Like Ovide, I also wonder if the sort of epochal, transformative leadership I associate with figures like Elon Musk, Robert Moses, and yes, Eric Lander, requires the unreasonable conviction and distasteful self-belief of a high-profile, high-powered individual champion.
We are left with a difficult, pragmatic question: Is it possible to selectively curtail the worst qualities of visionary leaders, while retaining all that is good?
Perhaps, with the appropriate refinements, we can create the space for a new category of equally effective—and ideally, even more effective—transformative leader to emerge; this is the dream and what I’d wish for myself, my colleagues, my family.
But it’s also possible that, in our eagerness to minimize offense, we will instead condemn ourselves to anodyne leaders incapable of profoundly challenging the status quo. Worse still, such organizational stasis might even pave the way for a disruptive, malignant narcissist eager to step into the breach.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member