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Effective leadership isnt a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It requires adaptability, self-awareness, and a deep understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Leaders often struggle to find the right balance between empowering their teams and maintaining strategic oversight. But theres a way that you can do both. By adopting the practical 2×2 leadership framework that Ill get into in this article, leaders can assess their approach based on two critical dimensions: Degree of Empowerment and Degree of Strategic Altitude. The leadership quadrants When you map out leadership approaches across these two dimensions, four distinct quadrants emerge. Each quadrant represents a different leadership style, and understanding when and how to apply each can help leaders optimize their impact. Control hub (operational overreach) This quadrant is appropriate when employees lack the necessary skills, experience, or confidence to perform tasks independently. Its crucial in high-stakes situations that require precision and compliance, like crisis management or regulatory adherence. Leaders should adopt this approach when theyre training new employees or when they need to take immediate corrective action to prevent costly mistakes. Potential pitfalls Overindulgence in this quadrant can lead to micromanagement, which stifles employee creativity and autonomy. When leaders insist on controlling every aspect of a task, employees may feel disengaged and undervalued, leading to high turnover rates and low morale. However, avoiding this quadrant when you genuinely need it can result in poor quality control, increased errors, and project derailment due to a lack of oversight. Maria, a project manager at a fast-growing tech company Ive consulted with, is leading the rollout of a new software update for a major client. Given the complexity of the project and the tight deadlines, she feels the need to oversee every aspect, from development timelines to QA testing. Despite having a capable team, Maria conducts frequent check-ins, requests detailed reports, and personally reviews code before deployment. Initially, Maria’s approach ensures that the project stays on track and meets the client’s stringent quality standards. But as the project progresses, her team begins to feel micromanaged, leading to frustration and burnout. Experienced developers feel undervalued, and morale begins to decline. Maria realizes that while tight oversight was necessary at the project’s start, gradually transitioning to a more empowering leadership style could have built trust and improved team morale. She implements a phased approach, which allows senior developers to take ownership of specific modules while she shifts focus to higher-level strategic issues. Guided autonomy (empowered operators) This quadrant works best when employees have a solid foundation of skills but still require occasional guidance to refine their capabilities. Its effective for developing talent and allows employees to build confidence while benefiting from the leaders strategic input. Leaders should apply this approach when the team needs to complete moderately complex tasks that require periodic support. Potential pitfalls Overindulging in this quadrant can potentially make employees overly dependent on the leader, which slows down their growth and initiative. Leaders might also avoid this quadrant due to discomfort with providing critical feedback, which can allow performance issues to go unchecked. Jason, a sales director, is coaching a group of midlevel sales managers tasked with expanding into a new market. They have a good grasp of sales fundamentals but lack experience in handling high-stakes negotiations with enterprise clients. Jason decides to provide them with structured mentorship, offering periodic guidance while still giving them room to develop their negotiation skills. He schedules biweekly coaching sessions, where he reviews their progress, provides feedback on their approach, and shares best practices. However, Jason struggles to provide direct corrective feedback because he fears it might demotivate them. As a result, some managers continue to struggle with closing deals, leading to missed targets. Jason realizes that empowerment doesn’t mean avoiding difficult conversations. By balancing encouragement with constructive feedback, he can help his team refine their skills without undermining their confidence. He starts incorporating role-playing exercises and clear, actionable feedback into his coaching sessions. Strategic steering (visionary control) This approach is ideal when the organization or team needs clear strategic direction while requiring oversight to ensure alignment with long-term goals. Its particularly useful during times of change, such as mergers, expansions, or new strategic initiatives. Leaders should engage in strategic steering when they need to provide vision while maintaining control over key decision-making areas. Potential pitfalls Overindulgence in strategic thinking might disconnect leaders from ground-level realities, which leaves employees without practical guidance. Avoiding this quadrant may result in a lack of long-term vision, which leads to shortsighted operational decisions. Emily, the founder of a successful e-commerce startup Ive coached, wants to expand to international markets. She dedicates most of her time to crafting the company’s long-term strategy and forming partnerships with global distributors. However, in doing so, she becomes detached from day-to-day operations, assuming her management team can handle internal processes. Over