My Biggest Leadership Mistake: Insecurity & Self-Centeredness - Mountain Tactical Institute

it's good to have people around you who will tell you the truth as they see it. It's a whole new level when the person on the receiving end can actually process that and allow growth to happen. I've been humbled a few times in my life and it's never comfortable.

Excellent article. These two personality traits (flaws) plagued me throughout my life. Self-centeredness caused me to become a careerist on active duty sometimes caring more about my own future than that of the organization and country I served. That flaw was closely linked to over confidence in my abilities and the infallibility of my opinions and decisions. All of these weaknesses made me less effective than my subordinates and superiors deserved. Fortunately, good supervisors and mentors helped me overcome, or at least suppress, some of these faults. My advice to all young officers and especially pilots: carefully evaluate your behaviors, pay attention to warning signs of self-centeredness affecting your performance, and seek mentoring. Truth: there are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots. Overconfidence kills.

That's why we have this resilience training since people give up, they feel down and sometimes they get drunk and sometimes become addicts they commit suicide. Ok, sounds too simplistic but we have an epidemic of those dying on fentanyl in the non-militay world and maybe some would be alive had they had civilian resilency training. Here is a small collage from British Columbia, Canada of those who died of it.