[svnt]

The mark of the actual master is that almost no one can identify them, and the people who can are so rare as to probabilistically not appear in smaller companies. They “run” the company without the appearance of doing so.

If someone does appear who can identify them, they are quickly exited from the company via various means depending on the individual: pair them with a particularly distasteful partner/manager, make their job impossible via passive means, or enable them to humiliate themselves.

The only real symptom is that there is no one around them that competes with them in their self-perceived core competency, and they never seem to put a foot wrong. Once the are in a high position, anyone who complains about their behavior is said to be attempting to climb.