5 Frequent Biases Leaders Need to Manage

None of us think of ourselves as unfair or biased leaders. Most of us consider ourselves reasonable, fair and empathetic in our disposition and behaviour. Yet, our beliefs are so deeply ingrained that to separate them from our everyday habits and see them objectively is hard. So, it may happen that we are biased in our behaviour in some way, but we are blind to it. It can make a huge difference to the leader of a diverse group to recognise these biases and manage them with awareness, courage and consistency.

What is unsconcious bias?

Unconscious biases are attitudes and stereotypes accumulated throughout life that can influence your decision-making, particularly when something must be decided quickly. These biases often lead to inaccurate assessments based on faulty rationale.

How do biases affect action?

“Most of us believe that we are ethical and unbiased. We imagine we’re good decision makers, able to objectively size up a job candidate or a venture deal and reach a fair and rational conclusion that’s in our, and our organization’s, best interests,” writes Harvard University researcher Mahzarin Banaji in the Harvard Business Review. “But more than two decades of research confirms that, in reality, most of us fall woefully short of our inflated self-perception.”

Our biases affect us and our decision-making processes in a number of different ways: (Source: socialtalent.com)

Our Perception — how we see people and perceive reality.

Our Attitude — how we react towards certain people.

Our Behaviours — how receptive/friendly we are towards certain people.

Our Attention — which aspects of a person we pay most attention to.

Our Listening Skills — how much we actively listen to what certain people say.

Our Micro-affirmations — how much or how little we comfort certain people in certain situations.

Is it easy to overturn a bias?

While not easy, it is doable and certainly possible. In this article I am hoping to provide you the information and strategies to view bias objectively, manage your emotions better and offer people a better side of your leadership with grace and confidence. Often, the process of being uncomfortable amongst differences is temporary.

As adaptive and flexible human beings, you can learn to enjoy the process of inclusion as a leader and bust through your biases.

Here are five key unconscious biases that can get in the way of leaders.

When leaders raise their awareness and learn to manage these biases, fair and inclusive decisions can be made instead of ones that draw your in-group closer and drive the out-group farther away.

1. Affinity Bias

You tend to favour those who are similar and remind you of your background and choices in life. You tend to overlook, dislike or distrust those with whom you have little in common or who might stand in contrast to your beliefs and background.

Example: I am a South Asian, and might gravitate to others like me and break the ice and include them in the conversation faster compared to someone I may not relate to.

How does Affinity Bias affect leadership?

This bias often plays out in selection of people for a job or a prime project. For example, when you interview someone you feel affinity with, your micro-affirmations play out a bit more than they usually would with someone unlike you. If the person stumbles on an answer, you chalk it up to normal interview jitters and offer words of encouragement. Whereas, if a person you shared little affinity with fails to answer a question perfectly, you are likely to attribute it to lack of competence or experience. After the interview, you are more likely to speak highly of the first person, and their ‘cultural fit’, compared to the other person.

Busting Affinity Bias

A fair and well-planned recruitment process ups your team’s chances at following it, because it exists and everyone agrees on it. Commit to supporting every candidate if they stumbled and assume that they might be the right person for the job. A key step in creating better recruitment outcomes is for questions to be the same across candidates, competency-based and closely aligned to what the role requires. Then evaluation is noted during the interview in writing and independently and not in a freewheeling chat after the candidate’s left the room. Affinity bias is not hard to bust if you knew what to look out for and avoid and create processes to make objectivity easier and fruitful for the organisation.

2. Attribution Bias

This bias can tempt you to think of your own achievements as an outcome of internal factors or merit but view other people’s achievements as an outcome of luck or external factors. Similarly, you can view your mistakes as bad luck or an outcome of circumstances but view other people’s mistakes as a character flaw or lack of competence.

Example: I didn’t have such a good day in training today, but then what else would you expect with an audience like that? They didn’t seem that interested in learning.

How does Attribution Bias affect leadership?

Attribution bias can be blinding and shift your perception of your competence and that of others in significant ways. For example, you won an award at work for performing well on the last project you were on. One can easily view this award as an outcome of your internal merit, competence and preparation. While these may very well have contributed towards your success, a project that goes well is often a joint effort with significant team contributions. To not acknowledge that your success was a combined outcome of your merit and also other people’s collaboration, ideas and diversity, makes you susceptible to attribution bias.

Busting Attribution Bias

When you do something good, it’s important to list down three contributions that others or your environment made towards helping you achieve that result. A dose of humility can bring perspective. Conversely, when a team member makes a mistake, take a step back and think about their past performance and check with them what support they might need to do better next time. Deliberately looking for information opposite to your immediate judgements and perceptions of success and failures can be an excellent exercise in attribution bias busting.

