Dan Beverly

The unconscious mind deals with a phenomenal amount of information. And to do so efficiently, it takes shortcuts; shortcuts based on background, cultural environments and personal experiences collected over a lifetime.

Those shortcuts are biases. And whilst they often serve us well – showing-up as intuition, instinct and powerfully instantaneous decision-making – they are also fallible: especially on matters requiring analysis and reasoned thought.

Those shortcomings have real-world consequences for ourselves and those around us. So, it pays to become just a little more aware of the blind spots we are all working with.

Here are a few strategies for us to raise awareness of – and work with – the biases we all face.

Make peace with unconscious bias

Unconscious bias is exactly that – unconscious. We don’t know we’re doing it. Other people don’t know they’re doing it. And moreover, our biases actually have strong evolutionary survival benefits. We wouldn’t have them, otherwise.

So, be ok with the fact that bias exists. Any overly-negative stories and emotions about what should be is only another way to colour our decision-making and rational thinking. Make peace with the unconscious biases of other people – and yourself.

Raise your own awareness

From the unconscious to conscious: take steps to raise your awareness of an unconscious bias at play. Alongside the other strategies below, start practising noticing some of the more common types of bias out there:

  • Affinity Bias: warming to people like ourselves.
  • Perception Bias: beliefs about a group of people based on stereotypes and assumptions.
  • Confirmation Bias: over-seeking “evidence” to confirm a pre-existing idea, assumption or decision.
  • Group Think: holding back thoughts and opinions, instead agreeing to fit into the culture.
  • The Halo Effect: thinking everything about a person is good and right, simply because we like them.

Intentionally expand your ingroup

Our biases are both concerned with, and fuelled by, being part of an “ingroup” – and avoiding the dreaded “outgroup”. And whether or not we’re yet part of that ingroup – or just aspire to be – our perspective can get pretty tunnel-visioned. We work to align with those in the ingroup; and we fervently exclude those not part of the group.

There’s a simple remedy to this: go work with those you wouldn’t normally. And you’ll build a whole new (and well-balanced!) appreciation for all aspects and areas of your working culture.

Build the habit of evidence-led decision-making

I’ve written before about the 2 Decision-making Traps Great Leaders Know How to Sidestep: “Blind Spots” and “Ego”. And our implicit biases feed both these decision-undermining characteristics. And of course, experience, intuition and instinct can also be useful tools to listen to – but not exclusively.

So, create a practised habit for evidence-led decision-making. For material decisions particularly, list out the hard, objective evidence for the lean you’re taking. And see on paper whether your call is justified.

Test your decisions with some simple mind games

I often invite my clients to play “mind games” with unhelpful or painful memories and thought patterns. We shift the way we do the thinking, making the movies into stills, draining the colour, muting the sound. And another great area to play with the thinking is in testing your decisions.

Try it now: Pretend the person who might be the victim of your implicit bias is a different gender, ethnicity, age. Create a whole other story for this person from the one you already have in mind. Did that make a difference? Does your decision still hold up?

Challenge the belief behind the bias

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of working with unconscious bias is to challenge it. And we can all understand how that can be a tough – if not, downright precarious – step to take. But my experience working with dozens of professional individuals from underrepresented groups is to take a slightly different tack. And rather than tackle the headline bias, tackle the beliefs, stories and assumptions behind the bias.

For example: the bias I’m facing right now might be based on my gender or age or ethnicity. But I want to focus on is what that means in the mind of the person carrying the bias. What’s the story they’ve created off the back of my gender, age or ethnicity. Do they think I’ll be over-emotional? Unable to handle the pressure? Not up with the latest thinking? Not well-enough educated for this role? Unable to empathise? Unlikely to hit targets? Focus on those beliefs they hold – and dispel them through your words, actions and achievements.

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Dan Beverly

Dan Beverly is a leadership and performance coach helping women in leadership achieve their highest potential.

To work with Dan, Schedule a Discovery Call – and start capitalising on your pivotal career moment, today.