Perfection Is a Lie: The Leadership Lesson from Malmstrom

Perfection is a tempting leadership standard because it feels like discipline, pride, and professionalism. But I’ve seen the darker side: when leaders communicate that anything less than flawless performance is unacceptable, people don’t get better they get quieter. They protect appearances, avoid questions, and hide uncertainty. That is how a team with “high standards” can become a team with high fear.

We dig into David Burke’s newly published book The Need to Lead and his blunt idea that perfection is a lie. To make it real, we walk through the 2014 Malmstrom Air Force Base missile officer testing scandal and what it teaches about organizational culture, accountability, and integrity under pressure. The lesson isn’t that standards should drop. In nuclear operations and in everyday leadership, the mission matters and consequences are serious. The point is that there’s a difference between demanding excellence and demanding a perfect score, and that difference shows up in behavior when no one is watching.

From there, we talk about psychological safety and why it’s not soft leadership. It’s a performance system: debriefs, constant small corrections, clear checklists, and leaders who model humility so people speak up early. We end with three coaching questions you can use with your team to spot the signals you send about mistakes, learning, and accountability especially in high-stakes moments.

If this resonates, share the episode with a leader who needs it, follow or subscribe, and leave a rating or short review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And The Core Idea

TJ 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Buzz with Lloyd Buzz Buzzell. Buzz is an international coaching federation ACC credentialed coach, disc practitioner, and retired Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. This podcast is for leaders who want to align behavior with values and grow in self-awareness. Each episode features one book, one idea, one story, and three coaching questions to reflect on your leadership. Work hard. Tell the truth. Let's roll.

Buzz 0:32

Perfection sounds like a leadership virtue, but sometimes the demand for perfection creates the exact behavior leaders are trying to prevent. In his book, The Need to Lead by David Burke, writes, If you indicate to your team that you accept only perfection, you will fail them. This insight hit home for me because I spent much of my career as a missileer in the nuclear enterprise. And in 2014, an incident at Malstrom Air Force Base forced the Air Force to take a hard look at the pressure surrounding perfection. Today we'll talk about what leaders can learn from that moment.

TJ 1:06

Today's book is the newly published The Need to Lead by Dave Burke. A Marine Corps fighter pilot and top gun instructor, Burke argues that leadership is the solution to nearly every challenge we face. One of his key lessons is that perfection is a lie. When leaders signal that only perfection is acceptable, people stop learning and start protecting appearances. Over to you, Coach Buzz.

High Standards Versus Perfection

Buzz 1:31

In 2014, the U.S. Air Force discovered irregularities in the testing program used to certify intercontinental ballistic missile officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Missile officers are required to pass periodic evaluations and written tests that ensure they understand procedures, systems, and emergency protocols associated with nuclear operations. These tests are taken very seriously because the mission involves the nation's strategic deterrent. An investigation revealed that some officers had shared answers to portions of a monthly proficiency test through text messaging. The situations involved dozens of personnel in the missile community and led to a broader review of testing procedures, leadership oversight, and the organizational culture within the force. The Air Force responded by removing personnel from alert duty, retraining crews, reviewing testing protocols, and reinforcing standards across the nuclear enterprise. The event became a moment of reflection for the organization about the pressure surrounding testing, expectations of flawless performance, and the importance of maintaining a culture where honesty and accountability remain central to the mission. For many leaders, the situation highlighted an important lesson. When environments emphasize perfect results above everything else, people can sometimes feel pressure to protect appearances rather than surface problems earlier. In these high stakes environments like nuclear operations, the expectations of flawless performance is real. The mission matters. The consequences are serious. Standards are high for a reason, but there's a difference between high standards and the expectation of perfection. When leaders unintentionally communicate that mistakes are unacceptable, people start focusing on protecting their image instead of learning. Instead of asking questions or admitting uncertainty, they may feel pressure to appear flawless. Over time, that pressure quietly shapes the culture of a team. What's worse about not knowing the answer is knowing you don't know the answer or the concept or the knowledge, but you're afraid to speak up because people will think that you don't know what you're doing. And in an environment that requires constant correction and the ability to learn, that would be accepted and actually required. David Burke in his book said real perfection is the constant correction of errors, so small they're almost imperceptible. And through a debrief process that the both the Air Force and the Marines use, they go through a process of after every operation of what happened, what should have happened, what was I thinking, what was I doing, and how can I correct that?

