How to Keep Personal Biases from Making You a Bad Boss

No one ever said it was easy being the boss.  In addition to being the point person you are also the fall guy (or gal).  People expect a lot from you and whether you are dealing with employees, clients or higher-ups’ they all tend to come from a place of take-take-take.  Overall it can be an exhausting position to handle…but are certain factors wearing you out more than others?

While you may be a manager, you need to keep in mind that you are human too.  Even if you are not consciously aware of them, hidden biases can affect your decision-making and leadership ability.  This is why it is important to be aware of situations where your personal (sometimes even hidden) biases try to take over.  Read on to learn how to discover your professional biases and more important, how to overcome them.

Lay Your Biases On The Table

Chances are you hired people onto you team because they shared similar ideals and fostered an attitude that matched your work place.  This is common, people tend to gravitate toward people they can relate to; the tendency to act this way actually reinforces your natural biases.  The same thing might happen when dealing with clients or higher-ups’, you want those people to get along with you and might not even realize that your compliance is causing you to adopt their own preferences.

The first step in uncovering your biases is to discover the emotion(s) behind them.  Say for example, that you hate pitching new clients; your bias requires you to avoid the pitch process at all costs.  Now, try to think back to when that “hate” first started.  Perhaps in the past you were publicly embarrassed and ridiculed by a client who did not like your pitch.

If you can come to terms with those emotions (embarrassment, shame) that are connected to your prejudice, then you have a better chance of overcoming it.  Just because you had a bad pitch experience in the past, does not mean that history is going to repeat itself.  Strive to actively work on the professional biases that are holding you and business back.

Refresh Your Leadership Perspective

While you may be able to pinpoint how your biases are holding you back, it may be a little bit more difficult to see how they are holding your team members back too.  Say for example, your distaste for gossip causes you to glaze over the office chatterbox.  Just because you do not like the talkative attribute, does not mean that that employee does not have great qualities to offer.  For example, your office’s social butterfly could be the perfect person to head up your social media accounts.

Flip the example; say as a talkative person, you never really connected with the shy person on your team.  Without really noticing, you might pass pet projects onto people you know better because your shy co-worker never seems to come to mind.  You can see here how personal biases can make you a bad boss.  Just because you don’t like a quality about someone or you don’t necessarily connect to it, does not mean you should pass those people the short end of the stick.

Ask yourself, what are my natural leadership tendencies?  What motivations drive those tendencies?  What emotions are attached to them?  With some introspective thought and exploration, your biases can come to light, and from there you can work on changing them.

Get Input

It’s only natural to foster some personal biases, however you have the power to eliminate them for the better.  Throughout this process, don’t undervalue the power of your team.  Because of the distance, they might be able to spot those tendencies with greater ease than you can.

Share with your team that you’re trying to freshen up your leadership style.  Ask them if they would be willing to share their thoughts on policies and procedures they think would benefit from being changed.

Understand that not everyone will be comfortable critiquing their boss so do your best to provide anonymity with blind feedback. By asking them what things they might like to see a change in, you could open yourself up to other biases and new opportunities for fair improvement.

About the author:Kelly Gregorio writes about leadership trends and tips while working at Advantage Capital Funds, a merchant cash advance provider. You can read her daily business blog here.