How hidden biases and inner voices shape the choices leaders make every day.

By Tony Daloisio Ph.D. for Psychology Today

Key points

• Leaders often mistake intuition or urgency for objectivity, leading to costly missteps.
• Cognitive shortcuts like recency bias and anchoring distort leadership judgment under pressure.
• Inner voices, scarcity, approval, control, and protection, quietly drive critical decisions.
• Naming internal voices, slowing choices, and inviting diverse perspectives improve outcomes.

What voices are you listening to in order to make critical decisions for your life and the organizations you lead?

A CEO client once told me about the time she pushed her company into a joint venture that looked irresistible. The pitch deck sparkled, the recent success of a similar deal was fresh in her mind, and her intuition told her to move quickly. Six months later, the partnership unraveled due to different cultures, incompatible goals, and millions in lost investment.

When I asked her what was happening in her mind at the time, she said, “I thought I was being objective, data-driven. But in hindsight, I was listening to the voice that said, Don’t miss out. Grab the opportunity before it’s gone.”

That voice, urgent, persuasive, and seemingly rational — was it the voice of data, or was it well-oiled intuition? Perhaps it was the voice of scarcity. And scarcity tendency drove a decision that cost dearly. In our coaching we uncovered that this voice of scarcity and don’t miss out was a deep rooted one with origins from her Dad that was a product of his upbringing.

The Illusion of Objectivity

Leaders often pride themselves on rationality. We like to believe that our decisions flow logically from facts, financial models, and strategic analyses. But the truth is more complex. Decisions are rarely made in a sterile, data-only space. They are filtered through two powerful forces:

1. External heuristics: mental shortcuts our brains use to make fast judgments, often at the cost of accuracy.
2. Internal voices: the narratives and reactive mindsets that live within us and shape how we perceive the world.

Together, they form a less visible operating system that drives our leadership choices.

The External World: Decision Heuristics

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, in his Nobel Prize-winning research and his book Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), explains that our brains run on two modes:

1. System 1: fast, intuitive, and automatic.
2. System 2: slow, deliberate, and effortful.

Leaders rely heavily on System 1 because the pace of business demands speed. These shortcuts seem to be based on experience in the marketplace, yet this approach exposes us to systematic errors, such as:

• Recency Effect: Overweighting the most recent information.
• Availability Heuristic: Giving undue importance to what comes easily to mind.
• Confirmation Bias: Seeking evidence that supports your prior beliefs, while ignoring data that contradicts them.
• Anchoring: Clinging to an initial piece of information (a price, an estimate) even when better data becomes available.

These shortcuts are not flaws in themselves, they evolved to help humans make rapid judgments. In a way, our brains want to move swiftly, but in the boardroom they can lead to costly missteps. These external biases on their own can raise the probability of faulty thinking, and when combined with the next set of factors, the inner world of misguided voices can make for a challenging landscape.

The Internal World: Voices of the Reactive Mindset

Equally powerful are the voices inside us. These are not just passing thoughts but ingrained narratives, often invisible, that whisper (or shout) as we weigh choices. In leadership development research, including The Leadership Circle Profile (Anderson & Adams, 2016), these voices are described as reactive tendencies. Four of the most common include:

• Scarcity Voice: “There isn’t enough. If I don’t act now, I’ll lose.”
• Approval-Seeking Voice: “What will others think? I need to please and be liked.”
• Control Voice: “I can’t trust others. I need to stay in charge and minimize risk.”
• Protective Voice: “Don’t take the chance. Play it safe so you won’t fail.”

These voices often present themselves as rational and prudent. Yet when unchecked, they distort judgment as much as any external bias.

When the External and Internal Interact

The real danger is when external heuristics and internal voices reinforce each other. Imagine a leader operating from scarcity. That mindset makes the availability heuristic louder; the first seemingly good option that comes to mind feels like the only option. Or consider an approval-seeking voice combining with confirmation bias, the leader only hears data that keeps their board of directors or boss happy.

This fusion of inner and outer distortion creates a powerful echo chamber, one that feels objective but is anything but.

Pathways to Better Decisions

The good news is that leaders can develop practices to interrupt these patterns. Here are three strategies that can help:

1. Pause and Name the Voice: When you feel the urge to decide quickly, ask: Which voice is speaking right now? Scarcity? Approval? Control? Naming the voice reduces its grip, and can counteract our strong affinity toward using intuition as the main guidance mechanism.
2. Slow the Process: Deliberately shift from System 1 to System 2. Use structured pauses, “pre-mortems” (imagining what could go wrong before acting), or simply sleep on a big decision.
3. Diversify Perspectives: Bring in others who see differently. Research shows that heterogeneous groups reduce bias and widen the range of considered options (Page, 2007).

Closing Reflection

Think back to the CEO and her failed joint venture. If she had paused and asked, “Is this my scarcity voice talking? Am I overweighting the last success because of recency bias?,” the decision may have looked different.

Inside the mind of every leader is a chorus of voices, some wise, some misleading. The next time you face a critical decision, ask yourself: What are the voices that are present in the boardroom of my mind, and what can I do to slow this down, verify assumptions, consider a broader range of options and invite trusted advisors into the process.