A Skewed Mental Model
Imagine each person’s model of leadership as a box containing circles that represent the leader’s areas of responsibility. The size of each circle indicates the importance the leader places on each responsibility. Inevitably, when the leader overplays a strength, the circle corresponding to that element of leadership is grossly oversized.
In some people, the circle representing “prepare” is disproportionately large. A newly appointed head of investor relations (IR) vastly overprepared for board meetings and presentations to analysts. Before presentations he was so nervous he threw up. A colleague commented, “He feels like he has to answer every question, think of every angle, and he doesn’t.” Easy for an onlooker to be objective. ...
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