TJ 4:19

Buzz, can you tell us a little more about the why behind the incident?

Debriefs And Constant Small Corrections

Owning Mistakes And Psychological Safety

Buzz 4:22

What's kind of tragic in this situation that happened at Malmstrom was the fact that nobody was passing the answers to each other because they couldn't pass the tests, but they were trying to get a score of 100 to be perfect. And that was kind of the unintended message that was being sent culturally. And I would suspect that no leader ever said, hey, everybody has to get 100 here today, but just culturally, everybody felt that way. And that's just part of our values and integrity that come along with that. I mean, every organization says values, integrity, and accountability are part of that. But this culture isn't created by slogans. It's created by what leaders, what they reward and accept. If leaders celebrate perfect scores and flawless results above everything else, people start prioritizing appearances over honesty. But when those leaders reward transparency, learning, improvement, the culture becomes stronger. And then teams surface issues earlier and help each other more openly and focus on solving problems instead of hiding them. And in many organizations, that danger isn't the mistake itself. The real danger is silence. And when people feel uncomfortable about raising concerns or admitting uncertainty, as I mentioned before, those problems stay hidden until they grow larger. I always told my crew partner that if they didn't know something, need to ask. And if I can't answer it, we need to find somebody to ask because it's going to come up again, just as everything else does in operations, it's going to repeat itself. And small issues that could be addressed earlier become bigger issues and challenges later. And as you know, strong teams understand that speaking up early protects the mission, it protects the team and the organization. And then leaders who encourage that type of open communication create that environment where these problems just get addressed quickly and then learning happens continuously. And that's what you're seeking and that's what you're hoping in your organization, because that's how you can become stronger as a team and as a unit. As part of my crew crew, which in a missile crew, there's usually two people as part of that crew. On a missile crew, your actions are together. So you're almost always in some type of checklist where you're working with each other. Step two. Step two complete. Do you agree? Yes, step two complete. I agree. Step three, are you there at step three? Yes, I'm at step three. It is that regimented that the two of you are sticking together. And when you get to a certain step, both of you need to understand it, and both of you need to acknowledge that it's complete. Because if only one person understands it, that means the other person really isn't there with you, and so you're on your own. And everything in nuclear operations is with two people. And then in the launch control centers, there's five of them connected. So now you have two people in each launch control center. That means ten people. So amongst ten people, those people should all be agreeing also as you work through those operations. And that's really important. And if somebody doesn't understand or agree, they need to bring up that that objection.

TJ 7:33

Where did that show up for you, Buzz?

Buzz 7:35

I recall when I was at undergraduate missile training in California as a second lieutenant, my first key turn, we got done the key turn, and our instructor asked, Hey, are you sure, Buzz, that we should have key turn at that time? And I said, Yeah, I think so. I can say with a hundred percent confidence that that's the last time I ever said those words, I think so in nuclear operations in training, evaluation, or in a real world situation. Because if I wasn't sure, I should speak up and say something, or not take the action and ask for why we should do it. We were right that day, but I should have been a hundred percent on board with what we were doing. And that's probably one of the biggest parts is to own your mistakes. Own your mistakes. If you make a mistake, work that out in debrief, and then find out why you made the mistake and how you can correct it. And that's the most powerful thing you can do as an operator. And let's face it, great leadership doesn't lower standards, it creates an environment when people can meet those standards honestly. Psychological safety means people feel comfortable asking questions that admitting those mistakes and raising concerns without fear of embarrassment or punishment. On my crew, if my deputy didn't understand something, or in my operational crews that continued on in other places in the military, I always made sure somebody could speak up. When leaders model that humility and openness, teams become more resilient and more effective. Then in those environments where the mission truly matters, the goal isn't perfection. The goal is clarity, trust, and continuous improvement. I know we can do this better and we can learn how to get it done as a team through those constant, small corrections.

Why The Culture Sent That Signal

Speaker 1 9:23

Can

TJ 9:24

you tell us why you chose the book The Need to Lead This Week?

