Leadership hubris is the enemy of culture
I've seen it time and again, both privately and publicly. A leader who's enjoyed success - turned around a struggling team, achieved success faster than expected, found a system that worked or achieved promotion faster than their peers - starts to believe their own press. They stop listening. They stop learning. And they think it will last forever.
This is hubris. And it's a culture killer.
Hubris makes leaders believe they're infallible. That their way is the only way. That the rules that apply to everyone else somehow don't apply to them.
I've seen executives dismiss feedback as ‘resistance to change’ rather than legitimate concerns. I've watched managers override their teams' expertise because they ‘know better.’ I've heard leaders claim credit for collective wins whilst blaming others for failures. I’ve seen managers stick rigidly to systems or tactics that clearly don’t work.
The problem isn't confidence. Confidence is essential for leadership and decision-making. The problem is when confidence mutates into arrogance; when a leader's ego becomes more important than the people they're meant to serve.
Hubris destroys psychological safety. When leaders believe they're always right, team members stop speaking up. Why bother raising concerns if you'll be punished for it?
Hubris creates a culture of fear and compliance. People stop bringing their whole selves to work. They become yes-people, telling the leader what they want to hear rather than what they need to know.
Hubris breeds contempt. Nothing erodes trust faster than watching a leader hold themselves to a different standard or persist with an approach that doesn’t work. When leaders break the rules they expect others to follow, the hypocrisy is corrosive.
Yet, the most dangerous thing about hubris is that the leader is often the last to recognise it. They're surrounded by people too afraid to challenge them. They interpret silence as agreement. They mistake compliance for engagement.
So how do you guard against it?
Start by remembering that leadership is a privilege, not a right. You're there to serve your team, not the other way round. Actively seek out dissenting opinions. Create structures that allow people to challenge you safely. Admit when you're wrong (quickly and publicly). Hold yourself to higher standards than you expect of others, not lower ones.
Ask yourself regularly: Are my approaches still working? Am I still listening? Am I still learning? Am I still putting the team's needs before my ego?
The moment you stop asking these questions is the moment hubris takes hold. And once it does, it spreads like a virus through the culture, infecting everything it touches.
Great cultures aren't built by leaders who think they have all the answers. They're built by leaders humble enough to know they don't and wise enough to create an environment where the best answers can emerge from anywhere.
The choice is simple: serve your ego or serve your culture. You can't do both.
