Putin – a Stoic Leader Blinded by Emotion


While new horror stories continue to come out about the conflict in Ukraine, the international community grapples with a series of questions. Key among them is, how did President Vladimir Putin so badly misjudge his ability to achieve victory?

The failure of Russian forces to quickly establish control over Ukraine is chalked up to dozens of variables. Russia’s military structure is antiquated, and its leadership is often willfully incompetent. Ukraine has managed to unify in an unprecedented fashion, and, along with Ukrainian allies, they have managed to rebuff portions of Russian disinformation campaigns.

But these failures do not explain how Putin, who rose to popularity through a series of striking military victories, was able to make such a devastating tactical blunder. His successful annexation of Crimea had solidified his reputation as a formidable military leader, as well as a dominant political leader. So, what went wrong?

Perhaps Mr. Putin lost focus of his original objectives and, instead, became distracted and then consumed by competition – “winning”. At this point, he very well may be vying for power with the West and attempting to solidify Russia (and, by proxy, himself) as a global superpower on par with the United States and China. But, by engaging in competition, it seems that Putin has lost sight of his own endgame.

To be sure, Mr. Putin’s objectives are complicated. He wants to maintain personal control over Russia, he wants to expand Russia to what he calls its “natural borders,” and he wants to return Russia to its historical glory and significance. But it is clear how easily these goals can be eclipsed by one’s competitive inclinations, namely “beating” one’s opposition.

Similarly, it becomes clear that this more recent goal of “winning” might not have been nearly as well thought out as his original objectives, and, moreover, it distracts from his true needs. When Putin attempts to strike a blow against the West, and ends up unifying it to an unprecedented degree, that is a miscalculation borne partially from arrogance and faulty information, and partially from prioritizing “winning” over his original goals.

What we see playing out in the war room also plays out countless boardrooms. Despite the vast differences between being president of Russia and leading an organization, this is a universal leadership challenge. Time and time again, sophisticated business professionals lose sight of critical business objectives, and, instead, focus on (perceived) competition with counterparts.

This is especially prevalent in negotiation, when a negotiator mistakenly views their counterpart as a “competitor”, and measures their own success relative to their counterpart’s outcome. While the Consensus team readily embraces competition and acknowledge that undermining a competitor’s market position can sometimes be a critical objective, we would argue that many, if not a vast majority of, negotiations do not involve a competitor, per se. Yet, many of us continue to see all counterparts in a competitive light, and focus on “winning” the negotiation (and “beating” the other side) instead of focusing on the pursuit of an agreement that fully satisfies our needs and objectives…which often entails collaborating with our counterparts rather than trying to best them.