The opposite strategy - fear based

It’s an easy trap to fall into. I remember when I joined a peer organization for other technology CEOs feeling very insecure about my own knowledge and wanting to use language to make myself sound more knowledgeable than I really was.

It’s a common mistake to want to be seen as more knowledgeable than you are.

This career strategy is to try and make oneself the expert in a silo and be defensive of receiving knowledge of other people.

Regretfully it’s a disturbingly common dysfunctional approach to how many people do end up trying to find safety.

Ultimately this strategy ends in a really ugly way. Someone who adopts this defensive mindset doesn’t grow their ability to do great things - when the organization fails or they get let go it’s harder to reinvent oneself in a positive way to find security doing a new role.

See leaders should not be intimidating.