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The Leader's
Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate
Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams
by Pamela Fuller
& Mark Murphy with Anne Chow
c.2020, Simon & Schuster
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada
304 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Whom should you hire?
That's a question you ask
yourself often, and you strive to be fair with it by hiring
the best person for the job, no matter what. But what if the
person doesn't "fit" with your team? Can you truly keep
gender, race, sexuality, and different beliefs out of your
hiring process and your workplace? Or, as in The
Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias by Pamela Fuller &
Mark Murphy with Anne Chow, do you need to do better?
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Ad schedules, HR concerns,
budgets, board meetings, is there any wonder why your head
is full? Not really: according to Fuller, Murphy, and Chow,
our brains absorb millions of bits of information each
second we're awake, but we're unable to process all but
about "forty of those bits" at any one time.
To help deal with the
overload, the brain creates "shortcuts" which lead to
unconscious bias, defined as a subliminal "preference for or
against a thing, person, or group, compared with another."
That can include sexuality, personality, gender identity,
nationality, attractiveness, or race, among other things you
may (overtly or not) notice about an individual.
As employees of
FranklinCovey, Fuller and Murphy use the "Performance Model"
to explain what might be done about unconscious bias, which
is as detrimental to a business as is open bias. The first
step is to identify where your unconscious bias lies through
a process of self-awareness, knowing how you got your
biases, and recognizing the "Bias Traps."
Secondly, focus on
bringing others together through a culture of belonging. Be
authentic, cultivate a curiosity about people, mind your
words, and work to ensure that employees and customers are
represented in your business.
Thirdly, use "careful
courage" to stand up for yourself, and to pay attention to
what's being done or said. Check yourself for any
assumptions you may have on promotions, assignments, or
hiring,. Have the courage to know when you need more
self-work.
Finally, learn how the
"Talent Lifecycle" can put this knowledge in action for good
and for the good of all. Your team will thank you for it.
The very first thing
you'll want to know about The Leader's Guide to
Unconscious Bias is that it's well-considered and
thorough. The second thing you'll want to know is that
what's here will require considerable work.
That's something authors
Pamela Fuller, Mark Murphy and Anne Chow freely admit. It's
also going to take serious introspection, the possible
discomfort of which isn't so much discussed here,
though it's hard to complain when the authors themselves are
as forthcoming and honest as these are in their
self-anecdotes. Fuller is a Black woman, Murphy is a gay man
and Chow is Asian American, and their shared experiences
very strongly illustrate the points they make, despite that
this book is Grand-Canyon-deep and Atlantic-Ocean-wide.
Still, in this day and
age, you can't ignore homogeny at the workplace any longer.
You need the advantages that will come with The Leader's
Guide to Unconscious Bias. Read it, absorb it, and take
your team higher.
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