5 Ways to Overcome and Harness Unconscious Bias in Our Careers

As a petite woman of Asian descent named Liza Adams, living in Denver, working as a marketing executive in Silicon Valley, with an Electrical Engineering background, a mother of two, an immigrant with an American accent, I’ve seen my share of unconscious bias throughout my career.

My list of examples is long, as many of yours likely are as well. Regardless of our gender, skin color, name, age, disability, physical stature, schools attended, country of birth, marital and parental status, etc., we all encounter unconscious bias. In fact, we all have unconscious bias because we have a functional brain. It helps us protect ourselves, find our tribe, and make decisions quickly. It’s our reflexive reaction to some basic inputs and we don’t realize that we’re doing it.

It’s one thing to be aware of unconscious bias – from others as well as our own – but it’s a whole other dimension to think proactively, plan, and execute to overcome that bias.

We have to be deliberate to show/believe something contrary to the initial evidence or leverage a bias to achieve what we want. It’s important to manage unconscious bias as it can have dramatic impacts on diversity and inclusion, employee recruiting and retention, career path and growth, innovation, brand, customer relations, morale and culture, financial performance, and so much more. Many articles, like these CIPHR and Forbes articles, discuss these benefits and what companies can do to minimize unconscious bias.

I’ve written this article to share examples of unconscious bias I’ve encountered and tidbits for how we, as individuals and employees, can recognize and proactively address them to minimize the impact or reinforce the bias.

Comedic, Surprising, and Run-of-the-Mill Examples

It’s been quite comical at times as I’ve navigated the range of unconscious bias, from “You must not be technical because you’re in Marketing” to “You’re Asian, so you must be technical.” Go figure.

Some people who have not met me but know my name, have said, “Oh, I envisioned a tall, Caucasian woman before I met you.” Even in my country of birth, the Philippines, when I conducted a workshop (in the late 90s) for a group of product managers and marketers, I heard whispers in Filipino (which I understand and speak) as I entered the room: “I thought Ms. Adams is American with US-based knowledge and experience. I didn’t realize we were getting a local.” The implication was that the workshop would not be as valuable to them because the goal was to learn from what worked and what didn’t work in the US.

Then there’s the physical bias. One of my former colleagues, who is well over a foot taller than me, and I were speaking with a client at a tradeshow (standing, not sitting). The client made eye contact with my colleague most of the time, even though I was the one answering his questions. There’s also the classic, “You’re so little.” Not exactly the presence I want to project going into a challenging alignment meeting or tense negotiation process.

And of course, I've experienced the unconscious gender bias that is all too familiar to so many women, particularly in male dominated industries like technology: automatically assumed to be the executive assistant, a junior employee, or not as knowledgeable or credible.

Ways to Overcome and Harness Unconscious Bias

I’ve outlined five ways to overcome or harness unconscious bias below.

The great news for us is that we live in a digital world with a lot of ways to build our personal brand. It’s not just in how we’re seen and perceived in person. It’s also how we portray ourselves digitally.

In today’s digital world, we can better control our brand and minimize the bias.

Also remember that we can’t underestimate the power of our human network—the people who know us beyond the superficial—in managing bias.

Our reputation precedes us. It is the result of what we do, what we say, and what other people say about us on and offline. If we take care of our human network, it will take care of us.

1. Be Aware of Our Own Biases and Choose to be Kind

One of my favorite quotes is Mahatma Gandhi’s “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Change starts with you and me, us. When we’re meeting people for the first time, let's try letting our guard down when we sense unconscious bias creeping in, feeling the need to protect ourselves from someone who has a certain “look” or “demeanor.”

Although we can’t control the filters that others choose when they look at us, we can control the filters that we use on others. When we break down our biases, we have a better shot at helping others break down theirs.

When we allow ourselves to not fear and look at people as equals, we free ourselves to consider differing points of view, debate openly, collaborate and solve problems together, and innovate better than we ever had before. Moreover, it allows us to lead generously--abundantly giving ourselves so that others may be and do their best.

2. Give Voice to Who We Are and Our Passions

In the business world, when someone asks, “Tell me about yourself,” I bet many, including myself, are guilty of sounding like a resume or a traditional LinkedIn profile. On rare occasions, we might divulge our hometown, how many kids we have, and a couple of hobbies. We almost feel uncomfortable telling people something personal about us, fearing that they might not be interested or that we might have to contend with a different set of biases.

All valid concerns. But ironically, the most successful teams in which I’ve been blessed to be a part are those where we had insights into what each other was all about, beyond what could be seen. We knew a little bit about each other’s life story and journey, families, hobbies, and passions that influence who we are today. We learned to leverage each other’s perspectives, experience, strengths, and differences in our work. And we figured out how to best work (and have fun) together. Note, while this strategy can be effective in places like the US, use it with caution in cultures where the long-seeded norm is to keep business and personal lives separate.

It’s a process. I’m not suggesting that we be an open book. It's a fine line between sharing enough and too much. Why not start with our LinkedIn profiles? I don’t have the best LinkedIn profile by any stretch of the imagination but you’ll see facets of Liza Adams' personal side in the summary, volunteer experience, and articles I’ve written. In the office, personalize our workspaces with photos and things that energize us.

