I Was Mistaken for AI Slop: A Warning About Leadership Judgment
- Scott Mason
- Jul 29
- 8 min read
Leadership judgment fails when leaders accept appearances, gossip, and accusations without looking beneath the surface.
Last Updated: July 28, 2026
TL;DR (Quick Summary)
Leadership judgment falls apart when superficial impressions, "word on the street," or personality assumptions become a verdict before facts have been examined.
Leaders lose credibility when they act on gossip or accept the first accusation they hear.
To catch an escaping Odysseus, the cyclops Polyphemus searched only the backs of his sheep. Odysseus and his men escaped underneath them.
Before acting, ask one more question of someone whose account you have not heard.
How Leaders Improve Their Judgment
How can ambitious, fast-thinking leaders make better decisions when the facts are unclear?
The important answer: slow the verdict down long enough to look beneath the surface. Fast thinking can be mistaken for intelligence or quality. But many times, quality thinking -- and quality decisions -- require inquiry over raw speed.
Case in point: a stranger recently accused one of my talking head videos of being AI slop.
It was a bizarre accusation to read. After all, I had drafted the video. I developed the idea. The person speaking in the video was 100% me. And I most definitely don't consider myself "slop" -- even if my desk is sometimes sloppy.
There actually may have been a visible reason for the confusion. I have had cataracts removed from both eyes. The replacement lenses can sometimes reflect light in a way that makes my eyes look artificial on camera. Maybe that triggered the accusation. But nonetheless, the fact remains: a visual clue became a conclusion.
That sort of unjustified conclusion can be irritating -- or even funny -- on social media. but inside an organization, it can injure careers, erode trust, and expose a leader’s judgment as dangerously shallow.
Years ago, another weirdly humorous incident taught me the exact same lesson.
My boss -- a high-ranking organizational leader -- called a colleague and me into his office for a so-called "hard conversation" because he had heard through the grapevine that we were having a serious conflict.
This colleague and I worked together every day. We were close then. We remain close to this day. Quite simply, the alleged dispute did not exist.
During the meeting, I asked whether she had an issue with me that she had never expressed. I explicitly told her to be honest, and that I was open to an honest conversation to resolve it. She repeatedly insisted that she had no issue with me at all. She also invited me to raise anything I'd been holding back. I had nothing to raise. In fact, I loved working with her.
Our boss kept pressing us to discuss the alleged conflict. But we could not resolve a fight that had never happened.
In a later, but closely related, conversation about workplace gossip, he defended his approach: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
My hot take: sometimes what looks like smoke is really just hot air.
Eventually, my colleague and I left the meeting. Our reactions were identical:
“That was weird.” Years later, we still laugh about the legendary dispute that required mediation, despite never existing.
The story is funny now, but the leadership failure was real.
Our boss had allowed someone else to write a story about us. He then used his authority to force us inside it. The meeting wasted time and introduced suspicion into a working relationship that had been functioning well.
The attempt to address gossip gave the gossip more weight than it had ever deserved. It wasted our time and made him look ridiculous.
When an Allegation Becomes a Verdict
I saw the opposite choice play out in an earlier job. That story contains an equally valuable lesson.
One of my staff members emailed my boss and copied me. She alleged that her direct supervisor, who reported to me, had entered her office and begun yelling without justification.
My boss responded immediately. She wanted me to find the supervisor, write her up, and make clear that this behavior was unacceptable.
I asked a basic question: “Shouldn’t we speak to the supervisor first?”
The allegation required attention. But it also required verification.
My years as an attorney and executive had taught me that confidence does not make a statement accurate. Something isn't automatically true just because someone says it. And so I investigated.
I spoke with the people involved. I considered the available evidence. I also drew upon years of direct knowledge concerning both individuals' behavior and credibility.
The allegation did not hold up. The write-up never happened. And, most importantly, a capable employee was spared a morale-crushing attack based on a claim that hadn't been double-checked. The organization was spared a pointless conflict created by its own leadership.
That result came from one decision: we looked beneath the surface before using power.
Polyphemus and the Leadership Judgment Trap
The ancient Greek myth of Polyphemus explains this failure in terms even a child could understand.
Polyphemus was a shepherd, as well as a Cyclops: a giant with one eye. Lost and starving, the Trojan War hero Odysseus and his sailors entered Polyphemus’s cave and ate some of the food they found there. Polyphemus returned, sealed the cave with a huge rock, and began eating the trapped men. To save his men, Odysseus blinded the Cyclops.
