Leadership and Self Deception

A friend of mine recently sent me a copy of "Leadership and Self Deception" by The Arbinger Institute. Even though it is not a very thick book; I being short on time, and always skeptical of yet another touchy feely book, I was slow to engage it.



But once I did, it was very insightful in analyzing and attacking how to break out of the vicious cycle where organizations tend to enter a downward spiral.

In my previous article regarding "How to Beat Back Bureaucracy", I touched upon how organizations once they get engaged in a political process how difficult it is for them to change. And that typically an organization will continue to become more political because it is too difficult and risky for people to change.

In this book it talks about what is necessary for leaders to break that vicious circle. The key message of the book is simply this: Self-betrayal leads to self-deception; which causes you not to focus on results.

The process looks like this:

1. In the book "Self-betrayal" is defined as An act contrary to what you feel you should do for another is an act of self-betrayal


2. You justify your betrayal by assigning blame to the other party. The only reason that you are not doing what you know to be right is because of what the other party did.


3. Unfortunately for everyone the person receiving this blame begins to start their process of self-betrayal;blame assignment; and justification

For example lets take a real-world example.

You manage a large department, you know that your employees deserve more money and you feel that you should do something about it. Unfortunately if you were to do something about it, it could play against you politically within your organization, and perhaps cost you money that would have been paid to you. You commit the act of self-betrayal by passing over getting your employees more money and you assign the blame to the employees. If they were only more efficient, more effective, etc. etc. you would do this, but since in your mind they are not you feel justified in not making any changes.

And what is the result?

The employees who are not making any money, realize that they could do more work for the company, but they choose not to because they justify that if they were getting better paid they would be willing to do more work.

And the vicious cycle begins.

The key steps in resolving this issue, is that business leaders at the top of the organization have to realize that this is occurring and take steps to change its culture.

Specifically:

1. Don't worry about being perfect, just strive to do better;


2. Don't look for how others are not doing things correctly strive to make sure your interactions don't fall into this vicious cycle;


3. Don't give up when you realize that you are prone to assigning blame, start small and be persistent to change your viewpoint;


4. Don't deny when you get caught in that cycle. Apologize, and move on. Try not to repeat the same mistake.

Summary:

The stories in the book make it much more of a compelling and fun read than I can do justice in this article. If you find it to be interest just follow the link to Amazon.