Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter

CHAPTER6

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 ...