Mindful Leadership: Overcoming the Impact of Unconscious Bias

Imagine for a second the task of creating a dynamic team. You’ve been given the opportunity to construct new roles and bring together a group that you believe will make a huge impact for an upcoming project. You go into the selection process wanting to be fair and objective, but most likely, unconsciously you favor candidates who have a similar background to your own. One of the clearest definitions of unconscious bias comes from Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald who are co-authors of the book “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People.”

Unconscious bias refers to social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.

Why is this important? Unconscious bias can influence our decisions often in ways that we are unaware of. When we are striving to make equitable choices, we need to mitigate preconceptions and unchecked assumptions. Equally, recognize that these biases exist. Now, when you are building a team or hiring new employees this awareness can assist you with checking through your own biases. Having the ability to critically think and challenge our own traditions is a positive and a superpower.  

Go Beyond the Training: At some point, you may have done an unconscious bias training within your company. It’s always important to educate yourself and others to gain awareness of what is happening and how we impact others. Moving forward, put the training into action. Continue to self-assess and reflect on your decisions, behaviors, and interactions. Equally, create diverse teams from varied backgrounds that can reduce group thinking and challenge biases. This will assist in gaining new perspectives and advancing thinking processes. Lastly, continue to identify areas that need improvement and be open to conversations that are committed to progress and the enhancement of inclusive leadership skills. 

Additional Resource:

Several higher education institutions have developed tools to help individuals identify their own unconscious biases. The Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a tool I recommend exploring if you’re interested in understanding more about the impact of bias.