When you are in a position of influence, be careful of easily trusting those around you who have something to gain from you. Often when you have money, title or position, it becomes tempting to believe the hype—believing that they are always honest and authentic when they say you are wonderful…that you rock! Some are sincere, but how do you tell?

Some leaders have made bad business decisions by trusting everything their admirers tell them. Be cautious when your press is extremely good. Recall Hans Christian Andersen’s story in which nobody would tell the emperor that he was naked. Recall other stories of ancient kings who disguised themselves and wandered the streets, just to gather objective input from their subjects.

If you have serious influence through money, title or position, perform personal evaluation that is from the outside, anonymous and objective. Otherwise you could be headed for the pits and nobody will tell you. Only the greatest of souls will seek out the kind of evaluation that could shatter the myths of how wonderful they are.

QUESTION:

Can you share an example that you have seen of this situation?
How do you do this without becoming suspicious, negative and untrusting of friends and well-wishers?

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