I had such a great time being interviewed by Michael Hingson from Unstoppable Mindset. We spoke about a variety of topics. Driving the conversation and taking a proactive role is the crux of my conversation. Michael has such an interesting story and perspective, himself. Listen on and contact me with questions, comments and feedback!
“It’s easy to stand with a crowd. It takes courage to stand alone.” Mahatma Gandi
Besides my consulting work, I have signed on for two speaking engagements in April. One session is focused on early career women and how to overcome barriers in their careers. The second presentation is an HR/Benefits one day conference. I will be presenting on how to jumpstart DEI efforts at organizations. This audience is mainly HR and CFO folks.
I love presenting, sharing ideas and hearing stories from audiences. For the barriers presentation, this article provides a nice overview and some much-needed pre-work for audience self-reflection. I think back to my career and how I put up with so much “wrong” stuff early in my career due to fear, lack of knowledge on what to do and just overall naivete. Even in present day, the barriers are pretty much the same…women hold little power and are subject to so much bias. And then couple that with being a women within another marginalized group and imagine the obstacles, doubled or tripled!
I remember being told that you must “ask for what you want” yet even as recent as five years ago, when I did that, I was told, “Leadership will decide when you are ready…not you.” Unbelievable and yet, as women, we are forced to comply or start over. In this example, it was the beginning of me realizing exactly the environment I was working in and fortunately, I had options so didn’t need to stay.
But most women don’t have options or fear sticking their neck out and saying something. How do we teach women to move beyond this fear? First, we talk openly about it! If we normalize behavior that holds women back is acceptable, it will continue. I think we also need to make women aware of bias and what it looks like and actions they can take against it.
Bias “is a human trait resulting from our tendency and need to classify individuals into categories as we strive to quickly process information and make sense of the world.” There are two types of bias:
Explicit cognitive bias includes overt racism and racist comments; “individuals are aware of their prejudices and attitudes toward certain groups.”
Implicit cognitive bias “involves all of the subconscious feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes that have developed as a result of prior influences and imprints.” Implicit cognitive bias “involves all of the subconscious feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes that have developed as a result of prior influences and imprints.” Implicit cognitive bias involves “automatic, unconscious mental processes based on implicit attitudes or implicit stereotypes that are formed by one’s life experience and lurk behind the surface of the conscious.” Implicit biases are necessary for us to survive since our brains cannot possibly process every piece of information coming at it in real time for us to make decisions. Our brains learn to categorize similar things so we can react. EVERYONE has Implicit Bias. A preference for a group (positive or negative) often operating outside our awareness and based on stereotypes and attitudes we hold that tend to develop early in life and tend to strengthen over time.
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” Mark Twain
Individual Reflection:
1. What is my first memory of seeing or experiencing someone different from me?
2. When was there a time in my life that I felt different from others?
3. How did you deal with the situations above?
Bias
Conscious Bias
Unconscious Bias
Bias in Action
Bias effects
Q: When have you experienced or witnessed bias? What happened? What was done about it? What was the end result?
Who are you?
Or
Q: Which one are you? Provide an example.
Sources of your bias:
All of these create your identity. Your identity can be sources of positive and negative bias. Some of our identifiers cause us to be biased to others and others to be biased towards us.
Q: What is your identity? Note if any create bias towards others.
How to Disrupt Bias (within yourself)
Q: Think about who you connect with, hang out with, spend time with, ask advice from…do they look different or similar to you? Why?
Broaden your viewpoint by:
Take Action
Ways to Act with Courage
Q: What are specific ways you can act with courage as described above?
Your perspectives are incomplete. You are an expert on your identity…be willing to learn about others.
Types of Bias
Take action: What could we do differently?
Take action: What could we do differently?
Take action: What could we do differently?
Take action: What could we do differently?
Take action: What could we do differently?
Take action: What could we do differently?
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.” Martin Luther King
Share your experiences and ideas…and what you can do differently.
…Action is where real change happens. Change can feel thorny but nothing changes without action.
So today is International Women’s Day. First of all, I hate innocuous holidays or celebrations because what purpose do they really serve except for a feel-good?
I say it over and over…
“Talk is cheap. Action is where real change happens!”
It feels good to share platitudes, recognition and high-fives. But my question is, “What are you going to do about it?” Action must happen to make change happen. All the greatest intentions accomplish little. Instead, think about actions you can take to change the system such as:
Share your ideas in the comments. Together we are stronger.
#change #takeaction
seniyegroff 