Jahnvi is exploring the dimensions of being a first-time manager and her journey got her acquainted with the requisites of becoming a first-time manager, her values, locus of control, setting goals and achieving them, her learnings from The Strangest Secret, how to handle the missed goals, an overview of feedback, the gateway to discovering the blind spot, frameworks of feedback, the concepts of feedforward, the overview of the interpersonal skills, the techniques to enhance interpersonal skills, better team management using people reading guide, techniques to effectively manage a team, an overview of time management, the time management matrix, and the techniques to manage time effectively, she is comprehensively exploring the art of delegation, ways to consider capabilities of her team, and the process to delegate effectively.
Jahnvi is very popular among her team members and it helps her to influence and drive decision-making effortlessly with her team. She relished the authority that came with the role and felt free to hand-pick the team members for the projects who according to her is the right fit for the job. She was keen to understand the narrative of her team members and what has shaped them the way they are. She always thought that she should be fair to her team members when it came to assigning roles and responsibilities.
She was slated to meet her immediate supervisor, thought of asking for advice, and checking if she is fair and consistent in her leadership style. Her supervisor used research to make her understand the situation. He said;
“We have a bias if we have a brain. Unconscious bias exists in all of us; it does not make us horrible people. Our brain desires to understand the world and the people around us. Categorizing and classifying individuals and circumstances is your brain’s approach to accelerating decision-making. It is vital to your survival.
However, our brains’ proclivity to generate inaccurate hasty judgments and assumptions about other individuals has a real-world impact. For example, even when resumes are identical, those with white-sounding names, such as Mike Smith, are 50% more likely to secure a job interview than those with ethnic names, such as Kamal, Iyer, or Xuan.
If neglected, unconscious bias can influence employee productivity, sense of belonging, and retention rates. Workers who reported encountering workplace bias were 33% more likely to feel alienated, 34% more likely to withhold ideas and solutions, and 80% would not suggest individuals to their employer, according to one survey.”
These insights amped up Jahnvi’s energy to find more about bias that is so hardwired in her brain as an evolutionary response.
What Is Unconscious Bias?
“When we look at bias, it is critical to start by defining it on a continuum,” says Kay Formanek, author of Beyond D&I: Leading Diversity with Purpose and Inclusion. “On one end, we have an explicit bias or conscious bias – meaning we are aware of it and frequently act on it. Discrimination is the most extreme explicit bias. This type of racism was prevalent on a systemic level during South Africa’s chauvinism, when people were legally separated based on race.
On the other hand, we have unconscious bias, sometimes known as hidden bias because we are unaware of it. It has nothing to do with one’s morals or ideals, however, arises as a result of our culture hardwiring us—we’ve received signals from our families, communities, media, and life events that lead to unconscious beliefs. It means we treat people differently based on their looks, background, and so forth.
Unconscious bias in the workplace refers to the human inclination to generate views about coworkers without sufficient information. Stereotypes, preconceived conceptions, past experiences, or gut feelings can all contribute to bias.
Unconscious bias emerges when a person is unaware of a bias. For example, a manager may unknowingly favor persons with similar educational backgrounds. It is significant because it undermines equity by favoring some people over others and granting them a gain or advantage.
Why Should Managers Be Aware Of The Unconscious Bias?
Unconscious bias can have an impact on workplaces and organizations. It has the potential to create inadvertent discrimination and lead to poor decision-making. Unconscious bias can be a significant impediment to developing a truly diverse and inclusive workplace. These biases have been demonstrated to have an impact on recruiting, mentoring, and promotion. This can impede women’s equal possibilities for selection and advancement to high-level management and leadership positions.
According to Yale University research, male and female scientists who were both educated to be objective were more likely to hire males, deem them more capable than women, and pay them $4,000 (INR 328888.20) more per year. According to studies, even avowed feminists regard men as more competent than women. Women are more respectful to men. Women, too, are sexist, often unwittingly. It is possible to create a toxic and vicious loop in which people favor those who are similar to them.
It results in a workplace that is not diverse or inclusive, perpetuating the cycle of unconscious bias against women and other minority cultures. It also implies that men in positions of leadership are less likely to mentor and encourage women as they advance in the business.
Despite discussions about diversity, inclusivity, and conscious explicit bias, firms do not train their employees to recognize and acknowledge implicit and entrenched cultural and social conditioning that might influence their decision-making and attitudes toward others. According to research, we are unintentionally biased: 80% of employers admit to making hiring choices based on regional accents.
How To Keep Unconscious Bias In Check?
Well, we all have a well-functioning brain, and so have a bias. Implicit bias is widespread. Everyone has them, including professionals who are trained to be objective, such as judges and scientists. Here are some techniques for dealing with workplace unconscious bias:
Tag the biases as they occur
By discussing and bringing unconscious biases to the surface, everyone in the organization may be aware of how they can influence their hiring, promotion, and mentorship decisions. Discussing and recognizing these biases can make them more explicit and transparent, transforming workplace culture.
According to Kenan Flager Business School, there is affinity bias (the tendency to be warmer towards people who are similar to us), halo effect (the tendency to think everything good about a person because we like them), and perception bias (the tendency to stereotype certain groups without being able to make objective decisions about them).
Another well-known bias is conformity bias, which occurs when a person perceives that more than 75% of their group shares a particular viewpoint. It is the proclivity to conform to the norms of the group. However, attractiveness bias is a well-known determinant in recruiting, promotions, and employment success.
According to a scientific study published in the British Medical Journal, height, and body mass index can determine an individual’s social-economic status and earning power, particularly for women, where overweight and short women are at a much higher disadvantage than tall and thin men, earning up to £1500 (INR 134266.52) less per year than their lighter and taller counterparts.
Introduce collaborative projects
Projects that connect the company to the larger community, as well as those that help establish a favorable image of particular groups frequently stereotyped based on their gender or race, will highlight the need to address and acknowledge unconscious biases.
These will foster an honest and transparent environment in which employees are forced to confront their own social and cultural conditioning. Enabling mechanisms that reward employees for volunteering to bridge these gaps, as well as those who effectively speak and confront their unconscious biases, sends a very positive message to the rest of the community.
Create diversity through reorganizing system and structure
Staff must be rigorously trained in a cautious and considerate manner, with an acknowledgment that these hidden biases are unavoidable and that it is natural for us to bear them. Anonymous resume audits, surveys of current and former employees, and focus groups where the topic is framed around justice and inclusivity are all beneficial.
A frequent diversity audit of the organization is essential for accountability, as is tracking the hiring and promotional processes and paths to ensure that no biases are harming the growth of employees. Special measures should be taken to get hold of any workplace practices that can be the result of unconscious biases like playing favorites. Allowing anonymous complaints and peer mentoring might also help.
Create a realistic worldview
As we form teams and support our workplace, we make decisions based on our worldview. When that perspective is distorted by unconscious bias, our people might suffer in ways we may not even be aware of. Unconscious bias training mitigates this risk by providing a more realistic viewpoint.
Unconscious bias training, according to the Harvard Business Review, provides participants with “information that contradicts stereotypes and allows them to connect with people whose experiences are different from theirs.”
It was entirely a new concept for Jahnvi, as she acknowledges that she might be a victim of such biases, she wants to deep-dive into the dimensions of biases and how to become unbiased when it comes to adjudicating something important. She decided to create a willingness and openness to discuss these without any judgment or ostracization. She wants to create an ambiance where her people feel pride in supporting each other and are rewarded for actively showcasing a willingness to overcome such biases and proactively working towards enhancing diversity in the workplace.
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Written By: Jimmy Jain
Edited By: Afreen Fatima
Society of Design Thinking Professionals