time, operational inefficiencies emerge, with increasing customer complaints about delivry times and product quality. Employees feel directionless as their efforts are not aligned with the founder’s ambitious vision. Emily realizes the importance of balancing strategic oversight with operational involvement. She implements regular strategy check-ins with her leadership team to ensure alignment between the company’s long-term goals and daily operations, bridging the gap between vision and execution. Strategic empowerment (empowered governance) This quadrant works best for high-performing teams that demonstrate consistent results and align well with the organizations strategic goals. Leaders should utilize this approach when their primary focus is on shaping organizational culture and long-term planning while trusting their teams to handle daily operations effectively. This quadrant is particularly valuable for fostering innovation and employee ownership. Overreliance on delegation can lead to a lack of awareness of operational challenges, potentially causing misalignment with organizational goals. However, avoiding full delegation altogether might stifle innovation and growth. Alex, a regional President at a multinational corporation with whom Ive worked, has built a highly capable leadership team. Trusting their expertise, he adopts a hands-off approach, allowing them full autonomy over department operations. He shifts his focus to high-level industry trends and shapes the organizations long-term vision. Initially, this approach fosters a sense of ownership among his managers, and innovation flourishes. However, over time, small inefficiencies begin to accumulate. Without periodic oversight, teams start to work in silos, and communication gaps result in misalignment with company objectives. Alex learns that he needs to accompany empowerment with structured accountability. He starts to introduce quarterly strategic alignment meetings to ensure all departments remain connected to the broader organizational goals, while maintaining the autonomy that drives innovation. Great leadership requires a dynamic balance of empowerment and strategic altitude. By understanding and applying this quadrant framework, leaders can better align their leadership style to their teams needs, which drives both individual and organizational success. Whether on the dance floor or the balcony, the key is to know when to step in and when to step back.
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If youve ever been to the Vatican or watched for a puff of white smoke on live TV, you probably noticed something colorful. Or rather, something wholly mind-blowing in the modern era of tactical military designa troop of tri-color pantalooned papal protectors wielding halberds, seemingly straight out of a Raphael painting. But these are not hired cosplayers. This is the Swiss Guard, the popes personal security teamand today theyre protecting the college of cardinals as they vote on the next Catholic leader, decked out in what Encyclopedia Britannica has dubbed among the oldest uniforms in continuous use. Its more Met Gala than military. Heres how this bold anachronism came to be. Pope Francis walks past a Swiss guard, June 1, 2024. [Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images] SWISS ARMY LIFE Of course, theres another anomaly at play here: Why the mini army is dubbed the Swiss Guard despite being located within the worlds smallest country (Vatican City), which is nestled within Rome. As it turns out, rather than being a false eponym, the name is quite literal. In the late Middle Ages, Swiss mercenary forces were revered for their highly effective (read: deadly/terrifying) tactical fighting. Other countries in the region hired them to great effectso in 1506, Pope Julius II brought 150 of them to the Vatican. It was a fortuitous decision, and one that would save Pope Clements VIIs life in 1527. On May 6the day in which new Swiss Guard members are now traditionally sworn in every year, though that has been postponed in 2025 due to the conclaveCharles Vs soldiers sacked Rome. Of the Guards 189 members, 147 were killed, and they saved the popes life by ferrying him to safety through a secret passage. Today, the Vatican has a police force, which handles general security and law enforcement in the city. But the Swiss Guard exclusively protects the pope and his residence, and also travels abroad with him, in addition to safeguarding conclaves. And they do it with more than just those halberdsall members of the Guard must be between 19 and 30, Catholic, unmarried, and have already completed basic training with the Swiss Army, giving the 135-strong force proficiency with military tactics and modern firearms, which they are indeed equipped with. Theres more than meets the eye in those pantaloons. And not everyone is wearing themsome guards are in plain clothes and may appear to be tourists walking next to you. A painting of a Swiss Guard by Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, ca. 1810. [Image: Wiki Commons THE MOST PICTURESQUE UNIFORM OF ALL If you were to Google just what the heck, exactly, the Swiss Guard are wearing, youd quickly discover that the uniforms were designed by Michelangelo, who Julius II also commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel. And that would be a myth, which everyone from The New York Times in the 19th century to Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown has perpetuated. Rather, as the Vatican has detailed, when the mercenaries first rolled into the city, they were dressed like any other soldier of the 1500s, donning doublets and stockings. Its believed