No, I am not an oracle. I did not know three days ago, when I posted the piece of the above title, that in a flash would be pushed from his post Syria’s longtime tyrant, Bashar El-Assad.
I was though signaling the Zeitgeist, the mood of the moment when people in positions of power best watch their backs lest they get stabbed in the back. Not literally, of course, Though just last week was shot in the back – literally – the CEO of Unted Healthcare, Brian Thompson. But stabbed in the back metaphorically – as just last week was for example Pat Gelsinger. Gelsinger is the once widely admired CEO of Intel who, after a disappointing performance, was sacked so far as we can tell as suddenly as unceremoniously.
But, back to Bashar. No need for me here to describe him in detail. Suffice it to write he was among the worst of the worst. He was not among the cast of characters in my most recent book, Leadership from Bad to Worse. But heaven knows he qualified.