Pride—Without Prejudice

"We contain multitudes," wrote Walt Whitman, referring not to the highly-contested diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder but to the fact that we see ourselves radically differently in different contexts.

A bias is a tendency. Most biases—like preferring to eat food instead of paper clips, or assuming someone on fire should be put out—are helpful. But cognitive shortcuts can cause problems when we're not aware of them and we apply them inappropriately, leading to rash decisions or discriminatory practices (based on, say, racism and sexism).

Peter Drucker famously stated that "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Great leaders possess dazzling social intelligence, a zest for change, and above all, vision that allows them to set their sights on the "things" that truly merit attention. Not a bad skill set for the rest of us, either.