The things we do and are passionate about in our personal lives depict competitiveness, drive, fun, balance, courage, generosity, strength, and more. They create conversation starters and common threads to build relationships. Let it be known and get in front of the bias.

3. Share Our Knowledge and Engage with Others

Have you ever had a job title that didn’t exactly reflect what you do and what you do best? Marketing Manager? Business Analyst? Director of Strategy? Chief of Staff? Project Manager? The list of all-encompassing and ambiguous job titles goes on. Everyone has their own bias about roles and titles. People may unintentionally box us into a role that isn't right for us. So we end up with a mismatch in expectations, not an ideal situation in our careers.

We have an opportunity to proactively change the perception and build credibility in our areas of interest. Pick key topics then write articles and blogs, create a podcast, do a webcast, etc. with the intent to share and be helpful. Then post and tweet. Include in our LinkedIn profiles and other sites work that we’ve done that showcases our expertise (e.g., SlideShare, thought leadership white papers, video testimonials, etc.)

Actively engage with others as they consume our content. Consume other people’s content. Like, comment, share, retweet, and follow. Build and engage regularly with the network. In a meeting or on a call, say something. Then walk the talk.

4. Build Initial Credibility Non-Visually

Have you ever watched the singing contest on TV called The Voice? The show is known for its blind auditions where the judges have their backs turned to the contestant singing. It’s a perfect example of minimizing unconscious bias. The contestants are being judged primarily based on their voice and singing ability. Also take a look at this article on how blind auditions help orchestras to eliminate gender bias.

Increasingly, we will make our first impressions digitally. Prior to meetings and events, people often search online about the person they will be meeting. If we do a good job with our brand digitally (like using some of the approaches mentioned above), then that helps manage the bias. Furthermore, if we know that there might be an unconscious bias based on how we look, then a face-to-face meeting may not be the best way to make an initial impression.

Instead, meet initially via an audio call. When we meet with them next time in person, the impact of any unconscious bias would be much less because of the credibility built from the call. Although it may seem counter-intuitive to prefer an audio call over an in-person meeting, sometimes, it actually works in our favor to save face-to-face for later in the process.

5. Harness the Bias to Support Our Cause

While unconscious bias might be annoying at times, we can learn to embrace it when it accurately reflects who we are and/or helps advance our cause. Unconscious bias isn’t always bad. There are inherent strengths and goodness in bias. Even the element of shock or pleasant surprises in reversing a traditional belief can be goodness and, occasionally, entertaining.

Imagine being the only woman or person of color in a room full of executives. Bias abounds in peoples’ heads, words, and actions. Own this opportunity to stand out even more with provocative insights, probing questions, and resolve to align towards a new way of thinking among traditionalists. Use the bias as a platform.

Some people purposely use their initials or gender-neutral nicknames like Pat, Chris, Alex, Val, Drew, and Sam to minimize gender bias. We’d like to believe that it’s a meritocracy from Day 1 but, sometimes, it is what it takes to get in the door and get a fair shot. As an example, anticipating that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, J. K. Rowling’s publishers asked that she use two initials rather than her full name. Similarly, my husband who's a published author of science fiction novels for young adults (YA) uses M. L. Adams because the majority of YA science fiction authors were female when he started writing. Plus he feels that Mike Adams is the most boring name for an author. I agree.

On the other hand, making the gender obvious might bode well in situations like in companies highlighting the hiring of a female C-level executive. Welcome Patricia Reyes, not Pat Reyes. In communicating how her experience and expertise create advantages for the business, it also shows diversity at the C level, inspires other women and minorities, and promotes a culture of diversity and inclusion.

There’s pride and joy in reinforcing certain biases like the cultural traits of countries and companies, as well as academic reputation of schools. For example, Germany is known for engineering, Japan is known for quality, and Italy is known for craftsmanship. Some companies are recognized for great corporate cultures and some universities are known for being skilled at preparing students for the workplace. If and when appropriate, let’s use these to our advantage.

Lastly, our human network of relationships should be a source of pride. Our networks of people with proven track records, valued expertise, and amazing character are a gem. There’s natural bias from sheer association. As they say, birds of the same feather, flock together.

The human network with its expansive and powerful tentacles can break down or support biases about us, oftentimes, better than we can! We need to constantly build, nurture, and protect it.

Unconscious bias is everywhere and everyone has it. We can seek to be aware of it in ourselves and others. We can minimize, overcome, reinforce, or embrace it. But we cannot remove it. In fact, we will create new biases. Managing bias is not about deceiving others. It’s about being thoughtful and proactive about minimizing things that introduce bias or highlighting important parts of who we are that people might not readily see and infer.

What matters are how we manage our own bias in engaging with others to bring out the best in everyone and how we proactively plan, build, and project our personal brand to overcome or harness the bias to achieve what we desire.

If you found this article helpful, please feel free to share it with others or click the thumbs up icon below and let me know! Share in the comments section your thoughts, your experiences with unconscious bias, how you overcame or reinforced it, and any advice you might have.