that Julius II gifted them with the beginnings of their signature stylistic flair when he incorporated yellow and bluecolors from his family coat of armsinto their uniforms. According to the Vatican, clothing had become finer and more colorful during the Renaissance, and red was in vogue. So Julius IIs successor, Leo X, took the opportunity to incorporate it into the uniforms as a nod to the colors of his family, the powerful Medici, during his reign from 1513 to 1521. Tweaks and revisions were made over time, with history intervening at various points. For example, as the Vatican details, there was no money to make updates to the uniforms during Napoleons rule, but some years later, under Leo XII, various attempts were made to copy Napoleonic uniforms, but fortunately without success; otherwise the splendid old uniforms would have been lost forever. [Photo: Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images] The current incarnation of the uniforms came in the early 20th century when a man named Jules Repond refined their form as we know it today (and who the Vatican notes was gifted with an exceptionally fine taste for colors and shapes”). Pope Pius X appointed him as commander of the Swiss Guard in 1910and he immediately managed to rankle the ranks. The Swiss Guard had become largely ceremonial, so he brought back rigorous military exercises and rifle practice. He mandated that only true Swiss natives could enroll. And he studied Raphaels frescoes and refined the uniform, drawing inspiration from its Renaissance-era appearance. Over the years the uniforms had been variations on a theme, and by 1914, Repond brought them to their final form. Today, 11 years on, theyre nearly the exact same design. [Photo: Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu/Getty Images] TAILOR-MADE There are a medley of variations to the uniform for different occasions, and even a subdued blue exercise uniform that is worn by the Guard during night operations and when working, say, the gate at the St. Annes entrance. (The Guard politely declined to comment for this story, given, you know, the whole conclave at handbut as they detail on their website: The main roads are also located there, and the colorful Gala uniform would cause too much distraction for the motorists.) No matter which uniform a member of the Guard sports, theres a good chance it was made by Ety Cicioni, the Vaticans chief tailor since 1997. As the CBC reported, the biggest challenge is keeping the uniform the same as Reponds vision despite the passage of time, and its impact on materials and techniques. Still, he and a team of seven manage to churn out 120 a year using prized wool from the Italian city of Biella. Per the CBC, every outfit is made from 154 pieces of fabricand Cicioni has also designed costumes for Vatican-adjacent films, such as 2019’s The Two Popes and 2023’s The Popes Exorcist. [Photo: Vasily Krestyaninov/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images] The one thing that has changed in the overall design of the uniformthe Swiss Guard got a helmet glow-up in 2019 when their scorching metal morions were replaced with breathable 3D-printed PVC counterparts. Ultimately, being a guard isnt all halberds and Renaissance history. In their off-time, they play on the FC Guardia soccer team, and compete against museum attendants and other groups in the Vatican Championship. They can join the Vatican band. They get to dine on Swiss and Italian cuisine cooked by Albertine nuns from Poland. What they cant do is play fast and loose with those wild uniforms. Theyre allowed to keep them for five years after they leave the Guard, or they can be buried in them. But they are explicitly banned from selling them. Still, if youve got $47,500, you could always try eBay.
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BROOKWOOD, Ala.The Trump administration has announced it will aim to fast-track the permitting and environmental review of a major coal mine expansion in central Alabama as part of a larger effort to accelerate the construction of what the government has labeled critical mineral infrastructure. While administration officials said the change is aimed at significantly reduc[ing] our reliance on foreign nations, coal produced as part of Warrior Mets expansion in Alabama is almost entirely exported overseas to support foreign steelmaking markets, according to the company. Warrior Mets Blue Creek mine expansion, set to be one of the largest coal build-outs in Alabama history, is one of 20 planned developments deemed transparency projects by the administration over the last two months. The mine expansion will be placed on the federal governments permitting dashboard as it moves its way through the regulatory and permitting process. The projects inclusion on the dashboard authorized under the 2015 Fixing Americas Surface Transportation Act (FAST) will, according to the Trump administration, make the environmental review and authorizations schedule for these vital mineral production projects publicly available and allow all of these projects to benefit from increased transparency. The public nature of the dashboard ensures that all stakeholders, from project sponsors and community members to federal agency leaders, have up-to-date accounting of where each project stands in the review process, the administration said in its announcement. This transparency leads to greater accountability, ensuring a more efficient process. During the Biden administration, the so-called FAST-41 dashboard was used to fast-track projects aimed at benefiting tribal nations, as well as various projects advancing renewable energy, coastal