Look at your boss and the leadership team, are they predominantly from the same social class, gender, age-group and race?
The evidence¹ suggests companies with homogeneous workforces will eventually go the way of the dodo bird, surpassed by diverse and nimble companies that will lead the future.
Will that be your company?
Transitioning away from the dominant ‘straight, privately educated white male’ leadership archetype, employers that actively welcome different perspectives and backgrounds can avoid falling into a spiral of groupthink.
Such stagnation can lead to further detachment from the complex needs of a rapidly changing and interconnected society.
In highly competitive sectors such as finance, tech and engineering, many companies hire through their networks, and those candidates often reflect the race, gender and ethnicity of those in leadership positions.
The result? Employers miss out on talented, skilled people who provide break-through ideas to tackle the pivotal social, business and technological challenges ahead.
Within your teams, your black, female, Muslim and autistic colleagues will likely feel disheartened by the lack of representation in key decision-making positions, with many believing their own progress will be limited.
These conditions lead your potential future leaders to look elsewhere for their next career step – either at more progressive smaller companies or to build their own start-ups.
Diverse teams that operate within inclusive workplaces also perform better. Regular collaboration of people from different perspectives helps solve difficult problems through ‘creative abrasion’ – a style of developing new ideas through constructive debate and criticism². Companies with above-average diversity also produce more revenue from innovation (45% of their total) than those with below-average diversity (26%)³.
We all have unconscious biases – around race, sexuality and so on, but also about height, hobbies, hair colour and a thousand other attributes. They are natural and are designed to make our brains more efficient. Rather than focus our attention on bias, we should try to improve our team’s judgement. While we generally react negatively to being told we are ‘biased’, most of us consider judgement as an important quality. We are also inclined to accept that while our own judgement is good, it could be even better.
Fair decisions are grounded in fact. Set clear criteria upfront, gather evidence from a variety of sources and evaluate it against the original criteria to avoid bias tipping the scales. One way to get the balance right is to be transparent about the reasons your company has chosen to respond in each situation. Think: If you were to explain your decision to a stranger, would it seem fair and reasonable?
Favouritism is a form of bias too, and it’s often unintentional. We favour those who are similar to ourselves, and those who we perceive as competent and warm. Many people also prefer to stick to the ‘status quo’, wanting things at work to remain the same. This can lead us to resist new practices and people that reflect a change to the look and feel of the workplace.
Take the time, either in one-on-one chats or groups meetings, to understand your people – their backgrounds, motivations and perceptions. We are all diverse in different ways – from ethnicity to personal interests. Allow your colleagues to express the successes and challenges they have faced in their career and push the conversation forward by challenging them to use their position to help those at work who are less fortunate.
When interviewing for a new hire or picking the right employee to lead a project, beware if your decision may be influenced by stereotypes. When we judge a person’s ability in a particular role based on generalised associations of their specific social group, it can lead to people being penalised for being in a counter-stereotypical career.
For example, when numerous research-intensive universities were given identical job applications from male and female candidates, faculty members from both genders rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hirable than the woman. Understand why you think the way you do, and use data and evidence to make more objective judgements.
Looking to improve your company’s diversity and inclusion? Read our free DE&I whitepaper and learn the scientifically proven approach to corporate diversity and inclusion.