3 Ways to Empower Your Leaders to Unleash Potential: Part 1
Rina Lynch
Converting blind spots into business opportunities with Equity, Diversity & Inclusion #inclusiveleadership #mindsetshift #behaviourchange #unconsciousbias #diversity, #inclusion #EDI strategy
Our logo’s strapline is?empowering leaders to unleash potential.? What we mean by that is that we help leaders fully engage with Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) so that they are not only able to influence EDI change, but they can also begin to reap its benefits. Leaders are most likely capable of unleashing the potential of those like them.? But what does it take to unlock the potential of everyone?
In this and my next 2 blogs, I will discuss 3 steps that each leader can take to unleash more of their colleagues’ potential.? They are:
We start today with Part 1, having a closer look at our own mindset:
Confronting your demons?
We think we’re inclusive.? We think we’re fair to everyone.? We certainly want to be that, because we’re decent and we’re intelligent!? But research shows that??we can rarely make decisions without the influence of bias, i.e., the imprints left on our brain from previous experiences that translate to subconscious preferences.? These can include preferences for certain accents, appearance, education, social standing, communication style, ethnicity, sexuality, capability, gender etc. We all have them.? And that’s OK, as long as we can acknowledge this and try to mitigate against it when necessary.? How? Consider these suggestions:
1. Acknowledge your preferences?
Admit to yourself that every decision that you make about someone else may not be made entirely on merit, if at all.? When you have a preference for one person over another – particularly when the preferred individual is more like you than the other – challenge yourself: Are you certain that the preference is legitimate? Could the other person be just as capable but there’s something ‘less familiar’ about them (e.g., they had a different career path, or they don’t speak your native language as well), or perhaps you believe they would be better served doing something else, like looking after their family rather than having an ambitious career, or maybe you feel that they don’t want the opportunity as much as the other person? Perhaps you feel they’re not yet ready, or lack the gravitas or – more often – the ‘je ne sais quoi’!
Most of these judgments are often merely justifications for our preferences.? To ensure we don’t fall foul of them, we ought to understand that we are susceptible to our mind’s subconscious preferences and find ways to overcome them.
2. Learn more about your own preferences and biases.??
Try the?Implicit Bias Test?from Harvard University to become more cognisant of your own biases.? Failing that, you could try observing your preferences by noticing with whom you prefer to interact, both at work and socially.? Are they male, female, of similar age and level of education, perhaps of a similar ethnic background? Even more telling is noticing the type of people who are missing from your regular interactions and those you easily dismiss because of a certain perceived characteristic.? Just as we learn more about our core values by focusing on the things that irritate us (like people being late to meetings or friends finishing our sentences for us), we can learn about our unconscious biases by examining our circles of friends and colleagues.
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3. Remind yourself of your biases?
When you’ve learned about some of your subconscious preferences and biases, remind yourself of them regularly.? This is especially powerful when you do it just ahead of making a weighty decision, such as:
Decisions that impact on the lives of others count as important decisions and are heavily influenced?by our unconscious biases.? These decisions, therefore, should be made with the benefit of scrutiny.? Even decisions like the design or location of a new office should benefit from a reminder of our innate preferences, given that they too will impact?people’s experience of work and how they work with each other.? For instance, if you’re considering an office in a less developed area of town, consider how those who feel more vulnerable or exposed might feel about commuting there by public transport or on foot.
Becoming cognisant of our own biases is the first and biggest step towards understanding others and ultimately, as leaders, unleashing their potential.? When we regularly second-guess our judgments about others, we can start creating opportunities and making space for everyone to step up and show us what they’re capable of.
There is no end to the journey of uncovering our own blind spots.? What we’re aiming for is to gain a better understanding of them and develop a habit of reflecting on how we make decisions that impact other people and their progression.
Next week, I will discuss the importance of being a humble and vulnerable leader, and how this increases the opportunity for others to step into their potential.
This blog was first published on the Voice At The Table website ?
If you liked this blog, you can read more here?
Diversity and Inclusion Trainer * Diversity and Inclusion Consultant * Gender Diversity Expert * iMasons D&I Program Manager
9 个月I like the image, it shows so beautifully how a team member that may be perfectly adequate can be transformed into something exceptional with the right support.
Leadership coaching for women in the first 100 days of a senior role | ACC - ICF accredited coach
9 个月Yes, it is very helpful, if uncomfortable, to realise that we are always judging whether we recognise it or not.
Leadership coaching for women in the first 100 days of a senior role | ACC - ICF accredited coach
9 个月Reflection and actively looking at our biases is so important. It's all too easy to do what we've always done. But stopping and becoming aware of what we are dismissing without even realising it can be a revelation.