Last night I participated in and and observed a live chat in one of Mountain State University's Bachelor of Science Organizational Leadership courses. It's an exciting next step for me as I prepare to become one of MSU's newest adjunct faculty members. After reading and writing about Mountain State's leadership programs for more than a year, and getting to know students and graduates through interviews, I am excited to experience our programs first-hand, to interact with students and to learn and grow with them.
I can already see many ways that teaching will sharpen my own leadership knowledge and skills. My plan is to blog, when appropriate, about topics from class.
A section from the textbook for tonight's chat coincides perfectly with this month's theme about diversity.
The textbook reprints, with permission, an article from Harvard Business Review on the topic of decision making and bias.
As leaders strive to embrace diversity among people — race, age, gender, thought, beliefs, and values — we need to recognize our own vulnerability to hidden biases. These could be biases that we hide from others, when we outwardly claim to be open to diversity while harboring secret prejudices. Or, more often, we could be hiding biases, even from ourselves, subconsciously.
What can we do about hidden biases?
1. Be honest. Take a hard look at yourself and any prejudices or assumptions that might be influencing your interactions with others. Taking an inventory like the one found at implicit.harvard.edu might reveal some unconscious beliefs you hold.
2. Be aware of the cost of your subconsious beliefs. Banaji, Bazerman, and Chugh (Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2003), write that people tend to act on subconscious beliefs despite their best intentions to remain unbiased. When they do, their ability to make good decisions is compromised. This takes a toll, both on interpersonal relationships and on the bottom line.
3. Be Vigilant. Leaders need vigilance —"continual awareness of the forces that can cause decision making to veer from its intended course and continual adjustments to counteract them." (Banaji, Bazerman, and Cugh, 2003). If we are vigilant, we can take time to process decisions while examining our motives to ensure that we aren't allowing biases to affect our ability to choose wisely.
Join the conversation!
How do you counteract hidden biases in yourself or your organization?
Have you ever experienced the cost of hidden biases first-hand? Share your stories here!
