Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter by Robert Bruce Shaw

Author:Robert Bruce Shaw
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781118646090
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-03-24T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

SEEK OUT THAT WHICH DISCONFIRMS WHAT YOU BELIEVE

One of the more robust findings in the research on decision making is that people tend to see what they want to see and they interpret new information within the context of their existing beliefs. This makes seeing something different from what they already know, or want to occur, very difficult.1 A leader who paid the price for falling into this trap was Robert McNamara. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of the most visible and powerful leaders in the United States—first in business, as an executive and eventually president of the Ford Motor Company, and then in government, as the secretary of defense for two American presidents. Supporters and critics alike viewed McNamara as a brilliant man with unmatched analytical skills. He took on big challenges and methodologically developed his plan of action. President John Kennedy described him as the smartest individual he ever met. Lyndon Johnson observed, with a mixture of admiration and concern, “He’s like a jackhammer. No human being can take what he takes. He drives too hard. He is too perfect.”2

With time, McNamara has come to personify the limits of raw intelligence and quantitative analysis—as he believed that numbers, properly understood, would provide him with what was needed to win in both business and war.3 He was smart and arrogant—a combination that resulted in a general unwillingness to deviate from what he believed was needed in any given situation. He used his analytical skills to intimidate others and push forward with his plan. At Ford, this meant continuing to cut costs even after his company had recovered from near-bankruptcy. His obsessive focus on financial metrics resulted in Ford’s producing cars that were increasingly less appealing to an increasingly affluent public. Those in Ford who loved cars felt that McNamara was a numbers guy who helped save Ford in the short term but would kill it in the long term. In government, he demonstrated a similar weakness in being rigidly focused on proving his view of reality. He was unable to understand the broader political and social world in which he was operating.4 Once committed, he blocked out facts and points of view that were at odds with his plan of action. Instead, he focused on metrics that fit his beliefs regarding what was needed to produce success. He became “tunnel blind” in what he saw and, even more troubling, unwilling to admit when he was wrong. His intelligence and tenacity allowed him to defend his approach, at least to himself, even when events and people turned against him. One of the most data-driven of leaders couldn’t see what was in front of him—couldn’t see what was obvious to those who were far less talented and accomplished than himself.

McNamara was extreme in both his strengths and blindspots—but certainly not unique. Many leaders, particularly those who are successful, have difficulty looking objectively at themselves and their environment. The author Kathryn Schulz, in her examination of why people

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