5 Biases That Leaders Must Overcome for Better Management

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Pic credit: https://hbr.org/

By Shalini Bhattacharya

To grow and thrive as leaders in the age of complexity, we need to recognize the most common biases and how they can distract us.

There are several types of unconscious biases that have been deep-rooted in our minds and can influence our judgment and decision-making ability.

Biases can hamper recruitment, performance evaluation, innovation and creation of high-performing teams.

Here’s a look at the biases that leaders must overcome to taste true success in the uncertain business ecosystem.

Facts and Information biases – Leaders require solid idea and facts to support their vision.

However, there is a vast difference between being an innovator and an imitator. Some of them just gather ideas and facts just to talk about them, while true leaders will use these ideas to apply them into significant action.

Leaders must overcome fact and vision biases to step out of their comfort zone and take responsibility for innovation.

Confirmation Biases –Confirmation bias hampers our performance and also prevent us from making the right decision as the objectivity gets blurred.

It can also influence the decisions we make and can lead to poor or faulty choices.

Confirmation bias is extremely difficult to overcome since no one likes to admit that they’re wrong, the act of being always right and proving the point can have a negative impact on our growth cycle.

Egocentric bias – The egocentric bias is a cognitive bias that sources people to rely too heavily on their own standpoint when they examine events in their life or when they try to see things from other people’s perspectives.

This type of bias can cloud the emotional side of your mind, as you don’t see the other person’s standpoint.

When this bias takes over, people begin underestimating others’ standpoints or start ignoring it altogether. Mistakes, in this case, are bound to happen.

Blindspot – While we notice imperfections in others very easily, we often fail to see our own.

We consistently oversee what is actually happening and become too slanted. It’s quite natural for humans to have blind spots which can distort our perception of reality without us realizing and lead to faulty thinking and decisions.

Self-awareness followed by constructive feedback can help us overcome this bias.


About Author: 

The author – Shalini Bhattacharya is Founder & Leadership Coach at White Ray Coaching which acts both as a pilot and partner through a customized process to help leaders uncover their true selves, enhance awareness and communication skills, and achieve their full leadership potential.