36% of respondents in a recent LinkedIn poll conducted by Kerry Consulting identified personality bias as the biggest cause of misalignment on executive hiring panels. It’s a revealing insight — especially when the stakes involve leadership appointments that shape organisational performance and culture.
Executive hiring decisions are rarely the domain of a single decision-maker. Hiring panels, often comprising cross-functional stakeholders, are assembled to ensure rigour and shared accountability. In theory, this should lead to balanced, evidence-based outcomes. In practice, it often introduces subtle frictions. And one of the most under-acknowledged disruptors of alignment is personality bias.
In this article, we examine how personality bias manifests across different sectors, explore the impact on executive hiring outcomes, and offer guidance for hiring managers seeking to traverse the issue without adding unnecessary complexity.
What Is Personality Bias?
Personality bias in hiring refers to the unconscious tendency to favour or reject candidates based on likeability, interpersonal style, or perceived similarities, rather than their actual ability to fulfil the role.
It is a close cousin of affinity bias, where interviewers instinctively prefer candidates who mirror their own communication style, energy, or worldview. As Harvard Business Review observes, even experienced leaders “gravitate toward candidates who look, act and operate like themselves”.
At executive level, where the bar is high and intangibles like presence and “fit” carry weight, these biases often slip in unnoticed.
Why It Matters
A 2024 analysis reviewed by HR Executive looked at over 11,000 hiring assessments and found that candidates who received job offers were 12 times more likely to be described as having a “great personality”, and six times more likely to be labelled “nice” or “friendly” — regardless of whether those traits were relevant to the role.
The problem isn’t valuing soft skills — it’s letting subjective impressions override job-relevant competence. As the report notes, “likeability comments often carry far more weight than comments about qualifications.”
How Personality Bias Derails Panel Alignment
Hiring panels misalign when interviewers bring inconsistent assumptions about what the role demands — and when subjective impressions cloud objective comparison.
For example, one panelist may advocate for a confident, “visionary” leader, while another prefers a steady, collaborative operator. If the panel has not pre-agreed the leadership traits required, each person defaults to their own preferences. This leads to fractured support, slower decisions, and even hiring decisions that reflect compromise over consensus.
Unstructured interviews make this worse. In the absence of common criteria, each interviewer may prioritise the traits they personally favour — resulting in glowing feedback for different candidates, for different reasons.
Over time, this can create not just friction, but credibility risk: candidates receive inconsistent messages, and internal stakeholders begin to question the rigour of the hiring process.
Sector-Specific Manifestations
While personality bias can occur in any context, its expression often reflects industry norms and expectations. Here’s how it can show up across key sectors:
Perkhidmatan Kewangan
Assertiveness and gravitas are often overvalued in financial services hiring, especially for revenue or strategy-focused roles. Panelists may unconsciously conflate confidence with capability — sidelining quieter candidates with deep analytical acumen.
Teknologi
In start-ups and tech-driven environments, “culture fit” often becomes shorthand for personal familiarity. This can bias panels towards candidates who reflect the founding team’s personality — typically informal, passionate, and fast-talking — and away from those with a different style.
Sumber Manusia
HR panels may overemphasise interpersonal warmth, coaching language or stakeholder empathy — traits often linked with successful HR business partners. But this can obscure critical attributes for senior HR roles, such as data fluency, strategic planning and change management.
sah
In legal hiring, polish and articulation can disproportionately influence panel impressions. A charismatic communicator may be favoured over a quieter peer with stronger technical capabilities or sounder judgement.
Affiliation bias — such as shared law school or similar training background — also plays a role, perpetuating hiring from known pools rather than expanding the funnel.
Perdagangan & Perindustrian
In operational or regulated industries, candidates who exhibit “command and control” traits are often prioritised — sometimes at the expense of more collaborative or innovative profiles.
In areas like life sciences, hiring panels can become polarised between scientific and commercial expectations — especially if alignment hasn’t been established beforehand.
Light-Touch Mitigation Strategies
Talent acquisition managers don’t need to overhaul their processes to address personality bias — but some light-touch interventions can help align panels and improve outcomes:
1. Align Early
Convene the panel before interviews to agree on the most critical success factors for the role. Be specific. Is the priority operational rigour, stakeholder influence, innovation, or team-building? Make sure everyone agrees.
2. Structure Evaluation
Use consistent questions and behavioural indicators. Encourage panelists to submit written evaluations before discussing as a group — this reduces peer influence and protects against dominant voices skewing the process.
3. Check Language
Interrogate vague feedback like “not a culture fit” or “a bit too quiet.” Ask: what behaviour triggered that view? Is it role-relevant?
4. Focus on Culture Add
Instead of seeking similarity, ask what unique value each candidate could bring to the team. This reframes the conversation towards growth and capability rather than comfort.
5. Use External Perspective
External search partners, like Kerry Consulting, often play a useful role in gently challenging internal assumptions and surfacing high-calibre candidates who might otherwise be dismissed early.
Final Thoughts
Personality bias is subtle — and, as our poll shows, often underestimated. But its impact is significant. It delays decisions, causes mis-hires, and limits the diversity of thought in leadership teams.
The good news: with structured evaluation, pre-alignment, and external guidance where needed, it can be managed.
At Kerry Consulting, we work with hiring managers across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure that executive hiring is measured, collaborative and effective. We help panels stay focused on what truly matters: appointing leaders with the capability and character to succeed — not just those who interview well.
If you’re planning your next senior hire and would like a sounding board, speak to one of our consultants today.