????我們都愿意相信超級英雄神話。對于企業領導者，這意味著期待和責任。CEO們掌控著眾多資金，我們給他們的薪水也足夠高，我們像對待明星一樣捧著他們——而且也愿意相信，他們值得得到這樣的待遇。

????德魯克管理學院（The Drucker Institute）的董事總經理扎可里·弗斯特說，企業界的“明星文化或許已經達到了巔峰”。

????創造一位明星CEO需要數項因素。首先，高調的企業領導者往往都知長袖善舞，很多人已習慣成為關注的焦點。其次，員工、市場和媒體都希望看到強大的企業領導者，有時候強大似乎就等于永不犯錯。明星CEO本身對企業無害，雖然有時也可能是這樣。比如，J.C.Penney的CEO瑞恩·約翰森正在努力領導這家零售商擺脫困境，存亡一線幾乎不容有失。能獲得這樣的重任，部分原因正是因為他在擔任蘋果公司（Apple）零售業務高級副總裁期間的出色表現。

????少數公司已經開始嘗試降低對個別核心人物的依賴。經營高科技防水織物GORE-TEX的戈爾公司(W.L Gore and Associates）擁有被稱為“扁平格子”的領導架構。他們還為此創造了一整套語言：稱老板為“倡議者”，不再有員工，只有“伙伴”。這家公司相信，一旦團體組建起來完成特定任務時，領導者就會自然而然地顯現出來了。

????但是，建立無等級架構需要大量工作，弗斯特表示，即便是那些職能扁平化的公司也有創始人和CEO。“參照社交等級制度，如果最高位置空缺，會讓公司處于非常有壓力的境地。我們希望知道有人在負責，有一個權威。”

????需要有一個群體，才能讓這些權威人士成為明星。：“因為只有很多人選擇走進來，坐下來聽他們講，他們才能成為明星。”

????明星效應可能分散對良好領導力的關注，但不一定是這樣。亞利桑那州立大學（Arizona State University）管理學教授戴維·沃德曼表示，領導者可以既自戀，又謙遜。他的研究顯示，一些出色的企業領導者屬于“輕微的”自戀者。“沒錯，他們喜歡成為關注焦點，他們高度自負，有一點自大。但他們也知道，周圍的人也值得欣賞。”

????沃德曼第一次讀到邁克爾·麥克比2000年刊登在《哈佛商業評論》（Harvard Business Review）上有關自戀型領導的優勢和劣勢文章時產生了這樣的想法。“從整個歷史來看，自戀者總是在激勵人們，構建未來，”麥克比在那篇文章中寫道。他認為，領導企業實現輝煌的是那些能認識到自身不足的人。

????We want so badly to believe in superheroes. When it comes to business leaders, that can quickly turn into a liability. Many chief execs control so much money, and we pay them so handsomely, so we treat them -- and want to believe they deserve to be treated -- like stars.

????In business, "the culture of celebrity is maybe as strong as it's ever been," says Zachary First, managing director of The Drucker Institute.

????Several forces create a star CEO. For one, high-profile leaders tend to know how to work a room, and many may have learned to like the limelight. But also, employees, the market and the media want strong leaders, and sometimes strength becomes conflated with infallibility. Star CEOs are not inherently bad for business, though they can be. J.C. Penney (JCP) CEO Ron Johnson, for example, is dealing with a particularly tight margin of error at the struggling retailer partly because of his especially impressive performance as senior VP of retail operations at Apple (AAPL).

????A couple of organizations have tried to mitigate dependence on one central leader. W.L Gore and Associates, the company behind the high-tech, waterproof fabric GORE-TEX has what is called a "flat lattice" leadership scheme. They've created an entire language around this: they call bosses "sponsors," and have no employees, but "associates." The company holds that leaders will naturally emerge when groups form to accomplish certain tasks.

????But a non-hierarchical structure requires a tremendous amount of work, says First, and even functional flat companies have founders and CEOs. "To look up the social hierarchy and not see anyone at the top is an extremely stressful position for companies to be in. We want to know that somebody's in charge, that there is an authority."

????It takes a village to make those authorities stars. "They're only celebrities because a lot of people choose to go and sit in the audience to hear them," First says.

????Celebrity can become a crippling distraction from good leadership, but it doesn't have to play out that way. Leaders can be both self-obsessed and humble, claims David Waldman, a management professor at Arizona State University. His research suggests that some capable business leaders are what he calls "softer" narcissists. "Okay yeah, they like to be the subject of the limelight, they have high self-regard, and a degree of hubris. But they also recognize that other people around them deserve a lot of praise."

????It's an idea he first read about in Michael Maccoby's 2000?Harvard Business Review?article about the pros and cons of narcissistic leaders. "Throughout history, narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future," Maccoby writes in the piece. The ones who lead companies to greatness, he suggests, are those who can recognize their own limitations.