BIAS

Bias is common to leadership and life. One of my favorite leadership cartoons depicts a number of blind folded scientists attempting to make sense of (literally) an elephant, but each only has a limited point of view - which causes them to arrive at an incomplete diagnosis of what they are actually dealing with. The takeaway is that, while bias is a leadership reality, if left unchecked, it can significantly decrease system effectiveness. First, bias operates as leadership ‘blinders’ that undermine trust, because it causes team members in a system to give themselves more credit (or solo credit) when things go well, and no credit when things are off course - when the truth is leadership is always a team endeavor. Second, bias can create ‘blind spots' that impact what leaders see and how they assess what is happening. Just as blind spots in a side mirror on a car sometimes cause us to veer into a lane already occupied by another vehicle, leadership blind spots can lead to role incursion, duplication and redundancy - causing friction and reducing organizational effectiveness. To mitigate bias, leaders should self-reflect, especially when things are going well, to ask "how can I authentically share credit." Effective leaders also constantly engage their teams in protocols that invite a diversity of thought and perspectives into the decision-making process - especially where decisions have cross team implications and systemwide impacts. #LeadByMitigatingBias