk in an open-floor plan on a lower
floor.
When asked about the changes, Cees explained, “If I
don’t meet people, I won’t get to know what they think.
And if I don’t have a finger on the pulse of the
organization, I can’t lead effectively.”
In short, the higher leaders rise in the ranks, the more
they are at risk of getting an inflated ego. And the bigger
their ego grows, the more they are at risk of ending up
in an insulated bubble, losing touch with their
colleagues, the culture, and ultimately their clients.
Following is an excerpt from the
book, Effective & Enduring
Leadership … Visions of Greatness!
by Michael Bianchi
TRUE GREATNESS
All men and women have inside
them the desire to become 'great'
and being great will mean
different things to different
people. We want to be great
politicians, great architects, great
parents, great musicians, great
athletes, great students, great
pastors … and so on. The
problem is that most of us
confuse true greatness with
worldly greatness and either do
not believe we can achieve
worldly greatness or have given
up trying out of frustration. For
non-Christians, pursuing worldly
greatness is an exercise that leads
to ultimate futility devoid of
eternal significance. Christians,
having already accepted Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior,
can achieve eternal greatness by
obeying and applying God's Word
and living a humble spirited,
servant lifestyle as Jesus Christ
did.
Do not discount the significance
of such a lifestyle. In Luke 18:14
Jesus tells us, “For all those who
exalt themselves will be
humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be
exalted.”
Effective & Enduring Leadership
can be simply defined as
leading and Discipling others
so that we teach Godly legacies
to future generations. Jesus left
us a model of Effective &
Enduring Leadership and
Discipleship and, as a result, a
model of eternal greatness that
we can all strive to achieve.
Christians achieve eternal
greatness in Heaven through
fulfillment of God's purposes for
their lives. Matthew 16:27 says:
“For the Son of Man is going to
come in his Father's glory with
his angels, and then he will
reward each person according
to what they have done.” My
study Bible says, “Our heavenly
rewards will be the most accurate
reflection of what we have done on
earth, and they will be far greater
than we can imagine.” What
more can we possibly do during
our time here on Earth to please
God other than fulfill His
purposes for us?
~ Lead Like Jesus