by Joy Maitland | May 25, 2025 | Board Members, Board Trustees, CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, General Managers, Heads of Divisions
Why Leaders Deny Facts — And What to Do About It
The Psychology Behind Strategic Blind Spots in Senior Decision-Making
In boardrooms, strategy sessions, and executive off-sites, a familiar pattern often emerges. Leaders ask for data, assess options, and demand analysis. Yet when the facts challenge deeply held assumptions or preferred outcomes, something subtle—but powerful—can happen.
– The facts get side-lined.
– The challenge gets dismissed.
– The truth gets buried.
This is not about ignorance or bad intentions. In fact, the most seasoned professionals—those with reputations to protect and legacies to defend—are often the most susceptible to motivated reasoning. This psychological tendency leads people to unconsciously filter information in ways that protect their identity, beliefs, or past decisions.
Understanding why this happens is not just an academic exercise. It’s a leadership imperative for anyone navigating disruption, innovation, or high-stakes decisions.
What Psychology Reveals: Three Experiments Every Leader Should Know
1. Motivated Reasoning in High-Stakes Environments
Research consistently shows that people are more likely to accept information that supports what they already believe—and to reject or scrutinise data that contradicts it. This pattern intensifies when:
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Professional reputation is on the line
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The decision is politically sensitive or emotionally loaded
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The new information threatens an existing narrative
In one study, participants received balanced evidence on a controversial issue. Their conclusions differed dramatically—not because of the data, but because of what they already believed.
Leadership takeaway: Even in data-driven cultures, bias can masquerade as alignment. Leaders must question whether their objectivity is as robust as it appears.
2. The Backfire Effect: When Facts Reinforce False Beliefs
Another study attempted to correct factual misconceptions with evidence-based briefings. Surprisingly, those with higher education levels didn’t change their minds—they became even more entrenched in their original views.
This is known as the backfire effect: when facts not only fail to persuade but reinforce the falsehoods they aim to correct.
Leadership takeaway: Better data doesn’t always lead to better decisions. The urge to be “right” often outweighs the willingness to rethink.
3. The “Pay-to-Avoid” Experiment
Perhaps the most revealing experiment asked participants whether they’d prefer to read an article with an opposing viewpoint—or pay a small fee to avoid it. Many chose to pay, even when the article was balanced and respectful.
Leadership takeaway: If people avoid intellectual discomfort in a lab setting, imagine the avoidance behaviours that might surface in the boardroom—where hierarchy, politics, and performance pressures come into play.
Where Fact-Denial Shows Up in the C-Suite
When leaders ignore inconvenient truths, the ripple effects extend beyond individual decisions—they shape organisational culture. Here’s how fact-denial manifests at the senior level:
- Confirmation bias in forecasting: favouring data that supports preferred projections
- Groupthink in innovation: rejecting bold or unconventional ideas prematurely
- Suppressed challenge: excluding diverse or junior voices from decision-making
- Narrative inertia: clinging to outdated success stories despite new realities
Unchecked, these behaviours create echo chambers at the top—where truth becomes optional and risk grows silently.
What Effective Leaders Do Differently
Recognising bias is not enough. Leaders must actively design teams, processes, and systems that invite facts, encourage challenge, and reward intellectual honesty.
1. Normalise Cognitive Dissonance: Encourage teams to see discomfort as a sign of growth. When people feel safe admitting uncertainty, they become more curious and less defensive.
2. Use Structured Dissent: Assign formal roles such as devil’s advocate or run pre-mortem sessions. These mechanisms depersonalise dissent and legitimise critical thinking.
3. Separate Identity from Ideas: Promote the idea that changing one’s mind is a strength, not a weakness. Leaders who model this set the tone for open, adaptive thinking.
4. Slow Down the ‘Snap Yes’: Add cognitive speed bumps to big decisions. Ask: What assumptions are we making? What might we be missing? Who gains if we’re wrong?
