5 science-backed strategies to be a better boss

Below, Caroline Webb shares five key insights from her new book, Leadership Intelligence: Science-Backed Strategies for Mastering 21 Everyday Management Challenges. Caroline is an executive coach and economist who transforms insights from behavioral science into practical advice for managers. She is a senior advisor on leadership to McKinsey & Company, where she was previously a partner. What’s the Big Idea? Behavioral science can make us better leaders by helping us work with, rather than against, the way our brains naturally operate. With a better understanding of how people think and respond to challenges, we can become more thoughtful, adaptable, and effective at work. Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Caroline herself—in the Next Big Idea App, or buy the book. 1. “360-Degree Vision.” Leaders often need to work quite hard to find out what’s really going on. Studies tell us that people prefer not to let their boss know what they’re finding difficult or what’s going badly, unless the boss makes it very clear that they really want to know and want to help fix it. On top of that, confirmation bias means your brain naturally steers your attention toward informat…