Monday, December 11, 2006

Spotting dangerous leaders

Recently I had lunch with Len Corti, a retired Fortune 500 executive. I love hearing his stories. He began telling me about a point in his career when he was raising money from investors for business start-ups. “I was dangerous," he said.

“Tell me more,” I said, puzzled by the comment.

“I was dangerous because I believed in what I was doing" he said. "I really believed in the start-ups and because I believed I raised money but that doesn’t mean the start-ups were all good investments.”

Since our lunch I’ve been pondering, "How do you know whether a person is a good faith leader or someone who is dangerous in their beliefs?"

I'm writing the next issue of the 7 Paths e-letter on that topic. If you'd like to read the issue when it comes out on December 14, and you're not a subscriber, you can subscribe to the free e-letter at the top right-hand side of this blog.