5. Reward Truth-Seekers: Recognise those who challenge consensus respectfully, raise red flags early, or bring forward uncomfortable insights. These individuals make your business more resilient.
Final Thought: Resilient Leaders Embrace Discomfort
Leaders aren’t just decision-makers—they’re narrative-shapers. They influence not just what organisations do, but what they believe.
When leadership teams sanitise uncomfortable truths in favour of harmony, they trade clarity for comfort. Over time, that comfort becomes dangerous.
The future belongs to leaders who seek challenge over cheerleading, clarity over certainty, and truth over tribalism. Not because it’s easy, but because the cost of denial is too high to ignore.
The best leaders don’t fear facts. They create cultures that welcome them.
The Right Conversation Can Change Everything. Let’s Talk.
by Joy Maitland | May 25, 2025 | Board Trustees, CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, General Managers, Heads of Divisions
Integration or Implosion? Winning the Culture Battle After a Merger
Mergers and acquisitions are often hailed as game-changing strategies to achieve rapid growth, scale innovation, and strengthen market position. But all too frequently, they fail to deliver the anticipated results. The missing link? Human experience.
At inemmo, our work with executive teams across multiple sectors has revealed a recurring truth: even the most financially sound and strategically aligned acquisitions can unravel when the employee integration journey is overlooked. The greatest risk in any merger is not just technological or operational misalignment—it is the disengagement of the very people expected to drive post-deal success.
The Human Cost of Poor Integration
Employees within acquired organisations often describe the experience as disorienting, isolating, and at times, deeply unsettling. These individuals—many of whom bring invaluable innovation, knowledge, and relationships—are too often left feeling voiceless, underutilised, and disconnected. One described the moment of acquisition news as “like a death in the family.” Such emotional fallout is not only widespread—it has lasting business consequences.
Where this disconnect persists, engagement plummets, productivity stalls, and attrition increases—sometimes for years. Alarmingly, even in cases where the acquisition brings together complementary capabilities, a poorly managed culture clash can erode the very value the deal aimed to create.
The Opportunity: Building a Unified, Respectful Culture
Creating a unified culture doesn’t mean enforcing uniformity. It means aligning behaviours, systems, and values in a way that respects the heritage of both organisations while moving forward with clarity. To achieve this, acquirers must place culture integration on equal footing with legal, financial, and operational priorities.
Based on insights from across the M&A landscape and inemmo’s leadership development expertise, five practices stand out:
1. Conduct a Dual-Sided Culture Assessment
Most firms assess the culture of the company they’re acquiring. Far fewer hold up the mirror to their own. This is a strategic misstep.
A meaningful culture assessment must explore both entities—mapping how they make decisions, manage risk, and engage with innovation. These insights enable leadership to anticipate friction points and clarify the path forward. Cultural differences, if left unexamined, can delay innovation, undermine collaboration, and stifle initiative.
2. Create a Clear, Human-Centred Culture Integration Plan
Integration must be more than a timeline—it should be a leadership commitment to clarity, dialogue, and empathy. Leaders must articulate not only what will change, but why. They should equip managers with the rationale, resources, and autonomy to bridge cultural gaps with authenticity.
This is especially true when legacy cultures hold prized traits—entrepreneurial energy, speed, creativity—that risk being stifled. As we’ve seen, when acquiring firms pause to explain their methods, rather than impose them, engagement and trust increase.
3. Map the Employee Journey—Before It Begins
A merger feels abstract until it becomes personal. Will their systems change? Who do they report to? How do they apply for leave?
Mapping the employee journey—across 12 to 24 months—allows organisations to prepare for real-life milestones and manage change compassionately. Whether it’s benefits queries, IT logins, or badge renewals, every interaction either builds or erodes trust.
Just as importantly, clarity must replace ambiguity. If certain decisions are still pending, say so. Transparency—even about uncertainty—is more reassuring than misleading certainty.
4. Empower Middle Managers as Culture Translators
Middle managers are the bridge between strategy and reality. Yet too often, they are brought in late, without the information or tools to lead their teams through change.
