One study of doctors showed that, even though they were entirely confident of a particular diagnosis, they were, in fact, wrong about 40% of the time. In another survey, 87% decided they would be the most likely to get into Heaven when compared to Michael Jordan and Mother Teresa.
Decision-making is closer to madness than logic.
That’s why suspending disbelief is so hard for people - most don’t even know what they think about the idea fully when they first hear about it. So it’s hard for them to abandon what little safe and secure guardrails they have in their mind.
No matter how thought-through you think your ideas might be, in general, humans are over-confident, emotional and irrational.
So they expect that the decisions they make are the right ones, every time. They go into conversations with great confidence that their view on your idea is the right one.
Leaders would be better equipped if they entered every conversation about a new idea assuming they are probably wrong:
That might feel ironic to share on a course that’s all about increasing confidence in leaders.
But actually, when you assume you’re probably wrong you enter the conversation in a different state.
You’re listening, not selling.
You’re looking for ideas, not seeing them as a distraction from your goal.
You’re looking for a ‘no’, not a ‘yes’.
You’re wanting to build something together rather than pushing your idea on everyone else.
Of course, in some instances, you’ll be right first time around. Legendary session guitarist Leland Sklar knows what he’s doing.
James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Phil Collins, Linda Rondstadt, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton and so many other greats in so many different genres have wanted him on their albums and their tours. They all agree: he knows what he’s doing.
But Sklar got fed up with producers behind the studio glass who didn’t like the way he played on the tracks they were recording.
So he went home one day and drilled a hole in his guitar. And he inserted the Producer Switch.
It’s connected to nothing, it does nothing.
But when a producer now asks for a little more brightness, or a bit more grunge, Sklar launches into action. He makes sure the producer sees him move his hand to the switch, make a change, adjust his hands a little and he then plays again. And the producer will always love the ‘new’ sound:
That kind of confidence comes from practice over his 77 years.
But you can gain that same confidence quicker by using the frameworks and developing the skills that others have spent the time working out.