The pros and cons of being a stoic leader

For much of history, emotion has been viewed as detrimental to rational decision-making, a perspective held by ancient Stoics and modern behavioral economists alike. This viewpoint suggests that while humans possess significant rationality, emotions frequently undermine these capabilities. Leadership roles provide numerous illustrations of this phenomenon, with executives damaging careers due to ego, politicians pursuing personal vendettas, and founders losing shareholder value by clinging to failing strategies. Observations of boardroom disputes, divorce proceedings, and social media during elections highlight that humans are not purely rational beings. Psychologists have extensively documented how emotions can distort attention, amplify biases, and impair judgment, with anger leading to increased risk-taking, anxiety to catastrophizing, pride to clouded self-awareness, and fear to narrowed thinking. Even highly intelligent individuals often act irrationally when emotionally provoked. The history of leadership is replete with examples of capable individuals failing in wars, businesses, elections, and reputations due to a lack of emotional management.