The Leadership Bias Nobody Talks About | July 2026
What a new Wharton study Reveals About Hiring, Self-Awareness And Why Every Executive Search Begins With the Founder
This weekend, I came across a CBC article summarizing new research from the Wharton School that immediately caught my attention.
The headline suggested that CEOs with higher levels of narcissistic traits are more likely to resist remote work.
Like most headlines, it was designed to spark debate.
But rather than reacting to the conclusion, I wanted to understand how the researchers reached it.
What I found was more nuanced than the headline suggested.
The researchers weren't diagnosing CEOs with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. They were studying grandiose narcissism as a personality trait that exists on a continuum. They examined 259 Fortune 500 CEOs across 17 industries, looking at behavioural indicators, leadership communications, public statements, compensation structures and even unconventional measures like the size of a CEO's photograph in annual reports.
The average CEO in the study was 59 years old.
93% percent were men.
91% percent were white.
Companies employing an average of 76,000 people
Average company revenue of approximately $40 billion
Average market capitalization of approximately $75 billion
These weren't founder-led startups or fast-growing scaleups. They were some of the largest and most established organizations in America.
Whether you agree with the study's conclusions isn't really the point.
The question that stayed with me was much bigger.
If a leader's personality can influence decisions about remote work... what else might it influence?
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What the Research Didn't Ask
Remote work isn't really the story.
Leadership is.
Because every major decision inside an organization passes through the beliefs, experiences, assumptions and personality of the person making it.
Hiring.
Promotion decisions.
Innovation.
Risk tolerance.
AI adoption.
Performance management.
Culture.
Even the pace at which an organization is willing to evolve.
We often talk about unconscious bias in hiring.
I think we spend far less time talking about leadership bias.
The reality is that every founder has one.
Every CEO has one.
Every executive search consultant has one.
The question isn't whether it exists.
The question is whether you know what yours is.
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A Meeting That Brought This to Life
A few days before reading the research, I visited a century-old Canadian manufacturer.
A remarkable business.
Five generations of family leadership.
Thousands of employees.
The leadership team was wrestling with something many mature organizations face.
How do we build a modern, DTC business without abandoning the culture that made us successful?
As we talked, I noticed something.
The conversation kept returning to why previous hires hadn't worked.
Why younger employees thought differently.
Why certain approaches simply "wouldn't work here."
None of those observations were unreasonable.
But very little time was spent asking a different question.
What if our assumptions are part of the challenge?
That's a much harder conversation. Because it requires leaders to examine not only the people they're hiring, but the beliefs they're bringing into every decision.
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We Don't Make Decisions Based Only on Facts
Leadership is rarely as objective as we'd like to believe.
The same data can lead two experienced executives to completely different conclusions.
One sees remote work as an opportunity.
Another sees it as a threat.
One embraces AI.
Another delays adoption.
One builds flexible organizations.
Another protects existing structures.
Neither decision begins with the spreadsheet.
It begins with the person interpreting it.
Our experiences shape our instincts.
Our instincts shape our decisions.
Our decisions shape our organizations.
That's why leadership is ultimately an exercise in self-awareness.
The best leaders don't simply defend their beliefs.
They test them.
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The Question I Wish More Founders Were Asked
After more than 20 years in executive search, I've noticed a pattern.
Founders will spend hours describing the executive they're looking for.
Very few spend the same amount of time describing themselves.
Yet it's their leadership style...
Their communication habits...
Their decision-making...
Their ambitions...
Their insecurities...
Their blind spots...
...that often determine whether a great executive succeeds.
One of my favourite questions isn't:
"Tell me about the role."
It's:
"Tell me about you."
How do you make decisions?
Where do you naturally create bottlenecks?
What kind of people earn your trust?
Which personalities frustrate you?
When have you been wrong?
Most founders have never been asked those questions.
Not because they aren't willing to answer them.
Because executive search has traditionally focused on understanding the position instead of understanding the person making the hiring decision.
I think we've had that backwards.
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The Founder Shapes the Future More Than the Job Description
Candidates don't join job descriptions.
They join founders.
They join CEOs.
They join leadership teams.
They join cultures created by people.
That's why two identical executives can produce completely different outcomes in two different organizations.
The difference isn't always talent.
Sometimes it's leadership fit.
Sometimes it's communication.
Sometimes it's trust.
And sometimes it's the founder's willingness to challenge their own assumptions before asking someone else to change theirs.
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The Leadership Bias Nobody Talks About
The Wharton research may spark debate about remote work.
For me, it sparked a different conversation.
One about self-awareness.
Because leadership bias doesn't only shape return-to-office policies.
It shapes hiring decisions.
Innovation.
Culture.
Growth.
And ultimately, the future of the company itself.
Before asking whether you've hired the right executive, it may be worth asking a different question.
How much of your organization's future is being shaped by your own leadership assumptions?
Because the most effective leaders aren't the ones who always have the answers.
They're the ones who are willing to question the beliefs that produced them.