restoration, broadband, and electricity transmission sectors. The program was created as a means to enhance transparency and increase the efficiency of the permitting process, the Biden administration said at the time. With a new president, though, the programs designated to participateand the policy priorities they representhave now changed. The Trump administration has already signaled its support of the Alabama project. In April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited an existing Warrior Met mine outside Tuscaloosa and took a windshield tour of the Blue Creek facility currently under construction. During that visit, Burgum emphasized the administrations stated commitment to fossil fuel production and said that its actions would unleash American energy. He did not acknowledge Warrior Mets checkered safety and environmental record or that nearly all of its productmetallurgical coalis shipped overseas for foreign steelmaking operations, not used in the U.S. We sell substantially all of our steelmaking coal production to steel producers outside of the United States, a recent Warrior Met corporate filing said. For the three months ended March 31, 2025, our geographic customer mix was 37% in Europe, 43% in Asia, and 20% in South America. The planned expansion of Blue Creek involves a major build-out of Warrior Mets ability to mine for underground coal using the longwall method, a particularly destructive form of mining in which large machines shear walls of coal, leaving vast, empty expanses in their wake. Land above those empty caverns sinks, causing what is often permanent damage to the surface and structures there. Longwall mining has devastated communities in Alabama and beyond. In March 2024, an Alabama home exploded above a longwall mine with a different owner after methanea gas released during miningseeped into the residence and ignited. The resulting blast killed an Alabama grandfather and seriously injured his grandson. Since then, the community above the Oak Grove mine in western Jefferson County has continued to crumble, with homes foundations cracking as the longwall mine expands below. Earlier this year, just as President Donald Trump was announcing efforts to promote clean, beautiful coal, a West Virginia woman was hospitalized after a methane explosion in her home atop a longwall mine left her seriously injured. Workers from the mine beneath her home had stood behind Trump during his White House announcement. Once completed, Warrior Mets Blue Creek expansion will increase the companys coal production by 60%, providing additional supply for overseas steelmaking markets hungry for metallurgical coal that can meet production needs. Taxpayer-funded support for the facility may top $400 million. The company has also asked the federal government to allow it to mine publicly owned coal as part of the Blue Creek project. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last year that it would conduct an environmental assessment related to Warrior Mets Blue Creek project and, specifically, its proposal to mine 14,040 acres of federal minerals underlying privately owned land in Tuscaloosa County. Warrior Mets applications to lease the coal rights propose the extraction of approximately 57.5 million tons of recoverable public coal reserves. Initial government scoping documents indicated that any environmental assessment of the Blue Creek project would include an analysis of its impact on climate change, both direct and indirect. Since those initial documents were released, however, federal guidance on the inclusion of climate change considerations in government decision-making has been in flux. A day-one executive order by Trump, for example, disbanded the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, which was established pursuant to a Biden executive order. The order said any guidance, instruction, recommendation, or document issued by the IWG is withdrawn as no longer representative of governmental policy. That guidance had emphasized the importance of government analysis of the social cost of carbon, a way of putting a dollar figure on the economic damage that comes from emitting a ton of carbon dioxide. The Trump White House has said without evidence that the concept is marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation. Public comments on the project already submitted to BLM included concerns aroundgreenhouse gas emissions and Warrior Mets contribution to the climate crisis. Please do not approve any new or expanded coal mining, one commenter wrote. The climate crisis is already deadly and rapidly getting worse. There is an overwhelming international consensus on the severity of this crisis and the urgent need to phase out the use of harmful fossil fuels. The draft environmental impact statement for the Blue Creek project, originally set to be released sometime in the fall, is now scheduled to be published on May 30, according to BLM. Lee Hedgepeth, Inside Climate News This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
