Leadership Hubris: Achilles’ Heel of Success

Rooted in mythology, ancient Greek society considered hubris as man’s capital sin (Wiener, 1973). Hubris (or hybris) is the pretension to be godlike, and thereby fail to observe the divine equilibrium among god, man and nature. The essential element of hubris is extreme confidence that can lead to arrogance and other dark side leadership attributes. In ancient Greek mythology, the gods relentlessly struck down those who were excessively confident, presumptuous, blindly ambitious or otherwise lacking humility (Grimal, 1986). Scholars have defined hubris as: A state of mind in which man thinks more than human thoughts and later translates them into act. It is an offence against the order of the world (Grene, 1961: 487).The arrogant violation of limits set by the gods or by human society (North, 1966: 6).Having energy or power and misusing it self-indulgently (MacDowell, 1976: 21).Behaviour that is intended gratuitously to inflict dishonour and shame upon others or to the values that hold a society together (Fisher, 1979: 32, 45).