"Dumb down our leadership"... perfect description John! One of the most effective strategies I've seen many of my clients use was to make sure they didn't take the disappointment personally. It's so easy to allow it to drift into our sense of identity and how we view ourselves.

We've all heard the axiom "Failure is an event, not a person", so it's important to keep that in mind. Keeping a clear distinction between your state of being (identity) and your state of doing (actions) will serve you quite well.  The objectivity comes in when you acknowledge that you are disappointed in the results and not disappointed in who you view yourself to be.