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Bible designs tend to be variations on a themetissue-thin paper and unforgiving font sizes, owing to the 783,000 words crammed into a single normal-sized book (the average novel, by comparison, clocks in at 70,000100,000 words). Cheap faux-leather covers. A bookmark ribbon, maybe. If youre a person of faith, its perhaps not the most fitting frame for what is defined as the literal word of God. If youre a design zealot, its heretical object quality. If youre both, wellprayers. The Bible is a book utterly ripe for a redesign. So Dylan Da Silva did just that with his Byble project, which released a bespoke hypermodern 11.5-pound edition of Genesis (the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament) last fall, and this week is launching its next volume, Matthew (the first book of the Christian New Testament). Our mission, I guess, is simplecraftsmanship beyond words, Da Silva says. Crafting products so beautiful, they elevate the experience of reading the most powerful book ever written. The Genesis Da Silva is not a designer, nor does he work in publishing. Rather, he comes from a property development background. Around 2022, the Sydney-based Da Silva was pondering how he could build a business around something of great meaning to him. He realized that while many people own a Bible, they generally dont display it. And given that we live in a consumer society driven by aesthetics, he saw an opportunity to craft something new in that blank space. While he lacks visual design creds, he has experience with architectural design, and the Bible is very much a structural design challenge owing to its system of numbered verses and chapters. Da Silva wanted to keep the focus exclusively on the text (here, the King James Versionthe word is beautiful enough as it is), so he decided not to feature any illustration or photography, and instead offer a solution that was purely typographic, which he developed with a partner in Greece over the course of two years. Another key goal was to design a system that would allow for a deeper reading of the Bible. To that end, he is breaking the Bibles many books out of the larger whole and into single volumes, starting, naturally, with Genesis, which dominates the spine and cover of the first release in a debossed Grotesk. Da Silva drew inspiration from the Gutenberg Bible, with its distinct columns and margins and occasional typographic flair, and also sought to home in on particular moments for readers in pull quotes, translucent overlays, and bold all-caps spreads (the brand dubs these yield moments, thus the Y in Byble). It has the effect of slowing the books down and allowing text to breathe in an otherwise daunting 783,000-word experience. We obsess over every detail, every page, every layout, he says. Ultimately, we are accessible to the reader. OPENING A DOOR In addition to the new text presentation, Da Silva went wild on the production specs for the 13×10-inch volumes. Rather than fragile gossamer pages, he brought in a hefty 220 gsm stock. Hardcovers with silkscreened fabric. Typographic edge painting. Each book is available in two colorwaysin the case of Genesis, black or green, the latter being a tip of the hat to the Garden of Eden. And for Matthew, white and red, the latter signifying the blood of Christ. All this production value comes at a cost: Currently the Byble costs $149, which has rankled some commenters on social media. Our cost to produce is quite expensive, Da Silva says. The margin is not massive; it’s a standard margin for a business. I think we’re reasonably priced. I knew there was always going to be a pushback. Following Matthew, Da Silva is focusing on eight of the other most popular books of the BiblePsalms, Proverbs, Exodus, Romans, Mark, Paul, John and Revelation. He wants to have five or six out by the end of the year, and then keep launching more from there, with special editions mixed in. His target audience? The devout, of course, but also design lovers and those who the Byble aesthetic could resonate with in new ways. The goal for us is really reaching that younger generation who might be curious to learn more, who might think that the Bible is boring, or religion is boring, Da Silva says. We’re trying to open up a door for them.
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Ambition is one of the most defining forces in human affairsa psychological engine that propels individuals beyond the realm of survival into the arena of creation, disruption, and transformation, and significantly predicts educational attainment, career success, job performance, and income. At its core, ambition is the refusal to accept the status quo, the internal pressure to stretch personal limits and societal boundaries. In a way, the best way to understand ambition is as the inability to be satisfied with ones accomplishments. Ambition fuels leadership by pushing individuals to take responsibility, imagine alternatives, and mobilize others toward a vision. Ambition underwrites entrepreneurship as the catalyst for risk-taking, persistence, and the stubborn belief that a better way is not only possible but necessary. Without ambition, innovation stalls; with it, people challenge orthodoxy, break conventions, and solve problems that others resign to fate. Across disciplines, from science to art to politics, historys breakthroughs are seldom the product of complacencythey are the residue of restless, ambitious minds. The world, to a large extent, is the output of ambitious people. It is shaped by those who couldnt sit still, who werent content with inherited limitations, and who felt compelled to act on their ideas, no matter how unlikely or unpopular. From the first controlled fire to the latest generative AI models, progress has never been evenly distributedit has been driven by individuals and groups with an outsized appetite to leave a mark. Ambition transforms dissatisfaction into momentum, and imagination into infrastructure. It explains not just who rises to lead or invent, but why civilizations expand, technologies leap forward, and cultures evolve. While it must be tempered by ethics and collective concern, ambition remains an irreplaceable force in the story of human progress. Everything in moderation And yet, like all powerful