Always Be Paranoid

Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, was recently interviewed on a podcast and made a point that caught my attention. He said that every good CEO should create a crisis. Even when things are going well, leaders should find a way to rally their teams around something urgent—an initiative, a cause, or a challenge worth solving. Crisis mode, according to Dell, is what gets people focused and united. And he’s not wrong.

Dell’s idea reminds me of two principles we talk about often when it comes to leadership and management.

First, the difference between leadership and management is that leaders bring change to the organization. But the truth is you can’t be a great leader without also being a great manager, and no great manager exists who isn’t also a leader. In the Esteemed MBA, we talk about the three things great managers do over and over again: they get to know their people, they talk about results, and they ask for more through goal setting and delegation.

For leaders, we teach the principle of followership—that leadership isn’t about standing in front of a group and telling them where to go, but about becoming the kind of person people want to follow. That comes from trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Leaders look to the future. They find new arcs of growth for the company—new partnerships, acquisitions, technologies, and efficiencies that change the direction of the business. Managers then operationalize that change. They prioritize, communicate, and drive execution throughout the organization, making sure that the work being done aligns with the vision from the top.

Second, leaders need to be paranoid. Dell’s idea of “creating a crisis” is really about staying on your toes. I tell CEOs all the time that paranoia is a healthy quality, especially when times are good. A CEO should constantly be questioning what could go wrong: a new competitor, a change in technology, a downturn in the economy, a key employee leaving, new tariffs, or even another global event that changes everything overnight.

That kind of paranoia keeps leaders thinking. It pushes them to find new efficiencies, diversify revenue streams, build contingency plans, and strengthen their organizations through succession planning and cross-training. A little paranoia keeps a company resilient, creative, and ready for whatever comes next.

So thank you, Mr. Dell, for the reminder that leaders create crisis, drive change, and wake up every day just a little paranoid that the world might fall apart. Because in doing so, they make sure it doesn’t.

Be Esteemed.