But Polyphemus still controlled the cave’s exit. When he allowed his sheep to leave, he felt along their backs. He wanted to catch Odysseus and the surviving sailors if they tried to escape by riding on top of the animals.
Fortunately, Odysseus had tied his men underneath the sheep. Polyphemus touched the visible surface and treated his search as complete. The men passed beneath his hands and escaped.
Polyphemus's humiliation came from examining only the place where he assumed the answer would be. It's the perfect allegory for an important leadership danger: leading based only on what you see upon the surface.
The Toxic Myth Behind Bad Leadership Judgment
I call this the Social Myth, one of 5 Toxic Myths, all based on genres of Greek mythology.
The Social Myth takes hold when other people’s perceptions begin controlling your decisions. You accept the story held by the group, the loudest person, or whoever reached you first as gospel. The leader appears decisive, but really, they're just repeating a conclusion other people fed them.
Living out the Social Myth can have a serious cost.
Employees begin protecting themselves from the person who should be guiding them. They spend working hours documenting conversations, comparing stories, and warning colleagues about what happened. More gossip emerges because people no longer trust the leader to distinguish an allegation from a fact, any more than a video viewer could distinguish my face from AI slop.
By the way, a KPI-first view of management can completely miss this damage, as well as the risks. That's because work may still appear to be moving. The numbers may remain acceptable. Beneath those visible measures, though, people are withholding ideas and preparing defenses. Their commitment to the leader’s agenda, or to the organization itself, begins to weaken.
Senior leaders may eventually notice the pattern. They see recurring conflict, damaged morale, poor judgment, and declining performance surrounding the same person. A career built over decades can begin to lose steam -- or even get stopped -- because the leader kept touching the surface, while missing the reality underneath.
A 24-Hour Leadership Judgment Check
Here's a quick and easy 3-step coaching process that can keep you from making the mistake of the video viewer, my boss, or Polyphemus:
⚡️ Name Your Toxic Myth
Write down the judgment you have formed. Then name the myth beneath it: “I have allowed another person’s perception to become my conclusion. That is the Social Myth, and it is toxic.”
⚡️ Write Your Hero Story
Describe the Hero you will become in this situation: “I am the Hero who will take the time and energy to look beneath the surface, and uncover the truth.”
⚡️ One Action in 24 Hours
Speak with one person who isn't involved in the situation, someone neutral. Ask: “What might I be missing?” Then listen without shoehorning the answer into what you already believe.
Look Beneath the Sheep
I work with leaders to develop "The Mythic Mindset." That mindset asks more of a leader than speed, certainty, or obviously visible numerical performance. It calls you toward your inner Olympian: the part of you capable of truly independent --"sovereign" -- judgment.
Imagine a world in which people with power consistently looked beneath the surface before acting: where depth and exploration actually mattered.
Employees would spend less energy surviving false stories. Leaders would make decisions rooted in reality. Organizations could direct more of their human energy toward work that matters.
That world begins when you rip the Social Myth to shreds.
⚡️ Where are you touching only the top of the sheep?
⚡️ Where have you accepted smoke without asking what's actually burning?
⚡️ Where might someone’s career, dignity, or future depend on your willingness to look again, and more deeply?
If the Social Myth is distorting your judgment or damaging your leadership, just press the button below for a complimentary -- and not superficial -- conversation.
Let’s examine what is operating beneath the surface and start writing a stronger Hero Story. Because ...
I want your future to be EPIC!
Quick answers (FAQ)
Q1: What’s the core leadership lesson?
Strong leadership judgment requires direct inquiry. An allegation, rumor, or visual clue gives you a reason to investigate. It does not give you enough information to punish someone, damage a relationship, or declare that you understand what happened.
Q2: What can I do in the next 24 hours?
Choose one judgment you currently hold about another person. Identify which parts you personally verified. Then speak with someone whose account could complicate your conclusion.
Q3: How does this tie to mythic leadership?
Mythic leadership begins when you drive your own perceptions. Your inner Olympian refuses to surrender judgment to gossip, group pressure, or the need to appear decisive. You seek the truth because your power affects other people’s lives -- as well as your own professional credibility.
I'm Scott Mason, The Myth Slayer. I am an attorney and former C-Suite executive, coach, speaker, podcaster, and Master of the Mythic. I graduated from Columbia Law School and have spent years drawing on the full depth of a background spanning the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to provide lawyers feeling stuck or stagnant in their careers or as leaders with a unique (and fun!) system to help them live a life that's epic.
Click here to discover more about me, my mission, and how it can help you.
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