Becoming aware of our unconscious bias is a huge step in enhancing our leadership and also the motivation and morale in our teams.
Unconscious bias, in summary, is the associations that we hold outside of our conscious awareness that impacts how we think and feel about others and ultimately how we behave and react. It also includes prejudices we unconsciously hold or the way we stereotype individuals or certain groups of people.
Unconscious bias can have a significant influence on our attitudes and behaviours, especially towards other people. It can influence key decisions in the workplace and can contribute to inequality.
Examples of unconscious bias:
- Affinity bias – looking for people who are like us
- Ageism – generalisations or negative opinions based on age
- Anchor bias – getting stuck on one issue or aspect
- Attribution bias – judgment based on a prior experience
- Authority bias – more likely to give credibility based on your perception of their authority
- Beauty bias – your perception of their attractiveness influences how you see them
- Confirmation bias – looking to interpret any new evidence to confirm your initial impression
- Conformity bias – wanting to fit in with opinions of peers
- Contrast bias – comparing one person to another
- Gender bias – preferring one gender to another
- Halo effect – putting people on a pedestal
- Horn effect – the tendency people to view another person negatively after learning something unpleasant or negative about them
- Non-verbal bias – analysing body language and letting it influence your opinion or decision
Some tips to combat unconscious bias
- Regularly reflect on your decisions, thoughts, and feelings.
- What core beliefs do you hold? How might these beliefs limit or enable you and your colleagues at work?
- Examine your hiring decisions for patterns.
- Notice if you consistently give more praise or criticism to people or certain groups of people. Compare the feedback you give to different employees.
- Pay attention to any micro-aggressions that might occur in your interactions.
- Do you give everyone your equal attention?
- Observe your body language and communication style with different team members. Are you more open and engaging with some individuals than others?
- Take note of the similarities you have with someone and then take a fly on the wall approach to ensure they are not clouding your judgement.
- People are people, they are not an age, a belief, a gender or a look. Look at the person as a whole.
- Be curious and embrace diverse perspectives.
- Foster an environment of ideas and openness. Embrace the strengths of people’s differences and be open to feedback and being challenged.
- Ensure your decisions on recruitment/ promotions/ project assignments etc. are based on objective criteria rather than subjective impressions.
- Ensure your recruiting and promotion processes are robust and ensure every candidate has the same opportunity to stand out.
- Promote an overall culture of well-being and resilience.
Feel free to contact me if you want to know more or to chat about how I can enhance your communication and leadership skills and improve collaboration and motivation in your team.
