First, senior positions are often complex, with murky standards of performance and subjective definitions of success. Second, above a certain level, there usually aren’t reliable mechanisms to supply honest feedback sufficient for gauging performance on these more subjective measures. Making matters worse, many powerful people encircle themselves with friends or sycophants who don’t challenge or disagree with them. As professor Manfred Kets de Vries put it, they’re surrounded by “walls, mirrors and liars.” And finally, executives are often rewarded for delusion—for
