Latest news with #cognitiveDissonance
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Price Of Playing Along: Why It's Not Burnout, But Moral Injury That's Exhausting Today's Leaders
You've rested. You've delegated. You've even meditated. So why are you still tired? We talk a lot about burnout. About toxic hustle culture, overbooked calendars, and the sharp edge of high expectations. But there's a subtler, more corrosive culprit draining many values-driven leaders right now: cognitive dissonance, the mental discomfort that arises when your actions contradict your beliefs. It's not just about workload. It's about integrity. Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that arises when your actions contradict your Price of Playing Along In a recent conversation, impact-driven entrepreneur Jared Meyers offered a powerful reframe. He's the founder of Legacy Vacation Resorts and Salt Palm Development, and an outspoken advocate of stakeholder capitalism, B Corp certification, and environmental sustainability - operating businesses that explicitly name values like equity, justice, and regeneration. That kind of bold purpose has always required courage. But in today's climate, it can also carry real risk. Political backlash against ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles, DEI initiatives, and even certifications like B Corp is growing. In places like Florida, where Jared's businesses operate, aligning with these values could threaten funding opportunities, partnerships, or public perception. So why keep doing it? Jared's answer was striking in its simplicity: he's unwilling to live with the cognitive dissonance that would come from backing down. 'If I stopped doing the work I believe in - if I went quiet just to avoid pressure - I'd lose my own alignment,' he told me. 'And that would be a bigger cost than any external risk.' Even when speaking out could jeopardize contracts or draw unwanted attention, Jared continues. Sometimes more quietly. Sometimes even louder. But never less This Hurts More Than We Admit Cognitive dissonance was coined in the 1950s by psychologist Leon Festinger, who demonstrated that humans are deeply motivated to preserve internal consistency. When our actions contradict our beliefs, we either change the behavior, or rationalize the misalignment. "If I went quiet just to avoid pressure - I'd lose my own alignment. And that would be a bigger cost ... More than any external risk,' describes the cognitive dissonance so many of us are feeling right now, in Jared Meyers' for purpose-driven leaders, those rationalizations don't stick. The cost of acting out of sync with your values isn't just ethical. It's energetic. As one Harvard Business Review article put it, 'When you act in a way that violates your identity or values, it triggers moral injury: a form of psychological harm that's distinct from burnout, but just as debilitating.' In my own life, I've felt this too. Early in my career, I was so focused on creating WORLD-level impact that I neglected the ME and WE. I went deeper and deeper into frontline nonprofit work, eventually supporting a refugee community in the Middle East, believing that the closer I was to the problem, the more 'real' my contribution. The result? I missed my dad's funeral. I lost my first marriage. And while my mission looked noble from the outside, inside I was exhausted, disconnected, and out of sync with what actually made me effective. In this case, I wasn't violating any values. I just wasn't applying them in a balanced way across the dimensions of my life. I didn't need to do less good. I needed to do it in a more aligned to Spot (and Solve) the Dissonance You might be experiencing cognitive dissonance - or its more acute cousin, moral injury - if: The solution isn't to double down on effort. It's to realign. This starts with reflection, but doesn't stop there. Jared's example shows that even quiet persistence in your values can become a protest, a strategy, a business advantage. As Lisa Fain and others argue in Who Believed In You, alignment doesn't require grand gestures. It requires honest feedback, mutual trust, and a constellation of supporters who keep you tethered to your best self—even in hard times. Alignment requires a constellation of supporters who keep you tethered to your best self. Even in ... More hard This: Three Ways to Realign Audit Your Actions. Where are you compromising - subtly or significantly - on your values? Name it without judgment. Name the Fear. What are you afraid will happen if you stay fully aligned? Get specific. Is it lost revenue? Backlash? Feeling exposed? Find Your People. Whether it's a mentor, a peer network, or a courageous client, surround yourself with folks who see - and support - your whole self. (B Lab and your local B Local chapter, Conscious Capitalism chapters and spin-offs, House of Beautiful Business, Small Giants, and Coralus [formerly SheEO] offer good starting points.) When external pressure is high, it's tempting to quiet your voice or postpone your principles. But as Jared reminded me, that short-term compliance comes at a long-term cost. Not just to your goals, but to your soul. Let this be your nudge to resist the quiet slide into dissonance. To do business, and live, in a way that's fully 3D: aligned in ME (your truth), WE (your teams and relationships), and WORLD (your impact). Because the real risk isn't staying small. It's staying strategically silent. It's continuing to play along with a system that tempts us to ignore misalignment, and challenges our integrity in subtle, persistent ways. The only real protection from moral injury… is moral courage.
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
An affecting account of four years in Israel and Palestine
I was so moved by Bethan McKernan's article on her time as the Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent over the last four years ('I worried I might start finding it normal. But I never did' – what I learned as the Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, 29 May). Her experience of feeling a 'maddening cognitive dissonance' in Tel Aviv/Jaffa from seeing people 'out and about, doing pilates, walking their dogs, as if everything was fine – when just 50km down the road, on the same stretch of the Med, was an open-air prison' is exactly how I felt when I first visited Jerusalem in 2018 after spending time in the West Bank. I had decided to take my young family there to show them where my Palestinian father grew up under the British Mandate and see if we could find the home he'd lost in 1948. But I was also keen to ensure my children had a balanced view and understood the whole story, educating them about what the Jewish people had been through. I had come from Jordan via Bethlehem and Ramallah and been so touched by the generosity of the Palestinians I met who, despite living under very difficult conditions, were such wonderful hosts, inviting my family in to chat and share delicious home-cooked food. But arriving in lush Jerusalem from the barren West Bank, where Palestinians are treated like cattle, penned in by the wall and multiple checkpoints, was a striking contrast. After walking a few steps through the centre of Jerusalem with its gleaming shops, surrounded by people ostensibly living their best life, I broke down and cried at the injustice of it all. Growing up in London, people would sometimes tell me they were going on holiday to Israel. 'Have you been?' they would ask. 'It's wonderful.' They didn't know my background, but I was left shocked that they only saw one side of it. What I loved about Bethan's article is that over the last four years she has immersed herself in life there and deeply felt the positions of both Israelis and Palestinians. If we are going to make progress and reach a fair outcome, we have to put ourselves in each other's shoes and deeply understand each other's LucasLondon Jonathan Freedland describes Hamas's actions on 7 October 2023 as 'slaughter', while Israel's bombardment of Gaza ever since is just 'killing' Palestinians (A biblical hatred is engulfing both sides in the Gaza conflict – and blinding them to reason, 23 May). The difference in outrage portrayed in these words reflects the lack of equivalence between the life of an Israeli and that of a Palestinian which has been at the heart of the conflict since the MatthewsLondon Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