Three Coaching Questions For Leaders

Buzz 9:26

The book does a great job of explaining in that chapter about that perfection is a lie, about carrier ops and landing on the carrier, and how every time somebody lands, there's always comments, there's always feedback, that it's never perfect. And so they breed that right out of the individual that they're perfect all the time. And he had a real world situation where he was just learning how to land, and that he would admit those mistakes, those small corrections, and that he would be able to fix those to be perfect. And so perfection is really just a myth and a lie, and that's where David Burke goes with that. So that's just a great chapter out of this the need to lead. Uh David Burke was a top gun instructor, and the bottom part of that is a top gun instructor's lessons on how leadership solves every challenge, and he sees every challenge as a leadership challenge. Somewhere along the way, the officers and crew members at Malmstrom Air Force Base in 2014 decided that it was easier to go one way rather than the other way because of the culture that had been instilled there. And that's what was found through the investigation. The wing commander ended up resigning and resigning from the Air Force and retiring in an incredible display of integrity and and take and accountability. And that's a story in itself and a story for another podcast. And there's ways to create that psychological safety, to create that debrief process, to get people to speak up, to be able to get people to acknowledge that. And that's kind of a tragedy that kind of happened because it destroyed several careers and it was a significant emotional event that involved almost half of the crew force up there, and uh it was very impacting in the nuclear community at the time. This completely changed how we did testing and evaluations and performance in the field, and it had a dramatic effect on the future of the crew force. The Secretary of the Air Force at that time was quoted as saying the need for perfection has created way too much stress and way too much fear about the future. Systems feel very punitive, offering few rewards for good behavior, but severe punishments for anything less than perfection. There's a lot of officers who career and families are impacted by this. Let's not forget about families. So it's not just the crew member or the officer themselves, it impacted their families. So let's remember that this goes a long wider range than just a few officers.

TJ 12:09

Let's get to this week's three coaching questions for our listeners.

Buzz 12:13

Thanks, TJ. The first one is what signals do you think your leadership sends about mistakes and learning? And how does that show up on your team? How do you see that day to day, week to week, and how does that progress? The second one is how comfortable do people on your team seem when raising problems or uncertainty? And can you tell us about a time when that showed up or how that showed up for you and your team? Then finally, what kind of culture are you trying to create around performance and accountability? And how does that show up in the way your team works together on a daily basis, especially in high-stakes environment or crisis situations?

TJ 12:57

Buzz, final thoughts today?

Buzz 12:59

I think really the lesson from situations like Malmstrom isn't really about individuals, it's about culture. When leaders communicate that perfection, it's the only acceptable outcome. Then people start protecting appearances instead of just speaking honestly. And David Burke writes in the Need to Lead, if you indicate to your team that you accept only perfection, you will fail them. The strongest teams I saw in the military weren't the ones pretending everything was perfect. They were the ones where people could raise a hand, admit some type of uncertainty, and solve problems early. Leadership isn't about creating the illusion of perfection. It's about creating a culture where people can tell the truth, learn quickly, and protect the mission. I can't say enough for David Burke's book. There's several other concepts in there that are really good. I pulled this one out because I really thought it was a good one for this week. So I appreciate David Burke's book and I really recommend that you read it. It's the Need to Lead. It was just published this year.

Final Takeaways And How To Help

TJ 13:59

Today, we explored The Need to Lead by Dave Burke and the powerful idea that perfection is a lie. When leaders create an environment where only perfect performance is acceptable, people can start protecting appearances instead of learning

Buzz 14:14

and improving. The leadership challenge is not lowering standards, but creating a culture where people can admit mistakes, grow, and perform at their best. As you reflect on today's episode, consider this. What expectations are you communicating to the people you lead? Coach Buzz, over to you. Thanks for listening to the Leadership Buzz. If this episode helped you think a little differently about leadership, do me a favor. Share it with another leader who might benefit from the conversation. Leadership grows when we pass good ideas on. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please take a moment to follow or subscribe wherever you listen, and leave a rating or a short review. That really helps other leaders discover the show. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn where I continue the conversation around leadership, coaching, and building strong teams. Thanks again for listening and remember, work hard, tell the truth.