The Babble Effect

Happy Thursday,

I’ve sat in meetings where the smartest person in the room barely contributed. Not because they lacked confidence or knowledge. But because they were still thinking while everyone else was busy auditioning and jockeying for influence and intellectual dominance. Decisions got made, the team moved on, and the moment passed before they could articulate what actually needed to be heard. This happens more than you realise, and it’s about far more than personality type. So let’s dive in.

🧠 LEARN something.

When you take a group of smart leaders and throw them into a high-pressure environment, group dynamics emerge, and within those dynamics, a couple of biases start to shape who gets perceived as influential, capable, and leader-like. The first is a well-documented bias called the verbosity effect, where people tend to perceive someone as smarter, more credible, or more knowledgeable simply because they use more words. This bias extends directly into leadership perception, where the person who speaks most often is frequently perceived as more influential and leader-like. Researchers sometimes call this the “babble effect”. Of course, the problem is that speaking more and thinking better are not the same thing. This gets further amplified when people low in Extroversion, whose natural preference is to think before they speak, get overpowered by people high in extroversion, whose natural preference is often to speak before they think.

The reality is that most leadership environments today are unintentionally designed for verbal dominance. Fast talk, strong opinions, and momentum get rewarded. Meanwhile, the quieter operators, often the ones processing the information more deeply, get less airtime and less influence. Personally, this topic resonates deeply with me. I’m naturally low in Extroversion, but early in my career I learned to dial it up because leadership at the time seemed to require it. For almost 20 years, I became highly adaptive. More vocal. More energetic. More externally expressive. Now, I’m re-embracing the quieter side of how I naturally operate. So take it from someone who has dialled it up, dialled it down, and adapted across different environments over the years: the loudest voice is not always the greatest thinker, but there’s also no value in great thinking if nobody ever hears it!

🤔 REFLECT on an idea.

Whether it’s an effective conversation, a collaborative decision, or a robust debate, group dynamics work best when the responsibility is shared by the individual, the group, and the leader. Individuals need to contribute, groups need to create space for others, and leaders need to shape the environment.

😊 SMILE a little.

Leader A: “Our culture isn’t great because we avoid hard conversations.”

Leader B: “I just think there’s probably an opportunity for us all to maybe lean a little more intentionally into having the kinds of conversations that perhaps haven’t always been as open, honest, or fully explored as they could potentially be. Because when we create space for dialogue, we create the conditions for a healthier and more connected culture.”

✅ DO IT to get results.

Leaders: Make room for half-thoughts and quarter-thoughts. If you want thinkers to share more, then design the space for partially formed thinking, not polished answers. The last thing you want is to put your reflective thinkers on the spot and expect them to articulate thoughts they haven’t finished processing yet.

High Extroverts: Make space. The best leaders know when to talk and when to stop talking. You may think you are simply thinking out loud, but you are probably underestimating the influence and conversational dominance you carry in the room.

Low Extroverts: The workplace is not going to slow down for you, so start sharing your draft thoughts earlier. You’ll be surprised how often your half-formed thinking is still more valuable than the polished babble floating around the room.

🌱 How we can support you and your team.

We provide strategic leadership solutions tailored to align with your business strategy, size, and budget. We can support your with:

• Leadership Coaching (Individual)

• Team Coaching (Group and Leadership Teams)

• Workshops, Offsites and Team Building

• In-house End-to-End Leadership Program Design and Delivery

Kia pai tō wiki

Kenny Bhosale

CEO & Founder, The Bridge Leaders