How Can We Address Personal Bias in Leadership to Boost Team Morale?

We have a small organization with 50 people. We are a relatively young team, with the HODs of different departments also being young individuals in their mid to late 20s. We promote open communication within the organization.

Challenge of Personal Bias in Leadership

The problem we are facing is that, knowingly or unknowingly, there is personal bias for a few people from the HODs' side, which is impacting the morale of other individuals. It is difficult to point out these biases, as we are able to see them in their behavior.

Addressing Cultural and Bias Issues

How do we handle the culture and tackle this situation?

Dear Uma Sharma,

I appreciate your acknowledgment of the biases demonstrated by managers within your organization. However, it is important to note that this issue is prevalent in many workplaces. It would have been beneficial if you had specified the specific types of biases observed. One common bias is the superiority complex displayed by native employees towards non-native employees. I would like to know if your organization is facing challenges due to this specific bias.

Causes of unconscious biases in the workplace

The primary cause of unconscious biases in the workplace is the lack of awareness of their negative consequences. Individuals often continue their habitual work practices without considering their appropriateness. Another contributing factor is the organizational culture, as certain biases may be embedded within it. Finally, the top leadership also plays a role in promoting unconscious biases, as they may unintentionally encourage certain behaviors that are then adopted by managers.

Potential solutions to address biases

As a potential solution, I suggest discussing the importance of bias-free work with your top leadership. Victims of bias often experience demotivation, and it leads to decreased productivity. Prolonged victimization can lead to employee attrition, resulting in increased turnover.

If the top leadership is receptive to this idea, I recommend conducting a survey among non-managers to assess their perceptions of bias. The survey questions should be carefully designed to avoid revealing the purpose of the survey, and the term "bias" should not be explicitly mentioned.

Remedial measures

One effective remedial measure is conducting training on "unconscious biases in the workplace." This training should cover various types of unconscious biases, their negative impact on organizational culture and employee morale, and the crucial role of managers and above in fostering a bias-free environment.

Additionally, incorporating this topic into induction training can help mitigate the prevalence of unconscious bias from the outset.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Uma,

Unfortunately, in many Indian organizations, bias is the main issue. People show bias in the name of performance, superiority, religion, caste, etc., and due to this, we lose most of the performers from the organization day by day. It's time to implement professionalism from MNCs.

We will be surprised only if there is no such professional 'bias'. There is no exception, be it private or public sector, Indian or MNC. Why do we go thus far to worry about workplaces? Is it not prevalent within our families? We used to either experience it or hear about it amongst our siblings, favoring either the father or mother. No surprises could be in workplaces as we come across a few select personnel said to be very close to bosses at the middle and top levels, causing inconveniences among others who are not in the select group.

Many a time it so happens that the credit for the good performances of colleagues in the other group gets attributed to the select group, despite the fact they are underperformers. I had been singled out like this during my 40-year career. I could sail through overcoming all odds only by my sheer standout performances in my career so long. But the fact remains good performances cannot be overshadowed always. Our days will also come, and what we should do in the circumstances is sustain our good work. Sincere and hard work never fail or fade out.

It may not be possible to make them correct their attitude unless and until some dramatic instances surface to prove the bias was prevalent. So my suggestion to you victims of bias is, don't get perturbed or dismayed when encountering such situations, be bold enough to take them on face to face but never compromise on giving our best for the sake of our employers. Truth only will prevail ultimately. I am the witness to it going by my strides in my long career.