Being right is delicious

The tastiest words in the whole world: "You are right"
Ohhh that sweet feeling when the dopamine hits.
It's so delicious it's addictive.

And a lot of business owners lose their company to this addiction.

I worked with a business owner who couldn't say yes to an idea that wasn't his.
The company was stuck, but he pushed everyone to run only with his ideas.

VP marketing suggested a new campaign? Killed it.
COO suggested restructuring sales? Didn't show up for the meetings.
Head of success wanted to hire CS people? "We don't need that yet."

His team stopped driving.
They became Passengers, showing up, waiting to be told what to do, or packaging ideas so he'd think they were his.

He blamed the market, the team, vendors. Everyone except himself.

Here's the expensive part:
The need to be right doesn't just slow things down.
It distorts decisions
It poisons culture
It makes your team stop bringing you their best thinking

It wasn't easy to bring this up with him. He rejected it at first. But over time we started unpacking decisions, without caring who brought them up.

The day he stopped needing to be right was the day his company started moving again.

The leaders who break through learn to separate two questions:
"How do I prove I'm right?"
vs.
"How do we get this right?"

A great CEO's job isn't to have the best ideas. It's to find them, wherever they come from.

Chasing being right protects your ego.
Chasing the right outcome grows the company.

Which of these is running your business right now?