Challenge the Ordinary

Chapter SevenFalling Stars and Snakes in Suits

When exceptional people lack ethics, empathy, remorse, and loyalty to anyone but themselves, we start to think of them as tragic losses—stars that have fallen. Stars tend to over-achieve. Whatever they do, they do to the nth degree. When they fall, they plummet quickly and profoundly, and they often take the organization with them. These people often enter the organization as rising stars and corporate saviors, only to abuse the trust of colleagues and supervisors, leaving the workplace in shambles. Then we consider them snakes.

These people snake their way into an organization because initially they appear to be a dream come true—right up until they turn into nightmares. At times psychopathology ...