It’s hard to find a humble CEO. Here’s why

Mariano L.M. Heyden, Monash University and Mathew Hayward, Monash University

Humility is the latest badge of virtue for those in positions of influence. From politicians, to executives, to chart-topping artists.

The idea of a humble CEO is a romantic departure from the greedy self-serving corporate hero. Rather, when faced with adversity, humble CEOs sacrifice their own interests for the greater good.

Studies echo the intuition that humble leaders are more modest, emotionally stable, and eager to learn. Unsurprisingly, they are less likely to display self-aggrandizing traits such as narcissism.

Perhaps most telling is the finding that companies and teams led by more humble individuals, perform better. But despite humility being good for business, it’s extremely difficult for CEOs to be genuinely humble.

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Unstructured Interviews Are Bad Predictors Of Candidate Performance

Perhaps the greatest technological achievement in industrial and organizational (I–O) psychology over the past 100 years is the development of decision aids (e.g., paper-and-pencil tests, structured interviews, mechanical combination of predictors) that substantially reduce error in the prediction of employee performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Arguably, the greatest failure of I–O psychology has been the inability to convince employers to use them.

Highhouse, 2008

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How We Confuse Confidence With Competence

We have come up with a solution that is really, really, I think very good. Now I have to tell you, its an unbelievably complex subject, nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.

US President Donald Trump, demonstrating how the incompetent lack the cognitive tools to understand their own shortcomings or accurately assess others.

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Understanding MOBAs

When I first heard that Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas were the new thing, I assumed that there had been a revival of classic arena shooters like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. They’re multiplayer, online arenas where you battle, right? But instead, the genre popularised by League of Legends and Defence of the Ancients seemed to be a kind of minimalist RTS. So I didn’t pay it any more heed, and yet here in 2017, MOBAs are a professional sport. So with Awesomenauts which is essentially a 2D MOBA, I wanted to try and uncover the appeal of this persistent genre. If you’re a hardcore MOBA-er, then feel free to tell me I’m wrong and need to git gud in the comments.

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