One year on from the fall of Lehman Brothers, the face of Dick Fuld, former chief executive, has been back on our television screens. Some of his greatest hits have received another airing. “When I find a short seller, I want to tear his heart out and eat it before his eyes while he's still alive,” he declares in one clip.
It is easy to criticise an outburst like that after what happened at his bank. But it is more interesting to ask whether, given Mr Fuld's remarkable achievements at Lehman, it might have been possible to spot the danger inherent in his leadership style – and to do something about it to avert disaster. We need tough, strong, confident leaders. But how can we prevent them spiralling out of control?
Last week, PCL, the business psychology consultancy, published a report, “A decade of the dark side”, which contained a study of 18,000 psychometric tests completed by senior managers during the past 10 years. The test that was used, the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), differs from other tests in that it analyses why leaders fail, rather than just providing a neutral account of individuals' strengths and weaknesses.