15. Leadership in business

How would you react if you were told by your top boss that you have a problem and that problem is you – only you don’t know how on earth you can be THE problem? Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Well, in this simple, practical, enlightening, maybe even life-changing business book from the Arbringer Institute, you’ll find that at the center of most organizational problems is the human frailty of Self-Deception.

With its easy-to-read narrative style and analogy by common life examples, you’ll find the concepts and principles adaptable to any work environment. Sometimes, you’ll hardly feel that you’re reading a business book because the subject is deeply rooted on how you behave as an individual, as a person and thus, may also be applied to your everyday life.

This book starts with a meeting between Bud Jefferson, Executive Vice President of Zagrum Company, and Tom Callum, newest Senior Manager to one of Zagrum’s product lines. This kind of meeting has been a tradition in the company that all new senior management personnel are expected to participate in. The first thing that Bud told Tom after all the pleasantries have been dispensed was that Tom had a problem and that he himself was unaware of it. This bit of information confused Tom but he waited patiently for the explanation. This explanation took two days to unravel…

On the first day of the meeting, Bud tried to explain to Tom the presence of Self-Deception and its tenacious hold on every human being. He asked Tom to think of a person in his previous company whom he believed to be an impediment to teamwork. This person was so full of himself that he’s a classic case for self-deception. Its grip was so strong yet so subtle as to be non-existent to this person with the problem.