Why do some talented executives fail,part 2

2) Seeing the World in Black and White

"Sometimes the world behaves in wonderfully rational ways," say Waldroop and Butler, "but most of the time, it doesn't. We see this every time someone gets a job because of 'connections,' or children of alumni in many private schools get preference over other applicants."

Despite the fact that most of us learn about these things at an early age, some folks apparently never moderate their faith in the perfect rationality of the world. Waldroop and Butler refer to these people as meritocrats — people who blindly insist that virtually everything in life must be judged strictly rationally on its own inherent merit, refusing to see even shades of gray. Emotions, politics, sentimentality, loyalty and favoritism play absolutely no part. Meritocrats, write Waldroop and Butler, consistently talk about the way things "should be," not the way things actually are. It's almost as if the meritocrat lives in a remote parallel universe, but unfortunately it is a world that exists only in his or her mind.

Meritocrats almost always undermine their own careers by continually "fighting the good fight" at work until they exasperate their peers, supporters and superiors. For example, one client named "Dan," went to work in a family business straight out of college — someone else's family, not his. He knew from the beginning what the situation was and that he would never get a share of the business. Moreover, he knew that the several members of the family his age and younger would have a much greater say in how the business was to be run.

Dan, who was a very hard worker, had bought into this arrangement with open eyes, but he couldn't help himself from pointing out to anyone who would listen about how unfair the whole situation was. One day, he confronted his boss with his perspective on the situation. The owner's response was that he understood how Dan felt, but he was still going to hand the family business over to his sons, and if he felt that strongly about it he should leave. If only Dan, a consummate meritocrat had understood himself and his needs better, he probably never would have accepted that job in the first place.

People who are extreme meritocrats are relatively rare in business and are rarely very successful in that forum, because business dealings almost always involve a compromise with perfection. The authors argue that people who exhibit strong meritocratic tendencies are better suited to careers such as science or engineering, where black and white quests for perfection are generally better tolerated.