One of my clients is a COO for a small, privately held company. In a recent scenario planning session with the management team, the group assessed the impact of losing one or more of the top leaders, suddenly or unexpectedly – something akin to a plane crash. To which my client replied, "My plane could go down first. The knowledge of how to run this business resides in the organization, not in me. My job is to make things run more smoothly. That’s it."

That perspective and humility is something companies could use more of.