Genius Is Not a Character Reference

Jensen Huang's recent departure from Nvidia has brought renewed attention to the personal conduct of one of the most extraordinary business leaders of our time. Huang helped build a company that transformed the technology industry and became central to the artificial intelligence revolution. His vision, technical understanding, and business achievements are difficult to dispute.

Yet recent reporting has also raised troubling questions about his behavior and the culture surrounding his leadership. Stephen Witt, Huang's biographer, has described an executive with little tolerance for disagreement, whose subordinates could be genuinely afraid of confronting him.

Whatever conclusions ultimately emerge from the current controversy, it raises a question that goes well beyond Nvidia, which is: why do we so often confuse extraordinary achievement with extraordinary character?

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A lesson I remember from Harvard

Years ago, I participated in an executive education program at Harvard. One of the guest speakers was a former senior Apple executive who had worked closely with Steve Jobs. The speaker spoke with enormous admiration about Jobs's vision, intelligence, and professional competence. But, the description of working for him was strikingly different: as I recall, the executive described it as "a belittling experience" and said that Jobs "did not mind mistreating people."

What impressed me was not simply the criticism. It was the apparent contradiction. Here was someone who had worked closely with one of the most celebrated business visionaries in modern history, who genuinely admired his extraordinary capabilities, yet described the human experience of working for him in such negative terms.

I have thought about that conversation many times since. We seem to struggle with the possibility that someone can be a genius and, at the same time, a deeply disappointing human being.

 

The halo of success

When people reach exceptional positions, we tend to attribute qualities to them that their achievements do not necessarily demonstrate. We assume that extraordinary business success must be accompanied by wisdom, integrity, emotional maturity, and good judgment. We listen carefully to their opinions, even on subjects far removed from their expertise. We turn their personal habits into leadership lessons and their pronouncements into principles. 

Sometimes we seem to believe that because someone knows how to build a great company, that person must also know how to live a great life. But, these are entirely different capabilities:

A brilliant strategist can be an inconsiderate colleague.

An extraordinary innovator can lack empathy.

A visionary entrepreneur can treat people miserably.

And none of these shortcomings necessarily prevents someone from achieving remarkable business results.

 

Important positions, small people

Throughout my corporate career, I had the opportunity to interact with executives occupying positions of considerable power and prestige. Some were exceptional human beings. Their accomplishments were matched by humility, generosity, intellectual curiosity, and genuine respect for others.

But others left me with a very different impression. They occupied important positions, managed enormous responsibilities, and enjoyed considerable recognition. Yet from a human perspective, I sometimes found them remarkably small: they could be arrogant, petty, dismissive, or insecure. Their titles were impressive. Their behavior was not.

These experiences gradually changed the way I looked at powerful people. I learned to distinguish between respecting someone's accomplishments and admiring the person behind them. The two are not always the same.

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When genius becomes an excuse

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of our fascination with visionary leaders is how easily we rationalize their behavior. When an ordinary manager humiliates employees, we call it unacceptable leadership. When a celebrated genius does the same, we sometimes describe it as intensity, perfectionism, or an uncompromising pursuit of excellence.

We tell ourselves that extraordinary people operate by different rules. But demanding excellence and humiliating people are not the same thing. Neither are intellectual brilliance and emotional maturity.

I have never been convinced that treating people badly is a necessary condition for exceptional achievement. And, when organizations excuse such behavior because someone delivers extraordinary results, they establish a dangerous precedent: they suggest that success can exempt certain individuals from standards of conduct expected of everyone else.

 

Admiration should be selective

I believe we should recognize extraordinary achievements without hesitation. Steve Jobs's contribution to technology was remarkable. So was Jensen Huang's role in the development of Nvidia and the artificial intelligence industry.

Acknowledging those achievements though, does not require us to overlook troubling behavior or turn these individuals into moral role models:

• We can admire someone's intelligence without admiring their character.

• We can learn from a visionary without wanting to work for that person.

• And we can recognize exceptional business success without assuming that the person responsible is an exceptional human being.

Perhaps we should become more careful about whom we idolize—and why.

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Genius deserves recognition. Character must earn its own respect.​