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Be careful not to confuse “great leader” with “cult leader”. A great leader is someone who cares about you and helps you surface the best version of yourself.

by latexr 1y ago

Be careful not to confuse “great leader” with “cult leader”. A great leader is someone who cares about you and helps you surface the best version of yourself. They understand there is a person behind the work and don’t neglect the human side. They mention the team behind projects when talking about successes and don’t blame others for failures. A cult leader is someone with a hypnotic personality who puts themselves first before anyone else. They couldn’t give less of a shit about you or your sacrifices, and will fire you even if you sleep in the office to get more work done. They are selfish and narcissistic, believe they know everything, and speak about successes as if they personally did all the work.

osigurdson 1y ago
What would you call a leader that puts the objective ahead of everything else, including employees and themselves? I think that more closely aligns with people that have been very successful.
- latexr 1y ago
  > What would you call a leader that puts the objective ahead of everything else, including employees and themselves? That definition is too broad to be useful. Is the “objective” to make money at all costs, and the leader is willing to suck employees and themselves dry, even over protests? Or is the objective to build a free hospital in a poor country and everyone is so committed to the cause they are willing to make personal sacrifices? > I think that more closely aligns with people that have been very successful. Also aligns with scammers and other grifters who are now in jail. “Successful” is also too broad a term to be useful. One person may think that “being very successful” means being rich, while to another interpersonal relationships and a happy life are what matter.
herval 1y ago
"cult leaders" are, by definition, "great leaders" - they excel at leading people. Sure, it's better to work for someone that cares about you instead of someone that only cares about themselves. But that doesn't make this a Venn Diagram - there are great leaders who are selfish and narcissistic. There are cult leaders who aren't either.
- latexr 1y ago
  > "cult leaders" are, by definition, "great leaders" Not as defined, and I did define them. What matters is the explained distinction between the two types of leader, arguing exact semantics of individual words in the shorthand term isn’t productive. Since the original poster I replied to used the word “amazing” (plus the context of the conversation), I used “great” to mean “Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic”, not “effective”. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/great https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/great

by latexr 1y ago

osigurdson 1y ago

What would you call a leader that puts the objective ahead of everything else, including employees and themselves? I think that more closely aligns with people that have been very successful.

latexr 1y ago
> What would you call a leader that puts the objective ahead of everything else, including employees and themselves? That definition is too broad to be useful. Is the “objective” to make money at all costs, and the leader is willing to suck employees and themselves dry, even over protests? Or is the objective to build a free hospital in a poor country and everyone is so committed to the cause they are willing to make personal sacrifices? > I think that more closely aligns with people that have been very successful. Also aligns with scammers and other grifters who are now in jail. “Successful” is also too broad a term to be useful. One person may think that “being very successful” means being rich, while to another interpersonal relationships and a happy life are what matter.

herval 1y ago

"cult leaders" are, by definition, "great leaders" - they excel at leading people. Sure, it's better to work for someone that cares about you instead of someone that only cares about themselves. But that doesn't make this a Venn Diagram - there are great leaders who are selfish and narcissistic. There are cult leaders who aren't either.

latexr 1y ago
> "cult leaders" are, by definition, "great leaders" Not as defined, and I did define them. What matters is the explained distinction between the two types of leader, arguing exact semantics of individual words in the shorthand term isn’t productive. Since the original poster I replied to used the word “amazing” (plus the context of the conversation), I used “great” to mean “Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic”, not “effective”. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/great https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/great