traits, ambition is best expressed in moderation. Too little, and individuals driftuntethered from purpose, passive in the face of opportunity. Too much, and ambition can metastasize into obsession, crowding out humility, collaboration, and even moral judgment. When ambition becomes unbounded, it stops serving the individual and begins demanding sacrificeof relationships, values, and long-term well-being. It can distort self-perception, encouraging people to see themselves not as contributors to a shared cause, but as lone heroes in a zero-sum contest. Teams suffer when ambition eclipses empathy: the pursuit of personal achievement starts to undermine trust, cooperation, and psychological safety. A competitive drive that ignores others needs doesnt just alienate colleaguesit weakens the very foundation of high-functioning organizations. Unchecked ambition often bleeds into greed, an insatiable hunger not just to succeed, but to dominate. As Gordon Gekko infamously said, Greed is gooda provocative mantra for the high-octane world of finance, but a dangerous philosophy when applied indiscriminately. Greed erodes the social contract. It justifies exploitation, tolerates unethical shortcuts, and treats people as a means to an end. In leadership, this can result in toxic cultures, short-term thinking, and spectacular failures. Companies driven solely by ambition without constraint may grow fast, but they often implode fastertoppling under the weight of hubris, burnout, and scandal. The WeWork Case Adam Neumann, cofounder and former CEO of WeWork, is a textbook example of how unbridled ambition can lead to spectacular collapse. Neumann started with a compelling vision: to elevate the worlds consciousness through a coworking space company that promised to redefine the way people live and work. His charisma and relentless ambition helped WeWork grow at breakneck speed, attracting billions in venture capital and inflating its valuation to nearly $47 billion at its peak. But Neumanns ambition quickly outpaced operational reality. He expanded into housing (WeLive), education (WeGrow), and other ventures with little strategic coherence. Reports surfaced of erratic behavior, conflicts of interest, and a corporate culture driven more by Neumanns personal mythos than sound governance. In 2019, when WeWork attempted to go public, its financial inconsistencies and Neumanns questionable leadership style came under scrutiny. The IPO failed, Neumann was forced to resign, and the companys valuation plummeted. His ambition wasnt the problem in itselfit was that it became delusional, detached from execution, and ultimately corrosive to the companys sustainability. Neumann exemplifies how visionary drive, without discipline or humility, can become a liability rather than an asset. In short, the healthiest ambition is grounded in purpose, tempered by self-awareness, and balanced by a commitment to collective success. It lifts everyone, not just the one climbing the fastest. So, while it’s generally better to have than to lack ambition, here are three proven ways in which an excess of drive or motivation can harm your career and negatively impact others. 1. Ambition can inhibit peoples prosocial drive When the desire to get ahead outweighs the instinct to get along, ambition can corrode social cohesion. In team environments, overly ambitious individuals may hoard credit, prioritize visibility over contribution, and treat colleagues as competitors rather than collaborators. This undermines trust and psychological safetytwo bedrocks of effective teamwork. For example, a rising executive who constantly angles for the spotlight may alienate peers and demoralize subordinates, even if their individual output is impressive. Over time, the cost of such interpersonal friction outweighs the benefits of raw performance. In the long run, organizations thrive not on lone stars but on networks of mutual respect and cooperationboth of which ambition can quietly erode if left unchecked. 2. Ambition can amplify antisocial traits like narcissism, aggression, and entitlement While a healthy dose of drive can motivate people to aim high, excessive ambition can inflate the ego and distort moral reasoning. Narcissistic leaders, for instance, often begin their ascent with impressive confidence and visionbut as their ambition grows, so does their sense of superiority and disregard for others. This can lead to toxic behaviors like manipulation, bullying, or a refusal to accept criticism. Take the case of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos: her ambition to revolutionize healthcare was laudable, but her unwillingness to admit failure or accept limits led to deception and collapse. When ambition aligns with antisocial traits, it stops being a virtue and becomes a liabilityboth for the individual and the system theyre part of. 3. Ambition can harm personal relationships, wellbeing, and life outside work Ambition often demands trade-offs, but when those trade-offs become sacrifices, the consequences can be severe. People driven by intense professional goals may neglect family, friends, and self-carebelieving that success justifies the costs. This mindset is especially common in high-stakes environments like consulting, finance, or tech startups, where long hours and relentless competition are normalized. Over time, the neglect accumulates: relationships fray, health deteriorates, and a creeping sense of emptiness can set ineven after major achievements. A partner who misses birthdays for business trips or skips vacations for product launches may eventually find the corner office far lonelier than expected. True success requires integration, not