Winning vs. Being Right: A Leader’s Guide to Getting Things Done
What’s Your Endgame — Singularly Right or a Collective Win
Remember the Elvis Presley hit song — ”It Feels So Right, But It’s So Wrong? When is the opposite of being right, just plain wrong? Not wrong in the way you think. Sometimes, being right means losing a higher position — in love, life and business. In the heat of decision-making, leaders must grapple with a simple but profound question: “Is it more important to be right or to win?” While the two may sound synonymous, they couldn’t be more different.
Leadership is not about proving your idea is correct but guiding your team or community toward an even higher place — collective victory. This distinction separates effective leaders from those stuck in the cycle of intellectual debates or dictated solutions that stall progress and may alienate colleagues.
The Trap of “Being Right”
The need to be right is seductive. It offers the dopamine hit of intellectual validation and the comfort of being the “top dog.” Yet, when leaders fixate on proving their perspective correct, they risk alienating colleagues, derailing collaboration, and losing sight of a larger objective. Leadership is not an intellectual sparring match. It’s about getting things done and achieving outrageous, communal success.
Peter Drucker, the parent of modern management, cautioned against the perils of prioritizing ego over progress. In The Effective Executive, he writes, “Effective executives do not make many decisions. They concentrate on what is important. They try to make the few major decisions on the highest level of conceptual understanding.” When leaders focus on being right, they too often waste energy on minutiae rather than on the critical decisions that move the mission forward.
When you’re right, and the emotional goal is to corner another as wrong, perhaps feelings are hurt, people are pushed aside, and future progress grinds to a snail’s pace. Winning — whether by a long shot or the skin of your teeth — is just that — winning! It’s the communal sweet taste of victory.
David Finn, the inspirational spark of public relations industry, applied his life principles as the author of The Corporate Oligarch by emphasizing that leadership must serve the collective good: “The role of corporate leadership is not to dominate, but to unite, to create an environment where the best ideas can thrive, regardless of their source.” This focus on shared purpose reminds leaders that being right is inconsequential if it doesn’t move the collaborative ball closer to the goal.
The Power of Winning Together
Winning, by contrast, is a collective endeavor. It shifts the focus from “me” to “we.” Winning as a leader means getting the entire team to the end goal — achieving your goals together. Winning is not about whose ideas are best; it’s about ensuring that the best ideas rise to the top, regardless of source.
A master at defining business culture, John Katzenbach echoes this idea in The Wisdom of Teams, emphasizing, “Team performance is what counts, not individual performance.” Leaders who focus on winning understand that the goal is not to showcase individual brilliance but to cultivate an environment where the group can thrive and succeed.
Lessons from the Health Sector
The health ecosystem offers countless examples of this principle in action. Research teams must navigate disagreements over clinical trial protocols and data interpretation. The stakes are high, and everyone wants to be right. However, the goal isn’t intellectual supremacy but improving people’s health and saving lives. Leaders in health innovation know that progress depends on aligning diverse teams toward a shared clinical objective, even if it means embracing other approaches. Time is life.
Within health communication organizations — like the one I’ve been privileged to be part of through the past decade, learning the difference between being right and winning creates an inspired community that recognizes how communication impacts patient voice and physician enthusiasm for change — in how they use technology, consider new medicines and listen to patient concerns. It is more than awards won or new clients secured — those results stem from many factors beyond one person’s influence. They center around a culture with shared values to ensure inclusive participation.
These are the challenges of uniting the health ecosystem’s disconnected pieces. They’re getting consulting groups to work together as a team or members of Congress to see the biopharma sector as part of the more significant disease intervention answer.
When congressional members want to prove they are correct by proving one sector of the vast system — wrong — even when that piece of the puzzle is essential to our survival — they slam the brakes on progress and collaborative solutions. The photo op in a Senate hearing is their “moment of right,” when figuring out patient-centered, collaborative solutions, albeit complex, is winning for the American people.
How to Lead Toward “Winning”
1. Define the Win: Ensure everyone understands what success looks like. Clarity around the end goal reduces the temptation to dig into personal opinions.
2. Be Courageous: The best ideas can come from unexpected sources. Being ready to accept another idea even better than your own can open the door to collaboration and innovative solutions.
3. Celebrate Contribution, Not Correction: Acknowledge and build on what others bring instead of pointing out flaws.
4. Make Room for Flexibility: Winning often requires adaptability. Be willing to pivot strategies if they serve the greater good.
5. Focus on Momentum, Not Perfection: Progress trumps perfection. Keep your team moving forward, even if every step isn’t flawless.
Leadership is a Journey Toward Collaboration
In leadership, there is a profound strength in the willingness to let go of being right. By focusing on the win — moving their community, team, or organization toward its collective goal — leaders demonstrate what it means to champion purpose and impact. Being right is momentarily gratifying but automatically labels others as “wrong.” Winning is a team achievement. It means unifying diverse points of view toward a bigger goal. As Drucker reminds us:
“The focus must be on opportunities rather than problems.”
Ultimately, being right serves the ego. Winning serves the community mission. Leaders who embrace this truth transform divisions into alliances and ideas into get-it-done action. They show that the real victory lies in advancing together.
Strive to get into the winning zone — not alone, but with everyone who shares the journey.
