The Peril of Organizational Hubris
I’ll admit, I like a little bit of swagger. Maybe it’s because I am still convinced that Allen Iverson is, pound for pound, the greatest basketball player of all time. Maybe it’s because as much as I have always--and will always--have nothing but loathing for the Dallas Cowboys, a part of me always enjoyed when Deion Sanders found his way to the endzone and his famous “Prime Time” touchdown dance.
I say that to make something clear. There may be an appropriate time and place for that kind of swagger. It’s now nearly impossible to identify who first said it, but there may be some truth in the old aphorism, “If it’s true, it ain’t bragging.”
However, we live in an age that, if anything, is marked by an excess of this sort of temperament. Restraint and modesty are now regarded not only as antiquated and passe but as outright liabilities.
We see it all around us. It’s commonplace among athletes and musicians who seem compelled to use every breath available to them to remind the world that they really are the best in the business. It’s generally assumed by politicians who assume that if they don’t trumpet their own infinite greatness--at the expense of their enemies--then they will quickly lose the news cycle and the electorate’s attention. And, if we’re honest, it’s conspicuously present on the social media posts of everyday people like you and me, each time we want to make sure to broadcast our successes (or even fabricate them altogether).
But what happens when this kind of hubris embeds itself within an organization? Unfortunately, the cost is high.
Organizational Hubris Dulls Competitive Innovation
It’s far too easy to coast on past successes, to allow inertia to be the dominant force that propels an organization forward. But eventually, momentum will weaken and stagnation becomes inescapable. Unfortunately, organizations that are marked by triumphalist hubris are the most susceptible to this sort of trajectory.
Here’s a quick diagnostic for your organization. Is your team aware of your direct competitors? Could your team leaders name them? When new initiatives are proposed, is the organizational instinct to ask, “What are the best practices in our industry?”
Organizations marked by hubris lose their competitive edge, assuming that they have little that needs to change in terms of their strategies, processes, or personnel.
Generally, this kind of culture also undermines innovation because organizations marked by hubris lose their competitive edge, assuming that they have little that needs to change in terms of their strategies, processes, or personnel. So when a junior staffer raises a question in a meeting asking politely, but bluntly, “Why do we still do things this way?” and they are met with derision, that’s generally a warning sign. If you think your past success in your industry innoculates you from the need for innovation, you are setting a course for eventual collapse.
Organizational Hubris Stunts Leadership Development
For many of the same reasons listed above, organizational hubris will significantly undermine an organization’s ability to recruit, develop, and retain top-level leaders. You’ll have no trouble collecting an army of mediocre employees who seem to exist to validate the status quo.
But is your organization willing to bring on undeveloped talent, with raw gifting, giving them space to learn, make mistakes, and grow? If you’re a senior leader or executive, is your fear of embarrassment--whether personal or organizational--so dominant that it suffocates the ability of team members to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them?
Organizational hubris will significantly undermine an organization’s ability to recruit, develop, and retain top-level leaders.
There is a marked difference between organizational cultures that develop a shared sense of commitment to the mission and vision of the organization and those that insist in an almost cult-like fashion that true fulfillment and effectiveness can only be found within the organization. Trust me, any leader wants their team members to “buy-in” and be convinced that the mission matters, that the work they are doing is meaningful, and that their organization is a great place to invest their lives and energy. But that’s a very different thing from organizations that demand a form of unhealthy loyalty.
The alternative is far better, far more sustainable. Organizations that recruit the best talent and then work to retain that talent don’t have to waste their time trying to convince them that they will be miserable if they ever leave. Frankly, the healthiest organizations are generous with their people and their ideas, holding to them loosely, and ready to encourage growth, even if that means that team members launch off to new ventures.
Organizational Hubris Kills Collaboration
It’s impossible to partner with anyone who thinks they have no need for it.
It’s impossible to partner with anyone who thinks they have no need for it.
