Cognitive Dissonance in the Boardroom: The CEO's Silent Saboteur

Jul 20

Chief executive officers (CEOs) make high-priority decisions, set strategic direction for the company or organization, and oversee plans to achieve the organizational goals. Since they handle the company's performance, CEOs are expected to be rational, entirely immune to any kind of emotional interference. Danger in the shape of cognitive dissonance lurks and may silently reshape the CEOs’ interpretations of reality and affect how they perceive risks. Cognitive dissonance is the silent saboteur that every CEO should be aware of. This article sheds more light on cognitive dissonance, explains how it affects CEOs, and what they can do to avoid this potential sabotage.

Table of Contents

What is cognitive dissonance?
Signs of cognitive dissonance in the boardroom
Why cognitive dissonance sabotages CEOs?
How to step away from cognitive dissonance
Conclusion
References

What is cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs, attitudes, or values at the same time. An American psychologist, Leon Festinger, described the concept of cognitive dissonance back in 1957 in his book. Festinger suggested that two ideas can be consonant or dissonant. Consonant ideas have a logical flow from one to another, while dissonant ideas oppose each other. Sometimes, ideas and values don’t go hand in hand with a person’s actions.

People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs, attitudes, and values. The conflict between two contradictory beliefs causes unpleasantness and discomfort. Inconsistency between beliefs and behaviors motivates people to engage in actions that would minimize negative feelings.

Signs of cognitive dissonance in the boardroom

Cognitive dissonance is sneaky and often appears as confidence, consistency, or loyalty to a vision. When left unmanaged, cognitive dissonance can sabotage a CEO’s efficiency, motivation, and overall satisfaction. It can undermine the hard work and success you achieved. For that reason, it’s important to recognize the signs of cognitive dissonance and take care of it in a timely manner to minimize its impact. The biggest signs of cognitive dissonance in the C-suite include:
● Heightened commitment to failing strategies: When CEOs experience cognitive dissonance between unsuccessful strategic choices from the past and new negative data, they may increase commitment. Instead of deciding not to go through with the investment, they may invest more money into it. They do so out of a need for redemption rather than resolution. This may take its toll on the business efficiency and revenue.
● Misreading data: Confirmation bias is one of the biggest aspects of cognitive dissonance, and it involves the tendency to evaluate or acquire new information in a way that is consistent with one of the preexisting beliefs. More precisely, the CEO may interpret ambiguous data in ways that support their prior decisions. In this case, metrics are cherry-picked while negative trends are being reframed as external or temporary. Misreading data due to confirmation bias implies the CEO sacrifices objectivity for psychological comfort.
● Minimizing opposing voices: CEOs experiencing cognitive dissonance often become defensive and unconsciously surround themselves with affirming voices. They tend to marginalize those who challenge their decisions, plans, and ideas. Since CEOs with dissonance minimize opposing voices, the board meetings become echo chambers. Nobody challenges bad decisions that negatively affect a company or organization.

Keep in mind that you can’t physically observe cognitive dissonance in other people. There are no external signs that can indicate a person is experiencing this mental discomfort. People with cognitive dissonance are motivated to avoid or resolve it due to the discomfort it causes. As a result, people may develop several defense mechanisms, such as avoiding people or situations that remind a person of their contradictory beliefs or values and past failures.

When it comes to defense mechanisms, a CEO with cognitive dissonance may refuse to revisit major decisions even when new evidence emerges. Even honest feedback may lead to defensiveness.
A person with cognitive dissonance may feel uncomfortable before making a decision, or feel embarrassed about something they’ve done, and try to hide their actions from other people.

Why cognitive dissonance sabotages CEOs?

The truth is that everyone can experience cognitive dissonance; it’s not reserved for executives only. That said, it is a silent saboteur of CEOs in particular for several reasons. One reason is that CEOs’ decisions are highly visible and tied to their reputation, so admitting failure isn’t a good look. Plus, not many people around CEOs are willing to challenge their views directly.

Some CEOs may equate their identity with vision and competence. Changing direction would feel like an attack on oneself. The combination of these factors makes it easy to fall into the vicious cycle where decisions and moves seem rational on the surface, but they are driven by the need to resolve internal discomfort.

How to step away from cognitive dissonance

Although cognitive dissonance is a complex state of mind, it is possible to break the cycle and prevent it from sabotaging you. The most useful strategies include:
● Normalize being wrong: Being a CEO or any other executive isn’t about always being right; it is primarily about adapting yourself quickly in times when you’re not. It’s okay to be wrong from time to time. Course correction should be your strength, not weakness.
● Promote a truth-seeking culture: Encourage disagreements in executive meetings. Team members who challenge assumptions should be rewarded and encouraged, not criticized for speaking their minds. Make sure your team knows that protecting the truth is a lot more important than protecting the strategy.
● Introduce contradictory voices: Bring in external advisors or set up a team whose main mission would be to challenge ideas and plans. The goal isn’t for these voices to be combative, but to highlight everything that the CEO may be filtering out. Contradictory voices can prevent CEOs from making bad or risky decisions.
● Changing your action: The goal is to change the behavior to match your beliefs. When a complete change is impossible, try making compromises.
● Change your thoughts: If your behavior contradicts your beliefs, it’s easy to question how important that belief really is. You may develop new beliefs that bring your actions closer to your thinking.

Conclusion

Cognitive dissonance is a silent saboteur due to its impact on decision-making, problem-solving, and overall approach to work. CEOs with cognitive dissonance refuse to acknowledge opposing views and always prioritize pieces of information that support their belief or values. You can break the cycle by acknowledging you’re not always right and it’s normal to be wrong. That way, you can challenge your beliefs and move away from the attitude that you have to redeem yourself for past failures. Doing so can navigate you away from the habit to make decisions based on your need to make up for failures in the past.