Harvard Business Review article Don’t Let Power Corrupt You is an eye-opener for all leaders. I strongly encourage everyone to read it.
The authors looked at studies that investigate people’s responses when they are in leadership roles in relationship to kindness and empathy towards others. They state:
“Studies show that people in positions of corporate power are three times as likely as those at the lower rungs of the ladder to interrupt coworkers, multitask during meetings, raise their voices, and say insulting things at the office.”
New leaders are most likely to decline to behaviors typically seen as unethical or outside of their spoken values.
In other words, power triggers an entitlement to bad behavior by leaders and we need conscious strategies in order not to succumb to the behaviors we abhor in corrupt leaders.
If you see a decline in fair and generous behavior in any of your leaders, send them to me for coaching.