A different kind of bias
Bias is a complex thing.
Most people think of it in terms of its most nefarious forms: racism, sexism, homophobia, and other insidious drivers of discrimination. While these are indeed all-too-common types of bias, there’s a whole lot of other ways it can creep into our perspectives and actions.
Yes, we all like to believe we are living life completely free of any bias. The hard truth is that every one of us is biased in some way, shape, or form. It’s usually unintentional and often unconscious, but it’s there all the same. This is what we like to call gentle bias.
Gentle bias is brought on by ignorance, but not the kind that leads to hatred. It comes from not knowing or comprehending who people really are. The person that we know as an employee is not always the full person, or even the full employee. We all have components that make us multi-faceted and unique and whole. When we haven’t made an effort to understand the vast landscape of a person’s life in all its peaks and valleys, we open ourselves up to displaying gentle bias toward them.
It’s important to keep in mind that we have no idea what people are dealing with outside of work. They could be struggling with mental health, coming to terms with the loss of a loved one, or having issues with family, friends, or relationships. This stuff is personal and we don’t need to know about it. However, we have to remember that it could be going on. We need to know what we don’t know, and treat our people with the requisite patience and grace.
What we *should* try to learn is who our people are as workers. With the knowledge level that we currently have, we are biased towards managing them in a set way. This is lowering their ceiling, and the ceiling of the teams they’re on.
They could have hidden skills they learned at past jobs. They could have stuff they are crazy good at that would be a huge difference-maker for us. They might have things they absolutely love doing and things they absolutely hate doing, and have been distributing their effort accordingly. We don’t even have an inkling about any of this because we’ve been too biased toward our preconceived perspectives to give them a chance to tell us.
If we want to eliminate this gentle form of bias and jump on all this unrealized potential, all we need to do is really, truly get to know our people.
This can be accomplished through good old-fashioned conversation, but the best way is with the kind of internal mobility solution that feels less like a database and more like an open door to opportunity. WORQDRIVE fits the bill.