Check Yourself Before You Wreck…Your Decisions.

Managing Bias & Ego in Leadership

We all like to think we’re rational. Logical. Objective. But the truth?

If you have a brain, you have bias.

If we want to lead well, we need to get brutally honest about the two biggest invisible forces shaping our decisions: bias and ego. They’re not flaws in character—they’re features of being human. But if we don’t manage them, they will absolutely manage us.

Your Brain’s Not Broken—It’s Just Efficient (and Biased)

Cognitive biases are mental shortcuts (heuristics) that help us make quick decisions in a complex world. They’re essential to survival, but they also distort reality in sneaky ways. Here are a few usual suspects:

• Confirmation bias: We seek out info that supports what we already believe.
• Status quo bias: We prefer things to stay the same, even if change would be better.
• Affinity bias: We favor people who are like us, which hurts diversity and innovation.
• Anchoring bias: We rely too heavily on the first piece of information we hear.

The problem? These biases are largely unconscious.

According to Harvard’s Project Implicit, 90-95% of our decisions are made using unconscious processing.

“When was the last time you trusted your gut—and it turned out your gut was just your comfort zone in disguise?”

A 2020 study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that even experts fall prey to cognitive bias in decision-making—especially under pressure (Kahneman, Sibony & Sunstein, 2021).

In other words: nobody’s immune, but awareness helps.

Ego: The Saboteur in a Fancy Suit

Ego gets a bad rap. It’s not just about arrogance or narcissism. Ego is our psychological identity—the story we tell ourselves about who we are. And when that story gets threatened? Oof.

Ego shows up when:

• You can’t hear critical feedback without getting defensive.
• You dismiss someone’s idea because they’re junior.
• You feel the need to be the smartest person in the room.

Ego isn’t evil. It’s trying to protect us. But when it starts running the show, curiosity dies, and learning flatlines. As organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich found, only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware, though 95% think they are. That gap? That’s your ego talking.

The Cost of Unchecked Bias + Ego

When ego and bias are in the driver’s seat, the leadership car crashes. The damage?

• Poor decisions that feel right but flop in execution.
• Teams that disengage because their input isn’t valued.
• Blind spots that lead to PR disasters, missed market shifts, or talent exodus.

One study by Cloverpop found that diverse teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time—but only if people feel safe enough to challenge ideas. That won’t happen in an ego-driven culture.

Five Ways to Check Yourself Before You Wreck Your Decisions

1. Name your bias. Use a cognitive bias checklist when making big decisions. You can find free ones from sources like The Decision Lab.
2. Slow the hell down. Bias thrives in urgency. Pause before defaulting to your gut. Ask: “What else could be true?”
3. Get a dissent partner. Designate someone to play devil’s advocate or give you uncomfortable truths. Psychological safety improves decision quality and team performance (Edmondson, 2019). Having somebody play ‘devil’s advocate’ also helps manage groupthink – which is a real issue in teams.
4. Do an ego check. Ask: Am I trying to make the best decision, or just trying to be right? (Pro tip: Your ego HATES this question.)
5. Lead with humility. Research from the Journal of Management shows that humble leaders improve team learning, adaptability, and trust (Owens & Hekman, 2012). (AKA “you don’t have all the answers just because you have the biggest office”)

Final Thought:

Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating the conditions where the best answers can emerge—even if they didn’t come from you.

Bias and ego will always be part of the picture. But when you learn to see them, you learn to lead past them. Remember – you don’t need to fire your ego….just don’t let it be the CEO.

References:

• Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., & Sunstein, C. R. (2021). Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. Little, Brown Spark.
• Eurich, T. (2017). Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life. Crown Business.
• Edmondson, A. (2019). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley.
• Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2012). Modeling how to grow: An inductive examination of humble leader behaviors, contingencies, and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 787–818.
• Cloverpop (2017). Hacking Diversity with Inclusive Decision-Making. https://www.cloverpop.com/hubfs/Whitepapers/Cloverpop_Hacking_Diversity_Inclusive_Decision_Making_White_Paper.pdf
• Project Implicit. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
• https://thedecisionlab.com/biases