Tag Archives: jumping to conclusions

Leadership Mints Series Sampler On Deception: Lying To Ourselves

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Believing is seeing – NOT the other way around.

That’s why nearly 95 percent of guns and knives in test audits still slip past diligent and highly competent airport screeners. Why?

Their otherwise collective stellar competence blinds them to something new and different and binds them to what they already know and believe-at least statistically in successfully searching 99.9999 % of 1.7 billion pieces of luggage each year.

Airport screeners cite the probabilities more than the possibilities: that bulge in a the luggage is probably a bottle of shampoo more than possibly a gun.

Airport screeners do what all humans do: we default to what we believe or have come to believe over time, notes Macolm Tidwell in his book Talking to Strangers. And sometimes we end up deceiving ourselves.

That’s when the most effective leaders guard against “talking past each other instead of talking to each other,” Tidwell observes.”One side sees the forest and no trees and the other side sees the trees and no forests.”

Then we make assumptions. We jump to a conclusion. We misinterpret body language. And the result is still another police shooting gone awry or a pedophile still at large etc.

We can get TOO comfortable in our thinking patterns. Then it becomes TOO easy to give someone or something the benefit of the doubt. That’s why the most effective leaders resist the urge to be efficient. And wrong.

Thinking like a leader means you regularly take off your blinders. You open yourself  up to more challenge, change and conflict to your beliefs, values, prejudices and perceptions.

You learn to check your assumptions at the door before stepping on the rights, roles and responsibilities of others.

You learn how to cut through the clutter in the forest of your mind. You learn how to see both the trees and the forest. You might even discover an insight: a brilliant ray of light shining INTO the forest THROUGH the trees.

But the most effective leaders realize that in time
you will begin deceiving yourself.
You will start seeing ONLY that brilliant ray of light or
what you already believe in
regardless of new information or changing conditions.

No wonder the most effective leaders regularly cut off their blinders no matter how right – and righteous – they feel. Even 99.9999 % of the time.

For more tips and techniques on guarding against deceiving yourself, please purchase a 296-page book on Amazon.com filled with examples from business, sports and politics.

The 3-books
in The Leadership Mints Series
available on Amazon.com
in print and e-book

Leadership Mints Series Sampler Beware of your Impulse Behavior

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How adaptable are you to changing conditions? Adapting to changing conditions isn’t easy. Just ask the proverbial frog in the simmering pot who is boiled to death.

Surely that kind of mindless behavior – that kind of comfort with conformity without relevant rationale – can’t happen in the real world, can it?  Let’s check the history books.

Consider the soldiers in World War I who were consistently too slow in firing an old horse-drawn cannon even though they both testified they were conducting the firing with the standard protocol. And they were. Habitually.

But now the horses were no longer pulling the cannon yet the two soldiers still stepped back and stood still for a few seconds as if they were holding the horses still before firing. Are you still holding your proverbial horses?

To help you guard against your own impulsive behavior, consider purchasing a copy of a 296-page book now available on Amazon.com.

The 3-books
in The Leadership Mints Series
available on Amazon.com
in print and e-book

Maintaining Command Over Your Mind’s Automatic Pilot

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By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you stay focused.

Smash!!! My arm must have morphed into a Paul Bunyan axe the way I pounded on that Pepsi vending machine. I didn’t break anything –except my ego. And all I wanted was a cold Pepsi on a hot summer day.

“Can I help you,’’ snarled the owner of the gas station as his eyes scanned his Pepsi vending machine with the coveted look of Corvette owner committed to protecting his property. “The machine must have jammed,” I opined.

The proprietor unlocked the machine, reached in and retrieved my Pepsi. “Thanks,” I said as I headed for the door. “Sir, that’s 75 cents.”

Oh, Shhh-t! I felt so stupid. It’s not that I didn’t feed enough money into the machine. It’s that I didn’t feed ANY money at all into the Pepsi vending machine. After all, I was used to FREE Pepsi vending machines.

Free Vending Machines at Pepsi’s Headquarters

Back then, I worked at Pepsi-Cola Company’s corporate headquarters in New York. Free Pepsi vending machines dotted the break rooms throughout the complex. I got used to just hitting he lever on the vending machine and out popped a Pepsi. FREE.

Then that hot summer day I stopped to get gas and saw a Pepsi vending machine. I did what I always did at the office when I was thirsty and saw a Pepsi machine. Ooops. My mind was on automatic pilot and flying way off track. I simply forgot where I was.

The most effective leaders I have known may not always take command over their automatic pilot flying around in their subconscious. But these leaders are more apt to be AWARE of Continue reading →