This is an excerpt from the article: Four Tips for Addressing Leadership Biases, published by ASAE on August 21, 2022.
Managing people hasn't been the same since COVID-19. In advance of their session at the ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo, two experts share what skills leaders need now.
Interview by: Mark Athitakis
Inclusive leadership is a process, and it starts with asking yourself some challenging questions. When I asked Tamela Blalock, CAE, VP, cooperative relations, at the National Cooperative Business Association, about it for a recent Associations Now Deep Dive story, she listed a few of them: “Who’s groomed for their highest level of success? Who is targeted to receive the most helpful information? Who is not? Is that intentional?”
Blalock three other leadership and DEI professionals will speak at the ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo, as part of a session called “Getting a Grip on the New World of Work.” The session will feature some practical guidance for leaders on how to understand and manage through their biases. In advance of the session, though, I wanted to share a few additional points that Blalock and one of her co-presenters, Pamela J. Green, chief engagement officer at Pamela J. Green Solutions, expressed about what leaders can do.
You have biases. Everybody does. “Not all biases are bad,” Blalock said. “As human beings, we have a bias against paper clips.” The tricky part is acknowledging places where our biases are a product of cloudy perceptions of who we are and what’s happening with those around us. “We have preferences about how we see ourselves and the work culture we’re in.”
Getting past those biases requires a better understanding of others’ challenges, Green said. “Leaders forget what it’s like to be in the shoes of an employee who is not in control of a lot of the decisions that are made and affect the work. So it’s important for leaders to take a step back and learn how to see the world through their eyes.”
The full article is available to read here: Four Tips for Addressing Leadership Biases, published by ASAE on August 21, 2022.