Anthony Weiner’s Escalation of Commitment

It’s rare that I commentate on the political landscape via my blog, but I just couldn’t help myself after watching the events with former Congressman Anthony Weiner attempting to run his campaign for mayor of New York City.   Weiner is famously known for his “sexting” escapades in 2011 that eventually forced him to resign.   It’s clear that Weiner has issues, but this article isn’t about that.  Recently all sorts of additional information has come forth about how Weiner continued his sexting with women other than his wife well after he resigned from Congress.  In the last few weeks, his campaign manager quit, Weiner’s approval rating plummeted, and numerous people, including the Governor of New York, are calling for him to drop out of the race. From my perspective the writing is on the wall.  I want to tell the guy, “let it go.”  Yet, it appears the more resistance and failure his campaign experiences, the more committed this guy becomes to NOT quitting.  This phenomenon is called “Escalation of Commitment.” I see leaders get caught up in the Escalation of Commitment cycle all the time.  They make a decision that’s relatively public and controversial (i.e. invest in a new system, change direction, or hire someone people don’t like).  Then something obvious and expensive goes wrong and their response is to invest more time, money, and energy into making it work.  When further investment doesn’t pay off and their trusted advisors are recommending a course change, instead of listening, they invest more—and so on.  At every bad turn, they decide to double down instead of walk away.  I have seen the Escalation of Commitment ruin important relationships, promising careers, and a companies’ bottom lines.  The Escalation of Commitment is the work of Ego.  Our Ego houses our emotional responses, and when it appears we could lose something, like credibility due to a possible bad decision, it immediately kicks into the fight or flight response.  The makeup of many leaders is to first “fight”; when they are unconscious of their emotional responses, they end up fighting their advisors, or even their entire employee base, for the sake of being right or saving face.  In Weiner’s case, he fought his campaign manager so hard he quit.I’m not opposed to a leader making bold decisions and taking risks.  In fact, their success is dependent upon it.  Every leader knows at some level they are going to win some and lose some.  The key factor in a leader’s success is to know when to fold and when to use the situation as a learning opportunity.  A leader gains so much more respect from their team when they can admit they’re learning.  Moving through the Escalation of Commitment doesn’t have to be hard, it just takes some self-awareness and clarity, something every leader, including Weiner, needs to be truly successful.