Equipping these leaders with decision rights, context, and regular access to senior integration teams transforms them into confident, credible guides. They need to be heard—early, often, and visibly—as they carry the message and pulse of the integration.
5. Stay Agile and Responsive to What Emerges
No matter how detailed the integration plan, new insights will emerge. Perhaps the culture is more risk-averse than anticipated. Perhaps legacy rituals, like Friday pizza gatherings, are core to team morale.
Success lies not in rigid execution, but in responsiveness. Build in review phases. Use pulse surveys. Act swiftly on what matters—however small it may seem. Integration is not a one-time event, but a dynamic process that requires real-time adjustment and human leadership.
Cultural Intelligence in Action
At inemmo, we believe cultural intelligence is a decisive advantage during M&As. Leaders who listen closely, communicate clearly, and integrate respectfully not only preserve value—they unlock it.
A successful merger is not just about combining balance sheets or operational systems. It’s about blending ambitions, aligning behaviours, and creating a shared story that people want to be part of.
The deal may be signed in the boardroom. But its true success is determined in the hearts and minds of employees—day by day, conversation by conversation.
by Joy Maitland | Mar 30, 2025 | CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, News & Articles
The Rosebud Phenomenon explains how past experiences—especially unresolved emotional wounds—fuel our ambition. It reveals the deep connection between personal history, professional success, and the pursuit of true fulfilment.
In today’s high-performance business environment, professionals chase success with unwavering focus. Success is widely seen as the ultimate benchmark. However, behind many top performers lies a deeper, often hidden force. This powerful motivator is rarely discussed in boardrooms or biographies. It’s here that the Rosebud Phenomenon offers a fresh and enlightening perspective.
What Is the Rosebud Phenomenon?
The Rosebud Phenomenon refers to the idea that a formative trauma, loss, or emotional void becomes the nucleus of ambition. These early experiences often drive us to achieve, push harder, and stand out. They can sharpen determination and shape professional identity. Yet, this same force may quietly limit long-term satisfaction.
The concept originates from the film Citizen Kane. In it, “Rosebud”—a childhood sled—symbolises lost innocence and a deep emotional need that was never resolved. Likewise, many professionals carry a silent narrative rooted in personal history. This narrative becomes the engine behind relentless performance.
A Double-Edged Sword
Understanding the Rosebud Phenomenon helps leaders and entrepreneurs look beyond surface-level motivation. On the one hand, it drives innovation, ambition, and resilience. On the other, it can keep individuals trapped in a cycle of never-enough.
Executives often feel caught in this paradox. The urge to prove themselves, to heal old wounds, or to rewrite personal stories can deliver impressive results. However, when the emotional source remains unexamined, the journey can lead to burnout, chronic dissatisfaction, or identity conflict.
For example, a leader who grew up feeling overlooked might build a wildly successful company—only to discover they still feel invisible.
The Link Between Meaning and Purpose
The Rosebud Phenomenon offers a clear lens to distinguish meaning from purpose.
Purpose tends to be external—a goal, a title, a mission. Meaning, however, is personal. It’s the internal story we attach to what we do and why we do it.
When professionals build their purpose on unresolved emotional meaning, the two can drift apart. This misalignment often explains why some high achievers feel empty despite checking every box.
They hit the targets. They gain recognition. But the satisfaction fades quickly—because the emotional need behind the success remains unmet.
Implications for Leadership and Growth
Recognising the Rosebud Phenomenon unlocks a deeper level of leadership. It encourages authenticity, emotional insight, and a more human approach to performance. By exploring this dynamic, leaders can align their ambitions with true well-being—not just metrics.
Here are three reflective questions to explore:
- What early experiences shaped my need to succeed?
- Does my definition of success reflect what truly matters to me?
- Am I chasing goals to fill a void—or to express genuine passion?
These questions help shift focus from achievement alone to a more sustainable and satisfying kind of success.
