Leadership Psychological Biases

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. ALDOUS HUXLEY

Leadership has many key attribute but some of the key ones are selecting the right people and making good decisions and bringing people with you.

To make good decisions one needs to be aware of Psychological Biases that can impair one's judgement and how to limit their effects?

Can we truly be totally free of biases even if we are aware of them conceptually (and most people aren't even consciously aware of them.

This comprehensive list can be used by you as a quick checklist as part of a review process to help you address these biases but please avoid categorising other people and telling them "what's wrong with them".

What kind of biases can we prone to?

1. Confirmation Bias: Favoring information that confirms one's existing beliefs.
2. Anchoring Bias: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions.
3. Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the importance of information that is readily available.
4. Hindsight Bias: Believing that past events were more predictable than they actually were.
5. Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing a behavior or endeavor based on previously invested resources.
6. Groupthink: The tendency to conform to the opinions or decisions of a group, often at the expense of individual reasoning.
7. Negativity Bias: Giving more weight to negative experiences over positive ones.
8. Halo Effect: The tendency to let one positive trait influence our opinion of a person's overall character.
9. Horns Effect: The opposite of the halo effect, where one negative trait affects our perception of someone's entire character.
10. Self-Serving Bias: Attributing successes to one's own abilities and failures to external factors.
11. Fundamental Attribution Error: Overestimating the role of personal factors and underestimating situational factors in others' behavior.
12. Status Quo Bias: Preferring things to stay the same or choosing inaction over change.
13. Dunning-Kruger Effect: Overestimating one's own abilities, often due to a lack of expertise in the area.
14. In-Group Bias: Favoring members of one's own group over those in other groups.
15. Out-Group Bias: Discriminating against or stereotyping members of groups different from one's own.
16. Gambler's Fallacy: Believing that past events affect the probability of future events in random sequences.
17. Optimism Bias: Overestimating the likelihood of positive events and underestimating negative ones.
18. Pessimism Bias: Overestimating the likelihood of negative events and underestimating positive ones.
19. Attentional Bias: Paying attention to certain aspects while ignoring others, often leading to incorrect conclusions.
20. Survivorship Bias: Focusing only on the "survivors" of a particular situation, and ignoring those who did not make it through.
21. Affect Heuristic: Making decisions based on emotions rather than objective analysis.
22. Illusory Superiority: Overestimating one's own abilities compared to others.
23. Just-World Hypothesis: Believing that the world is just and that people get what they deserve.
24. Ostrich Effect: Ignoring negative information or unsettling facts, often in financial contexts.
25. Projection Bias: Assuming that others share the same beliefs, attitudes, or feelings as oneself.
26. Recency Bias: Placing more importance on the most recent information and experiences, often overlooking historical data.
27. Selection Bias: Making a decision based on non-random data, thereby creating a skewed, unrepresentative sample.
28. Authority Bias: Overvaluing the opinions or suggestions of an authority figure.
29. Bandwagon Effect: Adopting certain behaviors or beliefs because they are popular or widely accepted.
30. Zero-Risk Bias: Preferring to eliminate a small risk completely rather than reducing a greater risk.
31. Paradox of Choice: Feeling overwhelmed and less satisfied when presented with too many options.
32. Mere Exposure Effect: Developing a preference for things simply because they are familiar.
33. Anchoring Effect: Fixating on initial information and failing to adequately adjust for subsequent information.
34. Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating the accuracy of one's beliefs and predictions.
35. Planning Fallacy: Underestimating the time and resources needed to complete a task.
36. False Consensus Effect: Overestimating the extent to which others share one's opinions, attitudes, or beliefs.
37. Actor-Observer Bias: Attributing one's own actions to external causes while attributing others' actions to internal characteristics.
38. Illusory Correlation: Perceiving a relationship between two variables when none exists.
39. Endowment Effect: Overvaluing something simply because you own it.
40. Contrast Effect: Evaluating something based on its contrast with something else, rather than its inherent qualities.
41. Repetition Bias: Believing something is true because it has been repeated multiple times.
42. Blind Spot Bias: Failing to recognize one's own biases while easily identifying them in others.
43. Peak-End Rule: Judging an experience by its most intense points and its conclusion, rather than the overall experience.
44. Conformity Bias: Changing one's behavior or views to align with those of a group.
45. Information Bias: Believing that more information guarantees better decision-making, even when that information is irrelevant.
46. Framing Effect: Being influenced by the way information is presented, rather than the information itself.
47. Placebo Effect: Experiencing real or perceived improvements due to believing in the efficacy of something, despite it having no therapeutic effect.
48. Decline Bias: The belief that a subject of study is in decline, based on comparing modern measurements to past data without accounting for changes in measurement methods.
49. Rosy Retrospection: Remembering the past more positively than it actually was.
50. Effort Justification: Valuing an outcome more if a lot of effort was put into achieving it.
51. Illusion of Control: Believing that you have control over events that are actually random or uncontrollable.
52. Illusory Truth Effect: Believing false information to be true after repeated exposure.
53. Naïve Realism: Believing that one's own view of reality is the only accurate one and that other people are uninformed or biased.
54. Reactance: Doing the opposite of what someone advises, often to reassert one's freedom.
55. Regression to the Mean: Misinterpreting random fluctuations as meaningful patterns or trends.
56. Restraint Bias: Overestimating one's ability to control impulsive behavior.
57. Time-Saving Bias: Overestimating the amount of time that can be saved when using a faster alternative.
58. Unit Bias: Believing that a single unit of something is the optimal or appropriate amount, regardless of the size of the unit.
59. Hyperbolic Discounting: The tendency to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger future rewards. (quick wins).
60. Scarcity Bias: Placing higher value on resources that are limited in availability.
61. Pro-Innovation Bias: Overvaluing the usefulness and underestimating the limitations of a new technology or innovation.
62. Zeigarnik Effect: Remembering uncompleted tasks better than completed ones.
63. Egocentric Bias: Over-relying on one's own perspective and not considering the viewpoints of others.
64. Normalcy Bias: Underestimating the likelihood or impact of a disaster because it hasn't happened before.
65. Courtesy Bias: Giving 'polite' or socially desirable responses in surveys or during interviews, rather than stating one's true opinions.
66. Outcome Bias: Judging a decision based on its outcome rather than the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
67. Narrative Fallacy: Creating a story or pattern in one's mind to explain events, even if they are random or unconnected.
68. Moral Credential Effect: Acting less ethical after performing an ethical deed, as if one has "earned" the right to do so.
69. Not-Invented-Here Bias: Aversion to ideas or products that originate from outside a particular group.
70. Ego Depletion: Reduced self-control and decision-making abilities after exerting mental effort.

