organizational change – Misryoum examines why legacy leaders lose momentum during change and what “death to ego” can unlock for sustainable performance.
Few things are as frustrating in business as watching a once-dominant company lose its edge. then trying to pinpoint the exact moment it went off track.. Misryoum looks at a recurring pattern: the shift from confident execution to organizational drift often happens during change. not because leaders lack talent. but because their instincts get drowned out.
The easy explanation is the classic “If/then” story: fix one thing and the company keeps winning.. Misryoum notes that this framing is satisfying precisely because it offers a clear villain.. In reality. companies stumble for multiple reasons at once. and the most damaging ones tend to arrive as inputs to decision-making rather than as obvious failures.
Insight: Change doesn’t automatically break strong organizations. It becomes dangerous when the surrounding incentives and expectations turn everyday decision-making into a constant competition for attention.
Misryoum highlights one central idea that helps explain the pattern: most leaders start with good instincts built from experience. a grounded understanding of their customers. and clarity about what they stand for.. The problem isn’t that instincts disappear.. Instead. the “noise” grows—board demands. shareholder pressure focused on the near term. and executive incentives that can reward personal advancement over long-term stewardship.
Meanwhile, organizational change often brings more meetings, more reporting, and more urgency, which can make conflicting priorities feel unavoidable.. Over time. that environment doesn’t necessarily stop leaders from making decisions; it makes those decisions harder to trust because the signal is buried.
Insight: The real risk in change is not disagreement itself. It’s when conflicting demands become so constant that leaders can’t hear their own best judgment.
To navigate this. Misryoum points to a counterintuitive approach: “death to ego. ” or shifting the mindset from running the company to stewarding it.. The argument is straightforward.. If leaders treat the organization as something they control, they’ll understandably fight to be visible in every outcome.. But if they see themselves as caretakers. they create room for the people and systems around them to do the work—especially when change demands adaptation.
In practical terms, this steward mindset reframes what success looks like inside the business.. Recognition for leadership matters, but the deeper scorecard is whether leaders build others who can carry the organization forward.. In that view, organizational change isn’t a performance owned by the top; it’s a capability that spreads.
Insight: When ego is dialed down, the organization can better absorb change because decision-making becomes less about visibility and more about listening—internally to teams, and externally to markets.