Truth 8. Think you’re a great leader? Think again.

The scene is so famous that all we have to do is mention the title of the movie to know exactly what we’re talking about: When Harry Met Sally. In case you’re not a moviegoer, there’s the setup. Harry and Sally are sitting in a New York diner comparing his perceived track record of excellent, uhm, performance against general demographic statistics that reflect an overall dissatisfaction among women. His point: Yes, but I’m different. Her point: Every man thinks he’s an exception to the statistics. And then she says, “You do the math.”

Workplace math is showing a similar disconnect between perception and reality. A study reported in late 2006 showed that 92 percent of managers say that they’re doing an “excellent” or “good” job managing employees. But only 67 percent of the employees agree. An additional 10 percent say that their bosses are doing a “poor” job. As Sally said, you do the math.