Here are three of the silliest:

1. Leaders must like people: In fact, it is far more important that leaders respect and trust those entrusted to their care. Some of the most productive workers in any organization are not necessarily likeable but their experience, talents, and skills enable them to work well with others who know they can always rely on them for a best effort. Supervisors may not like an associate but they delight in helping that person’s professional development. Those who cherish this first misconception tend to have a pathological need to be liked.

2. Business needs more underdogs. In fact, healthy organizations are flat. They have eliminated hierarchies and have zero tolerance for terms such as “underdog.” Healthy organizations are meritocracies. They attract the best talent because they insist on superior performance in all areas of operation. Business needs more people who are positively and productively engaged, who thrive on collaborating with others. Those who cherish this second misconception tend to resent being intimidated by anyone they perceive to be an “upperdog.”

3. Workers can be motivated. In fact, people can only motivate themselves. Examine closely the careers of all the great leaders throughout history. However different they may be in most respects (e.g. a carpenter in Galilee, a rail-splitter in Illinois, an English aristocrat educated at Eton and Harrow), all of them inspired self-motivation in others. Workers cannot be motivated by bonuses or salary increases but their superior performance must be rewarded or they will seek opportunity elsewhere. Those who cherish this third misconception have an inflated sense of their persuasive skills.

Here are some key insights in “Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture,” an article written by John Coleman for Harvard Business Review (May 2013).”A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement. Its values are the core of its culture. Of course, values are of little importance unless they are enshrined in a company’s practices. No company can build a coherent culture without people who either share its core values or possess the willingness and ability to embrace those values. It leverages the full power of narrative. Any organization has a unique history — a unique story. Finally, Place: Why does Pixar have a huge open atrium engineering an environment where firm members run into each other throughout the day and interact in informal, unplanned ways? Place — whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design — impacts the values and behaviors of people in a workplace.”

Your own thoughts about all this?