Risk Aversion is where individuals prefer avoiding risks and losses over accepting risks to achieve potential gains.

It often causes leaders to choose safer options over riskier, but potentially more advantageous ones.

Salience Bias is the tendency to focus on items or information that are more prominent or emotionally striking, and to ignore those that are unremarkable, even though the latter may be equally or more important.

This bias can significantly influence decision-making and perception, leading to both positive and negative outcomes in leadership and business contexts.

Selective Perception occurs when individuals unconsciously or consciously filter and interpret information in a way that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs, experiences, or preferences.

Judgment and decisions are significantly influenced by this bias when leaders perceive and interpret information in a way that aligns with their existing beliefs, attitudes, and expectations, while ignoring or distorting information that contradicts their preconceived notions.

Selective perception can be a double-edged sword in leadership and business.

Self-control bias refers to the tendency of individuals to default to short-term gratification over long-term goals or benefits, often leading to decisions that are not in their best interest in the long run.

It involves impulsive decisions and behaviors and can manifest in various contexts including financial decision-making, time management, and emotional control issues related to stress or temptation – all due to a lack of self-discipline.

Self-serving bias is where individuals attribute positive outcomes to their own character or actions but attribute negative outcomes to external factors.

This bias affects how people perceive and interpret their successes and failures, leading to a skewed understanding of their own responsibility.

It also involves the tendency to take credit for successes, avoiding responsibility for failures.

It’s a defense mechanism used to protect, maintain, or boost self-esteem and it also occurs because of a desire to appear a certain way to other people.

Social Proof bias, also known as Informational Social Influence, is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals rely on the behavior and voice of others as a guide for their own actions or decisions.

This bias is the tendency to conform to what is considered the norm, or to follow the crowd, often without critically evaluating the situation. It influences people to assume that others possess more knowledge about the situation and therefore it makes sense to follow their actions or opinions.

In leadership and business, social proof can influence behavior and decisions – positively and negatively.

The Spotlight Effect is a psychological phenomenon where people believe their actions, words, appearance, or mistakes are being noticed more than is really the case.

Essentially, it’s the feeling that a “spotlight” is shining on you, making you believe others are scrutinizing something about you.

This bias stems from a natural human tendency where ‘self’ is preeminent, leading us to overestimate the extent to which others notice or judge us.

Status Quo bias influences individuals to maintain their existing state rather that making changes or taking risks.

This bias causes a tendency to stick with what is familiar and comfortable, even when change and calculated risk indicate the prospect of better outcomes.

The Well-Traveled Road Effect is a phenomenon where individuals underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route compared to an unfamiliar one. This bias stems from the familiarity with the route, making it seem quicker as less mental effort is required to navigate it.

In the context of leadership and business, this effect can metaphorically extend to decision-making processes, strategies, initiatives, and problem-solving approaches that are well-trodden and familiar.

Familiarity reduces the cognitive load of processing a situation or an environment. Problems occur when a situation appears to be familiar but really isn’t. This bias urges a leader to proceed in a familiar way absent the vigilance required to arrive at the planned destination. while failing to recognize the road may be quite different than roads traveled in the past.