imbalancesomething ambition doesnt always encourage. Research consistently shows that moderate levels of ambitionas opposed to extremely high or low levelsare most beneficial for long-term well-being, work-life balance, and sustainable career success. In the famous words of Seneca, It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. A more sustainable strategy Indeed, people with a healthy dose of ambition tend to have clear goals, a sense of purpose, and enough drive to stay engaged and motivated. But unlike the hyper-ambitious, they are less likely to sacrifice personal relationships, sleep, or mental health in pursuit of constant advancement. They are also more likely to value balance, practice self-care, and define success in broader terms than just titles or paychecks. This makes them not only happier individuals but often better colleagues and leaders. Moderately ambitious individuals are also more likely to stay grounded in reality. They can be ambitious without being delusional, motivated without being obsessive, and confident without being overbearing. As a result, they tend to make better long-term decisionsfor themselves and others. Rather than chasing every opportunity or competing with everyone around them, they focus on meaningful progress, both professionally and personally. In a world that often glamorizes extreme ambition, it’s worth remembering that the good life is rarely lived on the edge of burnoutand that sometimes, aiming for enough is the smartest and most sustainable strategy of all.It is also clear that de-emphasizing ambitionor the importance we give to itcould help in many areas of life, including business. For example: 1. We tend to overrate ambition, especially when selecting leaders In many organizations, leadership potential is judged through the lens of visibility, assertiveness, and a hunger for advancementclassic signals of ambition. We rarely pause to ask whether that ambition serves the group, or merely the individual. As a result, we often confuse confidence for competence, and ambition for ability. Research consistently shows that traits like humility, integrity, and emotional intelligence are more predictive of effective leadership than raw drive or self-promotion. Yet job interviews and promotion processes still reward those who lean in, speak up, and outperform peersoften selecting the loudest rather than the wisest. This opens the door to narcissistic leaders who crave power for its own sake. As Plato warned, a person who wants to govern should not. 2. Ambition is frequently mistaken for talent, even in roles that demand competence over charisma Think of professions where precision, reliability, and expertise are paramountpilots, surgeons, financial advisers. In these roles, would you rather entrust your life or money to someone highly ambitious, or someone quietly excellent? In reality, you often cant have both. The most ambitious professionals may focus more on personal brand-building and career climbing than on mastering their craft. Yet our hiring and evaluation systems tend to reward the ambitious candidate: the confident speaker, the impressive résumé, the person with a five-year plan to reach the top. This obsession with upward momentum blinds us to quiet competence. Ironically, many of the best performers are not those obsessed with being someone, but with doing something well. 3. Finally, ambition is often directed at the wrong goalsthose that serve ego more than others Many high achievers are not driven to make things better, but to be seen as better than others. Their goals are status-enhancing, not impact-driven: more power, more wealth, more recognition. This kind of ambition justifies any meanscutting corners, sidelining colleagues, or exploiting loopholesso long as the outcome advances their image. In this light, ambition becomes less a force for progress and more a zero-sum race for supremacy. Organizations and societies pay the price: innovation stalls when energy is spent on internal jockeying, teams fracture under self-serving leadership, and trust erodes. True ambition should be oriented toward contribution, not domination. But too often, we reward the latter and wonder why so many leaders fail to elevate anyone but themselves. When Enough is Enough Ambition is a powerful tool, but like any tool, it can become dangerous when misused or overvalued. In a world that equates relentless drive with virtue, we risk promoting the wrong people, building the wrong cultures, and pursuing the wrong goals. We forget that ambition is not inherently nobleit simply magnifies what already exists. In the right hands, it catalyzes innovation, service, and progress. In the wrong ones, it fuels ego, exploitation, and eventual collapse. The challenge, then, is not to reject ambition, but to recalibrate our relationship with it: to stop treating it as an end in itself, and start seeing it as a means to something greater. This requires a collective shift in how we define successnot as the ability to outshine others, but as the capacity to uplift them. We need to stop conflating ambition with leadership potential, charisma with competence, and visibility with value. Its time to reward the quietly excellent, the others-focused, and the impact-driven. The future will not belong to those who climb the fastest, but to those who climb with purposeand bring others with them. As my colleague and friend Amy Edmondson and I have argued, ambition may drive history, but only wisdom, humility, and interity ensure that it drives us somewhere worth going.
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E-Commerce
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