Page 78 - Fearless Leadership

The Need to Be Right 65

The Need to Be Right
A fixed view that becomes “the truth” and prevents you from seeing
other perspectives.

When your thinking becomes narrow and limited, the world shrinks to
the same limitations. You are unable to see other viewpoints or entertain
an alternative perspective. Information is selected based on what you
believe, then distorted and twisted to match your views. The mind fills
in the blanks by gathering evidence—not to test a theory but to lock in a
conclusion.
The longer you hold onto an unbending view, the greater the price you
pay in terms of effective relationships. This was the case with Barrett, the
head of auditing in a major global accounting and consulting firm.

When a Leader Insists on Being Right in Spite
of Consequences to His Career

Others described Barrett as follows: “He loathes being seen as wrong.
If he doesn’t know an answer to a question, he makes one up.”

What Happened. There were serious problems in Barrett’s area—
he had a reputation for being argumentative and polarizing people.
His boss suggested that Barrett participate in a leadership develop-
ment process, but Barrett hedged in committing and said to others,
“I know what I’m doing and I have no interest in changing.” It
seemed to elude him that he could be part of the problem and that
his boss’s instinct might be correct.
As time progressed and Barrett took no action, there was a mutiny
of his direct reports, and people were lobbying to get transferred out
of his area. No one wanted to work with Barrett including his boss.

The Impact. Instead of firing Barrett, a new position was created,
where Barrett became an in-house consultant without any direct
reports. Even though he was marginalized and lost his place on the
career ladder, Barrett held on to his need to be right and rational-
ized his downgrade to others: “I’m the best at troubleshooting and
that’s why I asked for this new position.”