Unconscious, or implicit, biases can also turn into confirmation biases as leaders unconsciously attract and retain those who share so much with them. This becomes riskier when the top leader chooses a leadership team that shares blind spots with them as much as they share cultures, backgrounds, and mindsets. Diversity at the top, therefore, continues to suffer, which limits how far you and your organization can go. A perceived lack of diversity at the top has negative implications on talent attraction and retention, as well as motivation and productivity.
About 40% of surveyed employees indicate they experience bias frequently – at least once a month, mostly subtle and indirect. And a majority believe that it reduces their productivity. Deloitte’s State of Inclusion Report
What makes this even trickier is that many of your employees and stakeholders may notice your implicit biases longer before you do. As a result, you may end up with so many failed attempts to attract diverse talent around your decision making table. Beyond unconscious bias training, how else would you navigate this and avoid the glass ceiling it places on your growth?
- Look around you and check the immediate circle around the most senior leader. I would begin by assessing how diverse your top and senior leadership teams (major decision makers) are. To what extent do they feature unique backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and perspectives?
- Have a third party solicit and summarize anonymous employee feedback on opportunities to make an impact within the organization. This is about focusing on respondent perceptions of the effectiveness of leadership in availing opportunities for contributing to the organization’s growth in meaningful ways. You may want to have the feedback summarized by respondent backgrounds and job families/levels.
- Challenge your leadership team to identify and develop ‘hidden’ diverse leadership talent. Unconscious biases may discourage many high potential employees with diverse backgrounds from advocating for themselves. Challenging executives to identify and sponsor some ‘unusual’ future leadership talent can go a long way in combating implicit biases.
Unconscious bias affects not only diversity and inclusion metrics but also how far you can grow as a leader and grow your organization or team. Regardless of the success of your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy, there is always room for improvement through mitigating these biases. How do you plan to understand and combat yours?