Developing your metacognition and awareness of biases through a process of education, self-reflection, and ongoing practice will help you address a potential susceptibility to bias.

You or your coach/mentor can follow this process.

1. Education: Start by educating the leader about the various types of biases and how they can affect decision-making. Knowledge is the first step toward awareness.
2. Self-Assessment: Encourage regular self-assessment where the leader actively questions their thoughts and decisions. "Why did I come to this conclusion?" or "Could a bias be influencing me?" Use the above list as a checklist will help.
3. Feedback Loops: Establish mechanisms for immediate and constructive feedback from team members (mentors, coaches etc). A diverse team/support team can offer multiple perspectives and help identify biases that the leader may not see.
4. Decision Records: Keeping a record of decisions, along with the thought process and information considered, can help in reviewing and identifying bias in retrospect. Online tools that document the project can help provided you review them and use it as a second brain.
5. Third-Party Reviews: An impartial third party can assess decisions and provide an outside perspective. This could be a mentor, an executive coach, or even an advisory board.
6. Pause Before Deciding: Encourage taking time before finalizing important decisions. This 'cooling-off' period allows for reflection and second-guessing, which can sometimes unveil biases.
7. Scenario Planning: Imagine different outcomes and how they would impact the decision. This can help in assessing whether a particular bias is swaying the leader toward one scenario over others.
8. Accountability: Make it a point to be accountable for decisions, especially when they go wrong. Owning up to mistakes can be a powerful learning experience.
9. Mindfulness and Emotional Awareness: Mindfulness exercises can increase self-awareness and make it easier to recognize when emotional states may be affecting judgment.
10. Continuous Learning: Encourage ongoing learning and development in the area of cognitive biases and decision-making.

I would love your feedback and suggestions for improvement - DM me if your prefer.

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