4 Thinking Traps of Ineffective Leaders

Thinking errors are a common part of being a human. Let’s understand the traps to watch out for and learn how to avoid them

Credit: Author

Leaders are ordinary human beings who make mistakes from time to time. While some mistakes are insignificant or have minor negative consequences, others might be potentially harmful and damaging to the organization and its people.

Most of these mistakes are unintentional — they stem from thinking errors, applying shortcuts, and not using the right mental models. When leaders don’t pause and reflect, they make poor choices and terrible decisions that hurt the productivity of their people and the performance of their entire organization.

Effective leaders aren’t perfect — they deal with the same limitations and biases of the mind as others. They too struggle with common thinking traps and occasional errors in judgment. However, instead of letting their mind lead the way, they pay attention to how they think, make decisions, and what they can do to correct their mistakes.

Here are the 8 most important thinking traps that they watch out for and try to avoid:

1. Illusion of transparency
2. Proximate cause
3. Short-termism