There\nare scholars who study group dynamics . . . that is, they study the way people\nbehave and interact with one another in a group setting. These scholars sometimes talk about a thing\ncalled \u201cthe Messiah Complex.\u201d This is a\nphenomenon that takes place when a group must confront a problem that is so\nbig, so scary, and so fraught with danger that they become paralyzed and unable\nto make a decision. So they turn to their\nleader . . . their Messiah . . . and cry, \u201cSave us! Tell us what to do and show us the way to the\nPromised Land.\u201d If the leader accepts\nthe mantle of Messiah and says, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. \nI\u2019ll take care of this. I\u2019ll save\nthe day. We\u2019ll all be fine,\u201d he or she just headed down the same path as that\nfella who lived a few thousand years ago. \nAs you may recall, things didn\u2019t work out all that well for the real\nMessiah, nor will they work out well for would-be Messiahs today. The first time the leader makes a mistake,\nhis or her followers will know this isn\u2019t the infallible answer person, the\nall-seeing, all-knowing leader that they thought he or she was. When that happens, the followers will turn on\ntheir leader, and the leader\u2019s days of leading just became significantly more\ndifficult. For more on this and some\nthoughts on how to avoid falling into the Messiah Complex trap, please continue\nreading below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\nhaven\u2019t failed. I\u2019ve discovered 10,000\nthings that don\u2019t work.\u201d <\/strong>~\nThomas Edison<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many\nCEOs believe that they must put up a front of infallibility, that they must\nalways be the Answer Person. They run\nafoul of the Messiah Complex because they\u2019re afraid if they ever say, \u201cI don\u2019t\nknow,\u201d it would be a sign of weakness and their leadership ability would then\nbe called into question. It\u2019s interesting\nthat when leaders fall into the Messiah Complex trap, they only hasten the very\nthing they\u2019re trying to avoid . . . loss of confidence by their followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim\nHartford, economics writer and business speaker, talks about the \u201cGod Complex\u201d\nwhich is essentially the same thing as the Messiah Complex. He describes it as \u201cno matter how complicated\nthe problem, you have an absolutely overwhelming belief that you are infallibly\nright in your solution.\u201d He goes on to\nsay that the world has become a very complicated place with an uncountable\nnumber of products and services, scattered over billions of people who live in\nhundreds of different cultures. As a result, the problems we try to solve can\nbe bewilderingly complicated with an enormous number of variations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s\nnot to say we can\u2019t solve complicated problems. \nWe absolutely can, but we need to jettison the God Complex (the need to\nbe right all the time), approach problems with humility, and adopt a\nproblem-solving technique that actually works: namely, trial and error. After all, through her natural selection\nprocess, Mother Nature has been successfully solving problems for millions of\nyears. Medical researchers use trial and\nerror techniques all the time as they look for treatments to intractable\ndiseases. For that matter, trial and\nerror is the problem-solving technique of choice for the entire scientific community. It\u2019s also the technique of choice for many\nbusiness problems. When we want to bring\na new product or service to market, we will often test it in a small area\nbefore we roll it out to our entire marketplace. In our marketing efforts, we try different\n\u201ckeywords\u201d to discover what words and phrases resonate the best with our target\naudience. But as Thomas Edison pointed\nout as he struggled to invent the electric light bulb, you may make a lot of\nerrors before you finally get it right. \nIf you suffer from the God Complex that\u2019s an issue for you because solving\nproblems by trial and error means you\u2019re probably going to be wrong more often\nthan right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathryn\nSchulz, who calls herself a \u201cwrongologist\u201d, is a staff writer for the New\nYorker magazine. She points out that\nculturally, we have stigmatized being wrong. \nWe learn in grade school that if you don\u2019t perform well in class or on\ntests, you\u2019re labeled \u201cthat dumb kid\u201d or worse. \nLater in life, out in the working world, we learn that being wrong can\nstifle or even end a career. And this compulsion\nto be right carries some real human costs as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nwe knock ourselves out trying to be right all the time because it makes us feel\ngood and smart and safe, while being wrong makes us feel just the opposite. But in Schulz\u2019s view, we should not only own\nup to our fallibility, we should celebrate it because that\u2019s the way we learn,\nthe way we create, and the way we innovate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sir\nKen Robinson, an expert in education and creativity, said it this way: \u201cIf\nyou\u2019re not prepared to be wrong, you\u2019ll never come up with anything\noriginal.\u201d Makes sense, doesn\u2019t it? When something is original, it\u2019s unique . . .\nthat is, it\u2019s never been done before, so there\u2019s no way of knowing, for sure,\nthat it will work the way you want it to. \nFear of failure has undoubtedly prevented many great ideas from ever\nseeing the light of day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore,\nto avoid the trap of the Messiah Complex (or God Complex, if you prefer), here\nare a few things you can do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are scholars who study group dynamics . . . that is, they study the way people behave and interact with one another in a group setting. These scholars sometimes talk about a thing called \u201cthe Messiah Complex.\u201d This is a phenomenon that takes place when a group must confront a problem that is so<\/p>\n