A Personal Note
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Dr Stewart Desson, founder of Lumina Learning. The session centred on Lumina Emotion—a tool designed to help individuals understand, adapt, and manage their emotions effectively, empowering them to think clearly and act with purpose. During one of the exercises, I experienced what I can only describe as my own Rosebud moment. It was deeply emotional, completely unexpected, and, if I’m honest, a little embarrassing—especially as a business psychologist who’s facilitated similar sessions myself. Yet in that moment, something shifted. My understanding of my own drivers turned upside down, and the clarity it brought was profound. That experience didn’t just stay with me—it quietly changed the way I view success, fulfilment, and what truly matters.
Final Thoughts
The Rosebud Phenomenon in business provides a compelling framework for rethinking motivation. It invites professionals to look inward—not just upward. In a culture that often celebrates output over insight, this shift is both timely and necessary.
For leaders who seek excellence and inner peace, understanding this dynamic offers a powerful advantage. True success doesn’t just come from what we achieve—but from understanding why we strive in the first place.
The Right Conversation Can Change Everything. Let’s Talk.
by Joy Maitland | Mar 30, 2025 | CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, News & Articles
Self-aware Leadership Development
Leadership, as someone once wrote, is “one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” That line has stood the test of time—and for good reason. For all our progress, self-aware leadership development remains a complex challenge. We often recognise great leadership when we see it, but struggle to define it or replicate it with certainty.
In business, discussions around leadership usually orbit three familiar themes:
- How leaders think, act, and influence
- How people respond to leadership and engage with it
- The systems and environments in which leadership takes shape
Of these, it’s the leader themselves who still attracts the most attention. We’re fascinated by personality, presence, and the seemingly unteachable “it” factor. The old debate lingers: are great leaders born, or can they be developed?
Figures like Field Marshal Montgomery believed leaders needed “infectious optimism” and visible resolve, even in moments of doubt. Henri Fayol saw leadership as careful planning and execution. David Ogilvy celebrated the complicated character—someone confident, never petty, and not shaken by defeat. These views, though dated, still echo in how we think about leadership today.
But let’s be honest: leadership in the modern world looks very different.
The Shift: From the Heroic to the Human
In today’s organisations, leadership isn’t about being the loudest or most dominant voice in the room. It’s about presence, perspective, and adaptability. Leadership is no longer a role reserved for the chosen few—it’s a practice that can be shaped, refined, and strengthened over time.
This is exactly the thinking behind Lumina Leader, a powerful psychometric tool created by Dr Stewart Desson, a business psychologist and founder of Lumina Learning. Unlike older models that place people into rigid categories, Lumina Leader embraces complexity. It explores how personality influences leadership behaviour—and how those behaviours shift in everyday settings, under pressure, and at our best.
At inemmo, we use Lumina Leader to help leaders discover their natural style, their leadership strengths, and where they may overextend, especially under stress. It supports self-awareness in a structured, evidence-based way—making the invisible aspects of leadership visible and actionable.
Structure Still Matters
Of course, leadership isn’t only about personality. Some of the most effective leaders in history—like Alfred P. Sloan at General Motors—succeeded because they understood systems. They built solid structures and equipped others to thrive within them. In contrast, individuals with star power but little strategic depth often struggle to sustain success.
The best leaders today combine both: an understanding of themselves and the ability to shape systems around them. They know when to step forward, when to step back, and how to align people around shared goals.
Leadership vs. Management: A False Divide?
Abraham Zaleznik, writing in Harvard Business Review, famously argued that leaders and managers are fundamentally different creatures. Managers seek stability. Leaders seek movement. But in today’s world, that binary feels dated. The most effective leaders draw from both disciplines—balancing strategic clarity with empathy, structure with creativity.
Warren Bennis, one of the great thinkers on leadership, found that successful leaders consistently pay attention to what matters, define direction, and bring people along with them. It’s less about certainty and more about alignment.
So, What Now?
Leadership is evolving. It’s becoming more inclusive, more psychologically aware, and more context-driven. Tools like Lumina Leader are part of this evolution—helping leaders move beyond vague ideals and towards real understanding.
