There are some things that stay in our memories for long periods of time and keep coming back over the years as reminders.

These are a couple of magazine covers that serve as valuable reminders to stay humble when success and recognitions seem to be flowing from many directions. They also remind us how quickly things can change and the same sources that sang praises would share analyses on what went wrong.

They remind me about the “Halo Effect” (also, a book written by IMD professor, Phil Rosenzweig), especially about all the attention/praise/positive hypotheses received when things seem to be going well in the eyes of the external world and, how quickly people and organisations can be forgotten soon after, analysed for the fall and become the subject of ‘what went wrong’ case studies.

From a leadership point of view, it is extremely important to remind yourself to stay continuously humble, curious, counter the feeling of “hubris born of success” (borrowed from Jim Collin’s Five Stages of Decline), have gratitude for the luck/blessings that comes your way, and remind yourself that the distance to irrelevance may not be that far. This is important for leaders in any sector.

At an individual level, when it happens unfortunately, resilience becomes critical.