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Cognitive Bias Series Part 24: Inattentional BlindnessThis refers to the tendency to overlook important information bec...
07/08/2026

Cognitive Bias Series Part 24: Inattentional Blindness

This refers to the tendency to overlook important information because our attention is focused on something else.

If you've ever attended an intro to Psychology course, you've seen the invisible gorilla experiment (if you haven't, here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo?si=twuEUcsQe_mMIgCd).

Attention is one of a leader’s most limited resources. The greatest risks (or opportunities) are often not the problems you’re focused on...they’re the ones your focus prevents you from seeing.

Where are your attentional blindspots?

I worked with a company recently whose CEO was one of the most counterproductive leaders I've ever seen. He was erratic,...
07/03/2026

I worked with a company recently whose CEO was one of the most counterproductive leaders I've ever seen.

He was erratic, verbally abusive, self-serving, excessively rigid, and constantly derailed his staff.

During a coaching session with one of his executives, I asked, “What’s your red line? At what point do you know [the CEO] has crossed it?”

He paused for a moment and said, “When he sucks the dignity out of the room.”

That answer has stayed with me.

Every person wants to feel that they matter. That their voice has value. That even when they’re corrected, challenged, or held accountable, they remain worthy of respect.

The best leaders understand that accountability and dignity are not competing values. They reinforce one another.

Difficult feedback can be delivered without humiliation. Hard decisions can be made without demeaning people. And, excellence and the preservation of someone's humanity can coexist.

People rarely forget how a leader made them feel.

As we head into the weekend…

Reflection:

Think about your last difficult conversation. Did the other person leave with their dignity intact?

Sometimes that’s the difference between someone complying with you and someone continuing to trust you.

Cognitive Bias Series Part 23: Negativity Bias Negativity Bias is our brain’s tendency to give more weight to negative e...
07/01/2026

Cognitive Bias Series Part 23: Negativity Bias

Negativity Bias is our brain’s tendency to give more weight to negative experiences than equally positive ones.

I remember the Baumeister et al. (2001) article about this well.

A single criticism, setback, or mistake can overshadow dozens of successes, causing us to overestimate problems and underestimate progress (applied to either ourselves or others).

Effective leadership is recognizing this bias and balancing the scale by intentionally looking at the wins as often as we address the fixes and failures.

Someone introduced me to the "Musts, Shoulds, and Wants" strategy recently.I love the simplicity of this one. We know ef...
06/29/2026

Someone introduced me to the "Musts, Shoulds, and Wants" strategy recently.

I love the simplicity of this one.

We know effective prioritization is one of the biggest productivity boosters but some methods get overly complicated.

This one is simple as 3 categories.

Work on your Musts first, knock out a few Shoulds, and then reward yourself with some time on your Wants.

Many leaders unintentionally create complexity.A new priority gets added, another initiative launches, another metric ge...
03/16/2026

Many leaders unintentionally create complexity.

A new priority gets added, another initiative launches, another metric gets tracked, another meeting scheduled...

Before long, teams are trying to execute 15 priorities at once and progress slows on all of them.

Cognitive science is clear: the human brain performs best when attention is focused on a small number of meaningful goals.

As complexity increases, ex*****on decreases.

High-performing teams don't just decide what to do, they are also disciplined about deciding what not to do.

Sometimes the most productive move you can make this week is simply removing something from the list.

Happy Friday the 13th! Leaders shape the room.In healthy environments, people speak up. They challenge ideas. They bring...
03/14/2026

Happy Friday the 13th!

Leaders shape the room.

In healthy environments, people speak up. They challenge ideas. They bring problems forward early.

In unhealthy ones, people edit themselves. They soften feedback. They spend more energy managing the leader’s reaction than solving the problem.

The most powerful question a leader can ask isn’t “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

It’s:

“What about my behavior makes it hard for people to tell me?”

Bold claims capture attention.All of the charlatans out there know that well. The more salient the stimulus, the more li...
02/19/2026

Bold claims capture attention.

All of the charlatans out there know that well.

The more salient the stimulus, the more likely we are to pay attention to it.

This is the Salience Bias at work.

Our brains are wired to notice what is vivid, dramatic, and emotionally charged, not what is statistically sound.

Careful not to mistake the loudest voice in the room for the most accurate.

Your working memory is limited.We can only actively hold about 7 items at a time. When we try to exceed that, bad things...
02/16/2026

Your working memory is limited.

We can only actively hold about 7 items at a time.

When we try to exceed that, bad things happen...

Missed details
Half-finished ideas
Unnecessary stress

High performers have better capture systems.

If it’s important, get it out of your head and into a system you trust.

*****on

Leadership magnifies problems.Deadlines, missed expectations, punitive actions, risk, pressure, etc. If you’re not caref...
02/14/2026

Leadership magnifies problems.

Deadlines, missed expectations, punitive actions, risk, pressure, etc.

If you’re not careful, you start scanning only for what’s broken.

The deliberate practice of gratitude forces a reset.

What went right?
Who stepped up?
What risk was avoided?
What progress was made quietly?

The Bystander Effect is the last of the social biases in this series. It refers to the phenomenon in which people are le...
02/11/2026

The Bystander Effect is the last of the social biases in this series.

It refers to the phenomenon in which people are less likely to intervene or help when others are present, because responsibility is diffused and individuals assume someone else will act.

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her apartment in New York.
Early reports claimed that 38 people witnessed Kitty's cries for help during the half-hour attack and did nothing.

When people are surrounded by others, responsibility diffuses.
Everyone assumes someone else will act.
Silence becomes a signal that maybe nothing is wrong.

At work, this could look like:

• Safety issues that go unreported
• Bad decisions no one challenges
• Ethical lines crossed quietly
• Problems everyone saw coming but said nothing

When responsibility is unclear, inaction is predictable.

If you want people to speak up, intervene, and act:

Name owners
Normalize early escalation
Make action safer than silence

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