The best leaders and decision-makers are value-driven.
They know what they stand for and let their values guide them in deciding the best path forward in most situations.
Values play such a central role for good decision-makers that it is hard to find an exceptional leader in any industry or arena who isn’t guided by a core set of values and working principles.
But despite this dedication to their ideals, they do their best not to completely attach themselves to a fixed belief system.
Organized belief systems come in many forms, but they all have one thing in common: They are treated as absolute, resistant to revision, and closed to contradictory evidence.
In other words, when held as a committed ideology, these belief systems require conformity, asking those inside the community to filter all information through a fixed lens. Anything that confirms the belief set is accepted; anything that challenges it is rejected.
Fixed belief systems can exist in religion, politics, science, psychology, and culture. They are attractive because they often provide stability, identity, or a moral structure. They help simplify complex issues by offering black-and-white answers consistent with the system.
A leader knows they adhere to a fixed ideology or belief system if their position on a topic is known before they even examine the available evidence, data, or information.
Leaders who hold a “correct” position before examining the evidence are blinded by ideology and can be said to operate in a closed system.
The rigidity of fixed belief systems often produces misinformed opinions and weak decisions when outside viewpoints run counter to the ideology.
Leaders who become too attached to a fixed belief system run into predictable problems — organizational, strategic, and psychological.
Because conditions and information change faster than the leader’s worldview, the leader typically fails to adapt to disruptions and market shifts.
Their confirmation bias not only rejects plausible arguments; it also signals to the team that dissent is unwelcome. Once the team stops challenging the leader’s assumptions, groupthink begins to take hold.
Not surprisingly, in the face of failing strategies, leaders with a fixed ideology escalate their commitment to protect their identity and authority.
All leaders operate from a somewhat stable set of beliefs, assumptions, and frameworks, usually formed through experience and institutional learning. But when those beliefs harden into a closed and fixed system, the leader loses touch with reality, interpreting everything through doctrine rather than weighing the evidence on its merits.
Good leaders who hold fixed belief systems in their personal lives don’t abandon those beliefs at the office door. They draw on them to anchor their values, without forcing the whole system onto every organizational decision.
Great leaders must stay open-minded, exploring the available evidence objectively without allowing ideology to color their thinking. Otherwise, they will make poor decisions far too often.
How much does ideology color your thinking? Do you know the answer on some topics before anyone presents the data?
Don’t let a fixed belief system destroy the independent thinking required for quality decisions.
Set any ideology you hold to the side and consider all the evidence before reaching a conclusion. The quality of your decision-making depends on it.
