1. There are numerous definitions ofself-deception, for example, the action or practice of allowing oneself tobelieve that a false or invalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true.Another definition is the act or fact of deceiving oneself, or the act of makingoneself believe something that is not true. Self-deception determines ones’experiences in every aspect of life because it suggests that we see whatmatters only from our own closed perspective, because we are blind by our ownperspective, so we are resistant to any suggestion that the truth is otherwise.
(ArbingerInstitute , 2010) A pioneer in the field of coaching, Judy Irving is arelationship builder specializing in executive and leadership coaching, shedescribes that self-deception is similar to, if the same as, self-betrayal.When determining what ways self-deception can be seen in every aspect of onelife, she states “When I betray myself, I begin to see the world in a way thatjustifies my self-betrayal and I enter… the box. When we see a self-justifyingworld; that view of reality becomes distorted meaning that we don’t seeourselves, them or the situation correctly.” Self-deception transpires becausewe commonly see the planet the way we would like it to be, instead of the wayit is. Amongst cultures and all over the world, self-deception is an occurrencethat has faint and profound impacts on everyday life. (Triandis, 2009) In an articlein Contributions in Psychology, anauthor contends that self-deception takes place because people use their hopes,needs, and desires to form the way in which the view the world. One example ofself-deception seen in everyday aspects of people’s lives is God. The authorstates “What would be more consistent with our hopes, needs, and desires thanto have an omnipotent entity support our battles, whether they are to growbetter crops, to reach health and happiness, or to eliminate our enemies?” Anotherexample of self-deception that is common is avoiding information.
If a personcan betray someone by leaving out an essential piece of data, then naturallyone can deceive themselves in the same way. For instance, people habitually evadeunpleasant revelations and information that is disagreeable with their ownbeliefs about life. This is the reason people avoid such things as gettingtested for HIV or other health dangers. In the end, there are many ways peopleself-deceive themselves, however the common factor is that everyone does it andit can show itself in every aspects of our lives. 2. Self-deception is the inability to seeothers as people and is the most common and damaging problem organizations haveto face. When organizations employ people that view others as objects ratherthan as individuals with real and legitimate needs, hopes, and worries, then itwill inhibit the organizations capability to become effective industry leaders.
One theory about why self-deception is such a damaging problem to organizationsis that since over-confident people can mislead others into thinking they aremore capable than they truly are, these self-deceived persons might be more proneto receiving promotions and attaining leading ranks in banks, airports, andother vital organizations. These people are also more apt to overrate otherpeople’s capabilities and take larger risks. This would more than likely createmore troubles for their organizations. This debatable theory suggests thatself-deception changed to include the deception of others. This theory wastested in the real world and the finding suggested that overconfident peopleare overrated by onlookers and under confident people are considered by onlookersto be more inferior than they truly are.
The findings also insinuate thatpeople may not continually compensate the more talented person but moreaccurately the more self-deceived. In the end, this theory states that bypromoting these self-deceived individuals we may be creating institutions,including banks and armies, which are more vulnerable to risk. (University ofExeter, 2014) 3. The conventional difference between doingand being is that doing is generally related to a career, or how one makes aliving. Being is much more deep-seated.
It correlates to character, who we areas individuals, and how we make a life for ourselves. Doing is entwined closelywith activity, achievements, and quantifiable things—like income, status, connections,positions, and awards. Being, in contrast, has more to do with immaterial, likethe type of people we become inside.
In part one of the book called Leadershipand Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box, the difference between doing andbeing is described a little differently. Doing is described as what a person isactually ‘doing’ on the surface. The situation provided in the book is that, Bud is boarding an airplane when heoverhears the flight attendant say it will not be a completely full flight,there will be empty seat. In hearing this, Budfinds a window seat with an empty seat next to it. He then puts his brief casein the seat next to him, open a newspaper really wide and starts observing thepeople walking down the aisle looking for seats. He presents a depiction to theother people that he does not want anyone sitting next him and that the seatnext to him is taken. So, what Bud is’doing’ is sitting, observing and reading the paper.
He is ‘being’ one of twofundamental ways as he is doing it. In other words, he is while he is ‘doing’he is either ‘being’ in of the box by seeing others as objects or he is ‘being’out of the box by seeing himself and the others as they are-people. 4. When one finds themself in circumstancesof a difference of opinion or disagreement they come upon another individual’s”box.” The outcome is that each individual will provoke the other and you havea “battle of the boxes”. Both individuals facilitate the same challenges they condemneach other for which supports a motive for remaining in the box. For example, supposea person was advanced to an executive’s role and appointed to manage across-functional group. The executive’s responsibility is to accomplish resultsand it is crucial to create a unified and committed group atmosphere.
That isthe person’s imperative. After six months past, the person’s role as anexecutive is not going as initially planned. Group colleagues are not cooperating,timelines are not being sustained and there is no trust. A person functioning frominside the box, would see the group due to be inclined to self-deceive, the individualwould choose to see the group as the dilemma and attempt to adjust the conduct.This situation is frequent when utilizing the in-the-box systematic method. However,I believe it is essential to mention that when an individual is inside the box itdoes not necessitate that the group’s actions need to be corrected.
This isbecause when one is in the box there can be an altered point of view of theother person where one could place responsibility on person or situation to rationalizetheir own self-deceit.
