Success changes and affects all of us but not always in a positive way. To cope with the success in the world of business, leaders need a very strong self-knowledge, confidence and ability to maintain awareness of reality. However, business leaders are humans as everybody else and can succumb to the intoxicating charm of what they has always dreamed of. CBS News highlighted the most common traps even experienced leaders can fall in.
Status quo
Newcomers to a market achieve success by changing the status quo. However, after the first success they can become the status quo themselves and let themselves be overtaken by other players. Failure to act proactively is the way to fall in business. A typical example might be the smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry who missed the start of Apple and Google with iPhone and Android.
Loss of fear or too much fear
Once you start thinking that you cannot fail, you act irrationally and risk without sufficient consideration. This can have the same devastating impact as an excessive fear of change.
The feeling that you know everything
If you feel that you know everything better than your customers, top executives, investors and other stakeholders, stop. You should always ask questions and listen.
Isolation and surrounding by yes men
Many successful people are isolated from others both in their thinking and by physical barriers. Once they allow someone to come closer, these are people who absolutely agree with them. That makes them weak leaders with low self-esteem who need constant massage of their egos.
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