3. Confirmation Bias

This bias tempts you to indulge in a tendency to search for, focus on interpret and remember information that aligns with your pre-conceived notions. You can even look the other way if facts don’t fit in with your previously held judgements and focus on selective information to confirm a hypothesis you already believe in and find credible.

Example: Guess who just turned up late to work? I knew the first time I met her that she wasn’t dependable and I can’t trust her.

How does Confirmation Bias affect leadership?

When you make a judgement about another person, you subconsciously look for evidence to back up your opinions of that person. We do this because we want to believe we’re right and that we’ve made the right assessment of a person. For example, you may view a team member as not being flexible in their approach. If that person contributes well during a meeting, but happens to disagree on one point, you can tend to focus on the latter. The fact that they disagreed can confirm your bias that the person indeed is inflexible and disagreeable. While the person in question might have had good reasons to disagree and even shared their reasoning, you can tune them out and selectively focus on your perceptions.

Busting Confirmation Bias

Whenever you find yourself repeatedly disliking a person or repeatedly justifying someone’s behaviour, take a step back. Is this a habit or are you convinced you have facts at hand? What made you dismiss someone repeatedly and what made you support another person? When you question your motives, you can begin to understand that you may not have indisputable evidence to decide either way. Maybe, you might have more to learn about that person, spend time around them and understand them better than you do presently.

4. Halo Effect

When you perceive one great or complimentary thing about a person, you can allow that ‘halo’ to colour your opinion of everything else about that person. You may end up seeing the person much more favourably than deserved and likely overlook their faults.

Example: I loved your last presentation, and now I think it’s okay to bypass a fair selection process and hand over a critical customer visit to you to organise and coordinate.

How does the Halo Effect affect leadership?

This plays out in every aspect of team functioning, from whom you listen to more in a team meeting to whom you prefer for key assignments. For example, if you had a team member with a Masters Degree in their discipline, and it directly helped their work performance, you may tend to view them positively. This may overshadow some skill and knowledge gaps or behaviour issues that as a leader you may need to address. But you overlook those issues as their educational achievements colour your perception of their overall suitability for the role. This may not be an advantage for the person who is at the receiving end of this favourable bias from your end. That team member might miss out on crucial feedback when they could have improved their outcomes had they received it.

Busting the Halo Effect

Make two columns for each team member and force yourself to write three things you appreciate about each of them in column one. Then write at least two things you want that person to improve upon in the second column. You may realise that some team members might be getting more attention than you intended due to one thing they did really well. Also, maybe, they are not hearing the necessary improvement feedback.

5. Horns Effect

This is the opposite of the Halo Effect and occurs when your perception of someone is unduly influenced by one negative trait or incident. Thus, you may end up seeing the person much more negatively than deserved and likely overlook their positive qualities.

Example: I can’t hand over this assignment to him, look at how badly he did on resolving that customer complaint last week.

How does the Horns Effect affect leadership?

This plays out especially when assessing performance or evaluating someone’s credentials for a role or assignment. For example, you observe a team member deliver a key piece of work later than expected or promised. Instead of thinking of this as a one-off incident, you can allow that to colour your judgement of how reliable the person is. This may end up being quite unfair to the person at the receiving end of this bias. They may have had good reasons for the delay in delivering that piece of work. Maybe, they themselves feel very regretful and are keen to make amends and re-establish their professional image. They might really appreciate your understanding and support, and even repay it with renewed focus.

Busting the Horns Effect

When mistakes or delays happen, ask yourself three questions. 1. Does the person make the same mistake over and over? 2. Does the person show professionalism and diligence in other matters? 3. What experiences and skills make the person valuable to you at work irrespective? When you objectively think of a person’s worth at work, you can move away from reactionary and short-term judgements and treat them with the fairness.

You can be unconsciously biased, but you can become consciously inclusive.

Recognising and managing unconscious biases that affect your leadership in significant ways requires education, willingness and effort. Without this necessary investment, bias can run rampant and not only make you lose your sense of fairness and objectivity, but hurt your team’s chances to realise their potential and work more collaboratively as a team.

Sonali D’silva?is a Certified Professional in Inclusive Leadership from Catalyst Inc. She is the Founder of Equality Consulting, a training and advisory service for raising diversity awareness, leading with inclusion, and creating psychological safety at work. Visit her website at?www.equalityconsulting.com.au?to know more about her work.

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