Does your team recognize that it depends on better-equipped organizations to effectively fulfill its mission? You will rely on all sorts of vendors to help provide you the necessary tools and resources. You’ll find that there are other peer institutions, perhaps even an occasional competitor, who is better positioned than you to succeed, compelling you to find creative, perhaps even surprising, ways to collaborate together.
Not only does a culture of hubris preclude external partnerships, but it undermines internal collaboration. You can be assured that departments and divisions will be more prone to the “silo effect” if the organizational culture is one marked by this kind of brash arrogance and delusion. Instead of encouraging collaborative leadership and the pursuit of creative solutions, organizational hubris blinds individuals and teams to the need of the moment, instead putting a premium on “staying in your lane” and watching your back to make sure no one perceives you, or your department, to be the weakest link.
Organizational Hubris Is Corrosive to the Soul
Perhaps the most important caution against the development of this kind of organizational culture is that it will eventually have a poisoning effect on the soul. There’s a big difference between clear-eyed confidence and pompous bravado. You know it when you see it. The confident leader doesn’t have to be the loudest in the room, reminding everyone of their latest triumph. They don’t feel compelled to lift themselves up at the expense of others. They genuinely care about bringing others along with them on mission, compelled by a vision of how things could be made better. They are marked by conviction and always eager to discuss those convictions, but at the same time, they are not personally threatened when they discover that others disagree with them.
Show me an organization that has clarity in its mission, confidence in its people, and an urgency in its objectives, and I’ll show you a place where people love to work.
On the other hand, many of us have seen firsthand how pride and arrogance will eat away at a person and an organization. Christianity understands this corrosion of the soul to be one rooted in the sin of idolatry. Love of self becomes the supreme idol, the most sought after telos, and it crushes all else. Of course, the irony is that it is a distorted form of self-love, because the gospel calls us to a better way, reminding us that we gain our lives by losing them, that as we love our neighbor we are indeed truly loving ourselves, especially when it comes at great cost. But the temptation of narcissistic hubris is that it reinforces our worst instincts, telling us that the world cannot exist without me in any meaningful way.
Those dynamics are very much true of organizations, not only of individuals.
Show me an organization that has clarity in its mission, confidence in its people, and an urgency in its objectives, and I’ll show you a place where people love to work. It may be a young start-up or a legacy brand that has weathered the waves of history.
So what can you, as a leader, do today? First, ask some serious diagnostic questions about yourself and your organization. Have you confused narcissism, pride, and arrogance for confident conviction and clarity of mission? Does your organization take people for granted, instead prioritizing products or programs? Does your organizational culture seem to prioritize personal platforming over institutional identity and objectives?
Second, create an organizational culture that values winning and competition, but in ways that build teams and focus. I have seen dysfunctional leaders who seem to think that their organizational success can only happen in a zero-sum world, where their successes demand their competitors’ losses. To be as direct as I can, that’s a pathetic way to lead. In fact, it’s an abdication of leadership. True successes and wins are not defined simply by outperforming your competitors or rivals. Leaders know that success is measured by meeting and exceeding strategic objectives in pursuit of a central mission. You’ll always run faster if you’re looking ahead, not over your shoulder. And that kind of success happens best when the entire organization understands itself to be advancing in the same direction.
Third, intentionally seek ways to build collaborative friendships with others in your industry. For one, you’ll be amazed at how much you will learn about “best practices” in your field and ways you can be a more effective leader. But you will also find that God has a way of bringing along friendships in surprising ways. You need people outside your organization who can listen, encourage, challenge, and give good counsel.
The good news is that leaders can make real changes that have a direct positive impact on shaping (and re-shaping) organizational culture. That requires looking in the mirror and asking some hard questions. But Christian leaders are those who are especially mindful that the ultimate solution is not looking back at us in the mirror. Our hope is in God and in his unfailing love. There’s no better antidote to hubris and pride than the cross of Christ.
