Latest / Daily Influence / 670. When Experience Becomes Bias — And How Leaders Correct for It

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670. When Experience Becomes Bias — And How Leaders Correct for It · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody Brian Smith here with the item team series and your daily influence and today we're going to continue down this path of mature and responsible influence and today I'm going to talk about bias and a bias that I'm going to talk about.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, is when experience becomes a bias and how we as leaders can correct for that.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, experiences, one of leadership's greatest assets, it doesn't always require an education.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: What it requires is, you know, living through the experiences of our,
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: seasons in our life and using it to mentor and to grow in our areas of influence.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it gives us pattern recognition.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It builds confidence and it allows us to move faster with greater certainty, not that faster is always better, but it does allow us to do it.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: and to lean into where we've been.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But here's the tension.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The very experience that made us effective can quietly become the bias that limits us.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Success can harden assumptions.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Past wins can block present clarity.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we're not careful yesterday's strength becomes tomorrow's blind spots.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today, we're going to talk about how leaders recognize when experiences shifted into bias and how intentional feedback loops help us correct for it, because experience is valuable.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Amazingly valuable until it becomes unquestioned.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's talk about how success quietly hardens assumptions.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: When something works, we repeat it.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: When it works again, we trust it, and when it works consistently, we institutionalize it.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And somewhere in that process, we stop examining it, success builds neutral shortcuts, it builds confidence, but it also builds certainty and certainty if left unchecked becomes rigidity and you've seen this, this is how we've always done it, we tried that before and that won't work.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: in our industry.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are all statements that leaders make all the time and they are some of the most frustrating statements that our teams can hear from us.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: These statements don't usually come from insecurity.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: They come from experience, but leadership maturity requires asking.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: is this principle still relevant?
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is the context still the same?
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And am I defending wisdom or defending comfort?
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Smart leaders remain specific and relevant, not just historically correct.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is why past wins can block present clarity.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the paradox of experience.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: The more successful you've been, the harder it is to see what's changed.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Past wins create identity.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm the person who built this.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know this market and I've seen this before are all common mantra with an experienced successful leaders.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: But markets evolve, technologies evolve, people evolve, and cultures evolve.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if leaders are not actively recalibrating, their identity becomes tethered to an outdated model.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, clarity requires humility.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It requires a willingness to say,
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: What if this is different?
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: What if I'm missing something?
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what if my prior success is influencing my interpretation?
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: In smart management, we talk about 6 to 60 planning.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: 6 to 60 planning means we're planning 6 to 60 days, 6 to 60 months,
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: out in front of us, constantly re-evaluating our tactics against vision.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: The rhythm protects us from fossilizing our thinking, experience and forms.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It should not imprison.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the most powerful tactics that we have is using feedback loops to challenge inherited thinking.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Buious corrects through exposure, not through shame,
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: not through ego battles, through structured feedback loops, healthy leaders build systems that challenge them.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Advisory boards that disagree, team members empower to question assumptions, data dashboards that confront intuition, and clients who are invited to tell a truth.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: feedback loops make thinking measurable.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Without feedback loops, leaders drift into assumption-based leadership with them, leaders evolve.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: In smart discipline, this is the measurable and attainable elements.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Constant course correction, not episodic reinvention.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question is not, do I have bias?
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question is, have a built-in structure that reveals it?
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: though an experience becomes unquestioned.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It shifts from asset to anchor.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: The strongest leaders are not most experienced.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: They are the most adaptable.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look, if this episode resonates with you, I'd encourage you reflect on one area of your leadership where experience might be shaping your assumptions.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not because you're wrong, but because improvement requires examination.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ask yourself, where might my past success be limiting my present clarity?
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That reflection alone is responsible influence.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is daily influence.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Find your influence, be your influence, and build your influence intentionally.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll see you next time on another episode of daily influence.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day.