Most leaders don’t wake up thinking they’re making bad decisions.
They wake up thinking they’re doing the best they can with the information, time, and pressure they have. And most of the time, they are.
The problem isn’t intelligence or experience.
The problem is proximity.
When you’re inside the business, every decision is entangled. History, people, sunk costs, politics, urgency, reputation. Nothing is neutral. Nothing is clean. Even obvious choices carry emotional weight.
That’s when independent perspective stops being a “nice to have” and starts becoming a form of protection.
Pressure changes how we see
Under pressure, leaders don’t suddenly become careless. They become narrower.
Research consistently shows that time pressure and high stakes reduce our ability to explore alternatives and increase our tendency to defend existing plans. Confidence goes up. Curiosity goes down. That’s not a personal flaw, it’s how the human brain conserves energy when stakes are high.
Daniel Kahneman spent decades studying this, and his work shows that experienced decision-makers are often more vulnerable to overconfidence precisely because their past success reinforces pattern recognition over questioning.
This is why smart teams can still walk confidently into expensive mistakes.
Experience creates blind spots, not immunity
One of the most uncomfortable truths in leadership is this: the more experienced you are, the harder it becomes to notice what you’re missing.
Psychologists call this escalation of commitment. Once time, money, and reputation are invested, leaders unconsciously defend prior decisions even when conditions change. Not because they’re stubborn, but because reversing course feels like admitting failure.
Inside a business, these dynamics are invisible. Everyone shares the same assumptions. Meetings reinforce alignment instead of challenging it. What looks like confidence is often just collective momentum.
This is how groupthink forms, especially in tight leadership teams.
Independence is not about being right
An independent perspective isn’t valuable because it’s smarter. It’s valuable because it’s not trapped.
An external advisor doesn’t carry internal history. They don’t need to defend past decisions. They’re not managing internal power dynamics. They can ask questions that feel uncomfortable internally but obvious from the outside.
That distance creates clarity.
In aviation, medicine, and elite sports, independent checks are standard practice. Pilots use checklists not because they don’t know how to fly, but because pressure and familiarity are dangerous companions. Surgeons rely on peer review and second opinions because experience alone doesn’t eliminate risk.
Business is no different. It’s just slower to admit it.
Independence reduces risk, not authority
This is where many leaders misunderstand the role.
Independent perspective does not replace judgment. It sharpens it.
It doesn’t say, “You’re wrong.”
It says, “Here’s what pressure might be hiding.”
Harvard Business Review has written extensively about how leaders benefit from structured dissent and external challenge, especially in complex transformations.
The strongest leaders don’t outsource thinking. They protect it.
The real value: decision hygiene
At its core, independent perspective is about decision hygiene.
Making sure decisions are made with:
Clear ownership
Explicit trade-offs
Visible risks
Fewer emotional distortions
Less momentum-driven escalation
In uncertain markets, this matters more than strategy decks or transformation roadmaps. Cost pressure, operational complexity, and speed amplify small mistakes into expensive ones.
Independent perspective slows the right moments and accelerates the right ones.
A final thought
Needing an independent perspective is not a sign of weakness.
It’s a sign that you understand how pressure works.
The most dangerous moment in any organization isn’t when leaders are confused. It’s when they’re confident, busy, and moving fast without friction.
Independence creates that friction.
Not to block progress, but to keep it pointed in the right direction.
And in times like these, that may be the most underrated advantage a business can have.