Leadership: Are You Letting Your Firm Be the Emperor Who Has No Clothes?

This week I’d like you to recall Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. This story has a lesson that every business owner needs to consider.

The tale tells of two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes. But what makes this suit unusual is that it is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent.Emperor Clothes 01

When the weavers complete his suit and pantomime putting it on him, the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes. The nobility see nothing but play along with the charade, not wanting to be shown unfit for their position. The commoners say nothing because they don’t want to be found stupid. No one dares to say that he doesn't see any suit of clothes. At last a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The shocked emperor regains his composure and continues to walk through the crowd as though nothing has changed.

After hearing more than one executive speech, several of us would comment, “This emperor has no clothes.” But not wanting to appear disloyal (or lose our jobs), we feign a certain disingenuous level of support of the latest executive pronouncements.

How might business owners not get caught in this trap?

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The blog post Leadership: Are You Letting Your Firm Be the Emperor Who Has No Clothes? is available on American Business Advisors

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