# When leadership behaviours become normalised

- **Episode:** [179](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/179.md) (2025-03-13)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** normalized-behavior, culture, leadership
- **Time:** 36:09–38:57 (start 2169s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=2169](https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=2169)

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[36:09] Eric Stone: There's no doubt. And I'll give you, I'll share an example, but this also will go back to my point. So there was a point with someone like a Jack Welch who His leadership style was get rid of the bottom 10, and he was high pressure for sure. And I'm sorry, I'm just using him. There's many out there. And I think people, the concern, whether it's with leadership, who's running the country, whoever the organization, my fear was always, and people will think that's okay. And that is very dangerous. And so I think that's also what makes the world amazing is you have all these different approaches and people can choose not to go there. They can choose not to do things. So I learned a lot of what others didn't do. And I would only hope that people are smart enough to say, I think I might have to change a little bit. But you bring up a good point is when you see a coach or a leader just tearing into somebody, it becomes okay. We were joking around before we started, and it's funny, sometimes you'll throw an F-bomb or— see, that wasn't necessarily my style because if I did it, I felt that was okay that my team would do it. So I would pick my times wisely to drop an F-bomb or whatever it is. I think people have to not be so robotic where they think just because the leader says it, that is the only style. So there's gotta be a bit, as we've used the word many times, adaptability. It is a concern that we have leadership who just doesn't seem to get it and they're getting away with it
[37:54] Leanne Elliott: And as you said, is that, do you think that it is, it is a, it's just a matter of time until some of these leaders don't get away with it because it impacts their business Too much, or do you think it again comes down to that, the brilliance of the odd one? Are we making a mistake by even talking about somebody like Elon Musk in this context because he is a complete outlier in everything he does, or is it a ticking time bomb for everybody?
[38:16] Eric Stone: I think with everything, they're just going to have different styles and approaches, and you're going to have people who are unbelievably successful being demanding and unrealistic, and they're pushing boundaries all the time. And, and then you're going to have others with an empathetic style. The one that is more sustainable would be human-centric because there's less churn because they do it the right way. You know, to give Elon Musk recent credit, at least when he was on TV talking about Doge, he at least said, well, when I make a mistake, I'm going to address it. So he was trying to be transparent in his own way. He, he just has to realize he is such an intellect