Top Ten Differences

1. Insecure leaders selectively divulge and withhold information. Secure leaders freely share information.
2. Insecure leaders teach employees what they need to know. Secure leaders nurture employees to help them figure out what they need to know.
 
3. Insecure leaders discourage risk taking. Secure leaders encourage calculated risk taking.
 
4. Insecure leaders give instructions and expect them to be followed. Secure leaders give guidance and expect results.
 
5. Insecure leaders demand respect. Secure leaders earn respect.
 
6. Insecure leaders may acknowledge great performance but ensure they also get credit. Secure leaders spotlight great performance and don’t worry about getting credit.
 
7. Insecure leaders hire and promote others who think like they do. Secure leaders hire and promote others who think differently than they do.
 
8. Insecure leaders deflect failure. Secure leaders accept responsibility for failure.
 
9. Insecure leaders promote those they can control. Secure leaders promote those they don’t have to control.
 
10. Insecure leaders grow good doers. Secure leaders grow great leaders.

What’s the new psychological trick for improving performance? Strategic lying. When amateur golfers were told, falsely, that a club belonged to the professional golfer Ben Curtis, they putted better than other golfers using the same club. For a study published in March, human cyclists were pitted against a computer-generated opponent moving at, supposedly, the exact speed the cyclist had achieved in an earlier time trial. In fact, the avatars were moving 2 percent faster, and the human cyclists matched them, reaching new levels of speed. Lying is obviously not a long-term strategy — once you realize what’s going on, the effects may evaporate. It works as long as your trainer can keep the secret.

What do you think about this?  Is this ever ok?  What are the long term consequences?