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.

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.

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 information that confirms what you already assume to be true. As a result, it’s easy for you to miss the real story, especially in situations that are complex and unfamiliar.

So when you’re digging into an important issue, try to develop “360-degree vision.” This habit depends on seeing in four different ways to get a full picture of what’s going on:

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