“Victory often leads to blind spots.”
~ Unknown
By now, everyone knows the story of Theranos.
It’s been the subject of countless news feeds, a breathless legal saga, and even a Netflix miniseries.
In a nutshell, Elizabeth Holmes (the founder of Theranos) captivated investors, the media, and even major retail chains like Walgreens with a promise: blood testing that could detect hundreds of conditions with just a finger prick. Investors poured in hundreds of millions. The company soared to a $9 billion valuation, and Holmes was hailed as the next Steve Jobs.
But what was REALLY going on? Theranos never had the technology it claimed. Instead of basing their confidence on solid data and testing, leaders and investors alike saw the staggering valuation, the media buzz, and the industry hype as signs of “success.” The process behind their decisions? Ignored. As long as outcomes looked good on paper, they didn’t question the integrity of the work behind them.
While the leadership at Theranos was toxic, one has to call out the leaders and investors who enabled that toxicity. The hype was generated by THEIR support. The big lie was perpetuated by THEIR lack of due diligence. They were weak leaders.
Weak Leadership Is Far Too Common
But this wasn’t a one-time failure. We can generate a long list of examples where leaders failed their stakeholders, including:
- Enron
- Kodak
- Yahoo!
- Blockbuster
- Nokia
- Sears
- Volkswagen
- Wells Fargo
- And on and on…
Which begs the question why? Why are there soooooo many cautionary tales of weak leaders who enabled dysfunction?
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I see the sin of resulting as a MAJOR root cause. Resulting is when we judge decisions solely by their outcomes, not by the quality of the decision-making process itself. It’s the belief that if something worked out, the decision was solid, and if it failed, the decision was flawed. But that kind of thinking? It’s a trap.
And here’s the bigger problem: most leaders don’t realize they’re guilty of resulting.
Why Do Leaders Keep Resulting?
Leaders today are under immense pressure. But why do they keep falling into the trap of resulting? It comes down to five core reasons:
- Outcome Bias: Leaders are wired to focus on results because they’re held accountable for them. When a strategy works, it’s easy to believe that every decision leading up to that win was sound—even when luck played a significant role. And when the outcome isn’t favorable? They dismiss the entire decision-making process. Outcome bias blinds leaders to the real lessons in both wins and losses.
- Pressure for Quick Wins: The demand for immediate results can cloud judgment. Instead of examining the quality of their decisions, leaders rush to what “works” right now, bypassing deeper insights. In an environment that values speed, resulting becomes a reflex. It’s faster, it’s easier—but it’s also dangerous.
- Success Amplification: Leaders who experience a few early wins often assume they’ve cracked the code. This belief (what some call “hubris”) leads to overconfidence, and they start relying on the same methods, expecting the same success. But past success is no guarantee of future wins. As they say in poker, even a weak hand can win once in a while.
- Fear of Admitting Fault: Many leaders shy away from dissecting failed decisions. When things go wrong, there’s an instinct to label it a “bad outcome” and move on rather than digging into what went wrong in the process. But skipping this step means they miss valuable lessons, reinforcing their tendency to judge purely by results.
- Cultural Reinforcement: Many organizations reward “winners” without focusing on how they achieved those wins. In cultures obsessed with results, the process often takes a back seat. Leaders learn that outcomes matter most, and they repeat the same approach—even if it wasn’t actually that effective—because that’s what gets rewarded.
When you combine these five factors, you get leaders who are constantly chasing outcomes. They don’t stop to question the path they took to get there. And the cost of that? It’s high. Because when you’re only focused on results, you’re trapped in a reactive cycle—constantly scrambling to catch up with the next win, ignoring the quality of the decision-making process that truly defines long-term success.
The Ego-Fear Loop: Resulting’s Silent Partner
So what happens when leaders make decisions based only on outcomes? They enter what I call the “ego-fear loop” – a self-destructive cycle that stunts growth and limits potential.
Imagine this: a leader lands a major win. Their ego inflates, and they start believing they’ve got the magic touch. They get used to the praise and admiration that comes with success, so they start fearing failure. This fear triggers the ego again, and they double down on the same approaches to keep the “winning” streak going.
The ego-fear loop distorts their core drives:
- Instead of focusing on competence, they become obsessed with success (and ultimately fear failure).
- Instead of fostering genuine connections, they crave significance and recognition (and ultimately dread rejection).
- Instead of cultivating autonomy and growth, they tighten their grip for control (and ultimately become intimidated by risk).
In the end, they’re not leading with clarity and empowerment… they’re leading to protect their own egos.
Resulting fuels this loop by feeding into those fears. When leaders judge solely by outcomes, they’re constantly reacting, trying to replicate past wins or avoid past failures without really understanding the mechanics behind either. This reactive approach doesn’t just impact the leader – it seeps into team dynamics, strategy, and even the company’s culture.
This is the very defintion of weak leadership.
Breaking Free from Resulting and the Ego-Fear Loop
Leaders can escape the resulting trap by shifting focus from outcomes to quality decision-making. That means slowing down, analyzing decisions irrespective of outcomes, and encouraging their teams to dig deeper into what worked and what didn’t. Ultimately, it means that leaders will see the responsibility of creating a great decision-making environment as CORE to their roles.
But for this to happen, leaders must break free from the ego-fear loop. They must realign their drives. They need to value competence over success, emphasizing growth and learning, not just outcomes. They need to focus on building genuine relationships rather than chasing significance and recognition. And they need to cultivate autonomy over control by embracing risk—not running from it.
Let’s face it: the pressure to deliver results will never go away. But if we want sustainable success, we need to shift how we define “winning.”
High-performance leadership comes not from chasing wins but from learning how to win better.
Holomua. Onward and upward.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/weak-leadership-101-tim-ohai-qkmac
An extra thought:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
~ Winston Churchill
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