I receive the strangest press releases. Lately several publicity agents have targeted me about mental health issues. Much has been written about mental health crises gripping the nation. That is no doubt true. But I wonder if this is a case where the situation is less hidden. My mom had issues that even led to a brief hospitalization. No one ever talked about those—not even dad to the family.
This press release talked of mental health, immaturity, and men in the tech industry. You might as well hit them all, I guess.
As the drama unfolds over leadership changes at AI lab OpenAI, valued at over $29 billion, social entrepreneur and thought leader Nicole Gibson, author of Legacy Disorder, has insightful commentary to offer on this saga that she believes reveals deeper issues around immature and reactive leadership in the tech industry.
Gibson contends that the volatile decision-making unfolding publicly at OpenAI reveals that some of the tech industry’s most powerful men are making hugely consequential leadership choices based on ego and emotion, rather than ethical responsibility. She argues that rash decisions made to satisfy personal power struggles could have devastating implications for humanity down the line if the leaders behind world-changing technology lack maturity and morals.
I believe that she served for a time as a cabinet minister in Australia. Surely she saw power and emotion up close and personal there. She is a bit off, I believe, about the reasons for the drama at OpenAI. She also seems to miss that two of the main actors were women.
Ego and emotion rather than ethical responsibility have been the story line for leadership failures for centuries—even millennia. I’ve written many times about leadership failures over the past 20 years.
The real question does not regard ranting about a few men in Silicon Valley. The real question pertains to us—you and me. How are we leading? Do we have an ethical foundation? Do we care about those affected—associates, employees, customers, community? Are we trying to do what’s best for everyone involved? Or are we simply greedy, immoral jerks?
My suggestion is to work on developing a lifestyle of being kind—to yourself as well as to others.
My sponsor is Inductive Automation. Check out their flagship product Ignition and the Cloud and Edge editions. If you would like to get a message out to about 200,000 people, you, too, could be a sponsor. Reply to this email to find out more about sponsorship opportunities.
You can find my business and technology blog The Manufacturing Connection.
You can find my personal development blog Faith Venture.
Do a colleague a favor and forward this newsletter. Questions or comments, hit reply.
Gary