In practice, this means:
- Knowing your natural strengths and how others perceive them
- Recognising how you behave under stress—and where it may trip you up
- Learning how to stretch your style to meet the needs of different situations and people
Above all, it means understanding that leadership isn’t a fixed trait or a job title. It’s a living, breathing process—something shaped by reflection, experience, and honest feedback.
So, the next time we talk about leadership, maybe we should look beyond the myths and focus on the mindset. The truth is, leadership isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being real, being aware, and being ready to grow.
The Right Conversation Can Change Everything. Let’s Talk.
by Joy Maitland | Mar 2, 2025 | Board Trustees, CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, Managing Directors, News & Articles
Brand loyalty is more than just repeat purchases—it’s a powerful driver of business resilience and long-term growth. A prime example is the automotive industry. General Motors (GM) recently secured the S&P Global Mobility Award for Overall Loyalty for the tenth consecutive year, proving that a well-established reputation and a consistent customer experience can make all the difference.
Why Brand Loyalty Matters for Business Leaders
For business leaders, loyalty isn’t just a marketing buzzword—it’s a strategic asset. Companies that build strong relationships with their customers gain distinct advantages:
- Stability in Uncertain Times
When economic conditions shift or competition heats up, a loyal customer base provides a buffer. Customers who connect with a brand on a deeper level are less likely to be swayed by short-term price changes or alternative options.
- Lower Costs, Higher Returns
Winning over new customers is expensive. Keeping existing ones is far more cost-effective and leads to higher lifetime value. A strong customer base reduces reliance on costly acquisition campaigns and drives steady revenue.
- Reputation and Influence
Satisfied customers become your best marketing tool. They spread the word, leave positive reviews, and recommend your brand to others—helping you expand your reach without additional investment.
GM vs Tesla: A Study in Contrasts
GM’s commitment to quality and innovation has earned it long-standing customer trust. The company’s U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market share climbed to 12% in late 2024, doubling from the previous year. Consumers are responding to GM’s expanding EV range, offering more choice and accessibility. More importantly, GM understands that loyalty isn’t just about selling cars—it’s about building an ecosystem that keeps customers returning, from service plans to seamless integration with new technologies.
Tesla, on the other hand, is learning the hard way that brand prestige alone doesn’t guarantee continued devotion. European sales plummeted by nearly 50% in early 2025, leading to an 8% drop in stock value. The electric vehicle market is becoming more competitive, and Tesla faces increasing pressure from Chinese manufacturers such as BYD and XPeng, who offer high-tech alternatives at competitive prices. On top of that, uncertainties around government incentives and Tesla’s own pricing strategy have led some once-loyal customers to explore other options.
The contrast is clear: GM has successfully evolved its brand to keep customers engaged, while Tesla is struggling to adapt to shifting market conditions. Even the most innovative companies must actively nurture customer relationships to maintain loyalty.
How to Build Lasting Loyalty
To keep customers engaged and committed, businesses need to focus on three key areas:
- Consistency is King
Customers stick with brands they trust. Delivering reliable quality, service, and experiences is non-negotiable.
- Meaningful Engagement
Loyalty doesn’t stop after a sale. Strong after-sales support, personal touches, and ongoing communication keep customers invested.
- Authenticity Wins
Customers can spot insincerity a mile away. Transparency, ethical practices, and a genuine commitment to customer needs build lasting trust.
Loyalty: The Ultimate Competitive Edge
In an unpredictable world, brand loyalty is what separates businesses that thrive from those that struggle to stay relevant. Companies that prioritise customer relationships alongside innovation and operational excellence will always have the upper hand.
Tesla is facing a wake-up call—will it adjust course and reconnect with its customers, or will loyalty continue to erode? And in your business, are you doing enough to ensure customers stay with you, even when new competitors enter the market?
How is your organisation strengthening its brand loyalty strategy?
The Right Conversation Can Change Everything. Let’s Talk.
