Career Literacy: Mind Shift 2 of 5 (Cognitive Biases)

Probably you’ve already seen or experienced that other people do not always see or recognize you or your background the way You do – or that the world as seen through your eyes is not necessarily the Actual world. But perhaps you also (as I once did) underestimate the sheer number of cognitive biases we humans operate under.

But as you probably already know and may have done, you can pick your source.?Obviously, logic matters in money matters. What I love about this list of the top 50 cognitive biases?is that it’s from a Realty site.

(Nov 6, 2022)

Well, obviously, those *jerks outside your eyes, do not know the context from which you come, they do not know what you are feeling or have been through, and they do not believe your own read on yourself. They suspect you are self-biased, just as you suspect them – but most of us don’t realize we ourselves are blindly biased, too.??

& power makes our cognition & vision worse. And there are so many hidden powers, E.g., holding long-tenure, never having had a performance review (hello, Founder syndrome ;), being beloved or well-funded by a family, never having had to convince a stranger for a job, having had praise for your talents, or only competing in talent shows – never in *use case/application - competitions. We can become prisoners of our own successes.

But don’t beat yourself up, as I once did - We all have these, but with training and practice, we can overcome or manage them. My own practice to help others escape their formerly unseen biases & blind spots with hope not despair, was perfected by me fixing most (I think!) of my own. To be fair, it's an ongoing practice - there are 180 of them!

What makes it worse is our cultural group adaptation / normalization to power. Group dynamics can be hard to buck.

But my clients and I’ve found a practice of Assertive leadership, rather than Aggressive, lessens the need for emotional *battery with increased logic, context, proof, and consciousness of the underlying ABCs of social interaction. It can be as easy as A-B-C: data, story, and a little humor. ?? After all, we humans are all in the same leaky cognitive boat.

So, if you haven’t been getting your thoughts and feelings met or seen, it may be part of your own cognitive biases - or because you haven’t been meeting or seeing the emotional and logical needs of others.

Consider being more aware & forgiving of your listener’s biases, and more engaging of their emotional and logical competencies – since it is that recognition of those all of us are seeking at every moment of every day. This is why true story is so effective.

But Staci, you cry, I thought I was already doing that! Next mind shift, a story may not be what you think it is. We are mostly better story consumers than story tellers. For one thing, it shouldn’t be a *telling…but another action entirely. Extra credit if you can guess what. Until your next shift!

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