The Silent Influencer: How Biases Shape Leadership Decisions

We all want leaders to be upright, trustworthy, and fair. We assume that those in leadership positions make decisions with integrity and fairness. And we would like them to create environments that foster inclusion, diversity and empowerment.

The one thing stopping them? Subconscious Biases.

The Silent Influencer

Biases evolved as adaptive mechanisms to help our ancestors navigate uncertain environments and make quick decisions for survival. They are ingrained in the very fabric of human cognition, serving as mental shortcuts that help us process information efficiently in a complex world. However, in leadership settings, these cognitive shortcuts can lead to errors in judgment, perpetuate stereotypes, impact team dynamics, and negatively affect organisational culture.

Biases are mostly subconscious, but they fundamentally shape our decisions, perceptions, and interactions, silently influencing our every decision and action. They can seep into the fabric of organizational culture, affecting everything from hiring practices to performance evaluations.

How Does Bias Affect Leadership?

The research behind biases shows that they are often rooted in the amygdala - a part of the brain responsible for processing emotions and detecting threats. When faced with unfamiliar or ambiguous stimuli, the amygdala triggers a fear response, leading to the activation of stereotypes or biases stored in our memory.

Leaders are therefore not immune to biases. In fact, people in leadership positions tend to be more biased, simply because they need to make quick decisions, multiple times a day and may just not have the time to reflect and be aware of their biases to counter them. Leaders may rely on intuition or gut feelings influenced by biases rather than considering all available information and perspectives.

Biases can affect a leader's hiring decisions, performance evaluations, strategic planning, as well as shape a leaders' perceptions and judgments, leading to unequal treatment and missed opportunities for growth and innovation.

When a leaders' decisions and actions are perceived as biased or unfair, it undermines their authority and legitimacy, eroding trust and credibility and creating toxic, unproductive work environments.

5 Common Leadership Biases

1. Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek out information that confirms preexisting beliefs or opinions while ignoring contradictory evidence. This bias can lead to closed-mindedness and hinder leaders' ability to consider alternative viewpoints. Example: If a manager believes that employees from a certain department are less productive, then when reviewing performance data, the manager selectively focuses on instances where employees from that department underperformed, while disregarding or downplaying instances where they excelled.

2. In-Group Bias: The tendency to favor individuals or groups that are similar to oneself or belong to the same social category. In-group bias can lead to favoritism and exclusion of diverse perspectives within the organization. Example: A manager consistently promotes employees who share similar backgrounds or interests with them, while overlooking equally qualified candidates from different demographic groups.
   

1. Attribution Bias: The tendency to attribute success to internal factors (e.g., skill, effort) and failure to external factors (e.g., luck, situational factors). Attribution bias can lead to unfair judgments, lack of accountability, and failure to learn from mistakes. Example: During a performance review, a manager evaluates two employees who worked together on a project. Despite both employees contributing equally to the project's success, the manager attributes the majority of the credit to the one employee he gets along with better, while attributing any shortcomings or mistakes to the other.

2. Recency Bias: The tendency to give more weight to recent events or information when making decisions, while discounting older or less recent data. Recency bias can lead to short-term thinking, overlooking long-term trends, and reactive decision-making. Example: During performance evaluations, employees who made significant contributions earlier in the year may receive less recognition or praise than those who made more recent contributions.

3. Anchoring Bias: The tendency to rely too heavily on initial information or the first piece of evidence encountered when making decisions. Anchoring bias can lead to inaccurate judgments and failure to consider new information or alternative viewpoints. Example: If a project budget was initially pitched at $ 40,000 by the team and the following week after revisions, they came back with $ 30,000, a leader would readily accept it and give his go ahead. However if the actual cost of the project is only $20'000, then giving them $30'000 wouldn’t look like such a good thing anymore. Th leader made the decision based on the initial 'anchor' of $40,000 and that influenced his decision making abilities. 

Leadership bias is a pervasive phenomenon with profound implications for organizational dynamics and individual well-being. By understanding the origins of biases, cultivating self-awareness, and implementing strategies for mitigating bias, leaders can foster inclusive, equitable environments where diversity is celebrated, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Ananya Madhavan is a Leadership and Executive Presence Coach. She is the founder of The Inside Effect, an organisation that helps people develop communication mastery, strategic skills and emotional intelligence so that they can become leaders who lead with authenticity, empathy, and purpose.