Most of us like to think that we use data to inform our decision-making process and path forward, but there's one challenge. It's possible and quite common that we seek out data to validate what we already believe. That's called confirmation bias.

In speaking with Alex Edmans, a TED and Davos speaker, rigorous academic researcher and Professor of Finance at the London Business School, he argues that confirmation bias can lead us down the wrong path in business and in life, and provides ways to counteract this automatic human tendency. Alex’s research has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Economist, among others and he was interviewed by some of the most respected television channels like Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, and CNN just to name a few.

In addition, as the author of Grow The Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, Alex outlines actionable and evidenced-based ways for organizations to upgrade their leadership and drive the company into an empowering growth paradigm where everyone wins.

Tune in to learn about:

What is confirmation biasHow you can effectively deal with confirmation bias as to elevate your leadership skillsWhat the next era of business will look like (hint: all stakeholders win)The importance of learning soft skills in school and in businessAbout the book Grow The Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit

Connect with Alex Edmans:

LinkedinTwitterWebsiteTED Talk

Alex Edmans' biography:

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School and Academic Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance (corporate governance, executive compensation, investment/growth/innovation, and M&A), behavioural finance, corporate social responsibility, and practical investment strategies. He has published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Economic Literature. He is Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He was previously Associate Editor of the Review of Financial Studies and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He won the Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing, the FIR-PRI prize for Finance and Sustainability, the Investor Responsibility Research Centre prize, and the WRDS Award for Best Empirical Finance Paper at the WFA; was a finalist for the Smith-Breeden Prize for best paper in the Journal of Finance; and was named a Rising Star of Corporate Governance by Yale University and a Rising Star of Finance by NYU/Fordham/RPI.

Alex’s research has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, The Economist, and The Times; and interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talk The Social Responsibility of Business. He has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, writes regularly for Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, World Economic Forum, and CityAM, and runs a blog, Access to Finance, that aims to make complex finance topics accessible to a general audience.