Leadership and People Management: Foundations to Practice · Leading Remote and Hybrid Teams
Proximity Bias and Fair Evaluation
A specific, well-documented bias systematically favors team members a leader physically sees more often, and this bias operates quietly enough that most leaders exhibiting it are genuinely unaware they are doing so.
Proximity bias occurs when a leader gives more attention, trust, or opportunity to team members they see in person more often, often without any conscious intention to favor them, since the person physically present tends to receive quick informal context, casual praise, and a spontaneous stretch assignment simply because they happened to be nearby when an opportunity arose, while an equally strong performer working remotely misses these same informal moments purely due to physical absence rather than any actual difference in performance [25].
- Proximity bias gives more attention, trust, and opportunity to team members a leader sees in person more often, often without any conscious intention to favor them.
- This bias is particularly hard to notice in yourself, since it emerges from ordinary convenience and familiarity rather than conscious preference.
- Auditing how opportunities and recognition have actually been distributed across a team surfaces a pattern that pure self-impression would miss.
- Deliberately structuring opportunity-sharing to consider every team member, not just whoever is currently visible, counters the accidental, proximity-driven default.