As a leader, it’s important to make sound decisions that positively impact your team and organization. However, our brains are wired in ways that can sometimes lead us astray, resulting in poor judgment and decision-making. These mental shortcuts, known as cognitive biases, are unconscious patterns that affect the way we interpret information, make decisions, and solve problems.

To become a better leader, it’s essential to recognize these cognitive biases and work to overcome them. By doing so, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions, communicate more effectively with your team, and avoid common pitfalls that can hold you back.

Following are the 10 most common cognitive biases that can impact your leadership. For each one, we offer one or more ideas for for overcoming them. Whether you’re a new manager or an experienced executive, understanding these biases and learning how to navigate them can help you become a more effective and successful leader.

1. Confirmation Bias: This is the tendency to seek out information that confirms our preexisting beliefs while ignoring information that contradicts them. As a leader, it’s important to actively seek out diverse perspectives and challenge your own assumptions.
2. Overconfidence Bias: This is the tendency to overestimate our abilities and underestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes. As a leader, it’s important to balance confidence with humility and to seek out feedback from others.
3. Anchoring Bias: This is the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information we receive when making decisions. As a leader, it’s important to gather multiple sources of information and consider them all equally.
4. Availability Bias: This is the tendency to overestimate the importance of information that is readily available to us while underestimating the importance of information that is less accessible. As a leader, it’s important to actively seek out information and perspectives that may be less readily available.
5. Halo Effect: This is the tendency to judge a person based on one trait or characteristic. As a leader, it’s important to evaluate people based on a range of factors and avoid making snap judgments.
6. Sunk Cost Fallacy: This is the tendency to continue investing in a project or decision because we’ve already invested time, money, or resources, even if it no longer makes sense. As a leader, it’s important to be willing to cut losses and make difficult decisions.
7. Hindsight Bias: This is the tendency to believe that events were more predictable than they actually were after they have occurred. As a leader, it’s important to learn from mistakes and avoid the trap of hindsight bias.
8. Self-Serving Bias: This is the tendency to attribute success to our own abilities and failures to external factors. As a leader, it’s important to take responsibility for both successes and failures and to learn from both.
9. Framing Effect: This is the tendency to be influenced by the way information is presented to us. As a leader, it’s important to present information in a way that is clear and unbiased.
10. Negativity Bias: This is the tendency to focus more on negative information than positive information. As a leader, it’s important to actively seek out positive information and recognize successes.

By understanding these common cognitive biases, you can take steps to avoid them and make more informed decisions as a leader. It’s important to seek out diverse perspectives, actively seek out information, and avoid making snap judgments based on incomplete information.

For a comprehensive, in-depth, and incredibly helpful book on cognitive biases and how to overcome them, look no further than “How Our Brains Betray Us” by Magnus McDaniels.