1. Build awareness of the types of unconscious bias and impacts.

Whether it’s a refresh or a first time learning about unconscious bias, keep the types of unconscious bias and impact on talent discussions top of mind. If you’re committed to eating healthier, you look at ingredient labels. If you’re committed to reducing unconscious bias impacts, you need to understand it.

2. Align on the short list of success criteria for positions, removing unnecessary skills, experiences, or capabilities to create more equitable opportunities.

Many companies have gotten used to having a lengthy list of bullet points of requirements to be considered “ready” for a job. Too often this list is a “mini me” of the current or outgoing incumbent, or the hiring manager. The reality is someone with a different background could offer more value if given the opportunity. There will always be a few core requirements, but too many will leave out a high caliber diverse talent who could take the business to the next level.

3. Seek out diverse perspectives to provide input on talent’s performance and potential.

Multiple points of view from individuals with different backgrounds and parts of the organization are needed to get the full picture on performance and potential. It’s not reasonable to wait and expect others to come and share feedback. Managers need to reach out to seek feedback asking open ended questions, which is very different from leading questions that try to validate current thinking. For example, don’t say something like, “I’m providing coaching to Person X on influencing others. What feedback do you have on this?” Instead ask a question like, how did Person X do on leading the project? What did you notice about their ability to engage and bring others along.”

4. Assign multiple bias champions whose role is to ask questions to flesh out potential biases.

Please don’t make the only woman, person of color or the youngest person in the room the bias champion! There should be at least two to three bias champions whose job is to ask questions in a psychologically safe way, getting curious and calling others in when they suspect unconscious bias is showing up. This should be positioned as everyone has bias and we are here to support and learn from each other. The bias champions can ask that others hold a mirror up to them too. Examples of bias champion questions or comments could be:

• “I heard you say they need to work on their leadership presence. What do you mean by that? What examples can you share? Is it possible that their leadership might enhance our organization because its different from others?”    

• “When you say this person is “high maintenance”, what do you mean by that? Can you share examples? What’s feedback of others on this?”  

5. Ask for specific examples to back up comments about individuals' performance or readiness for next roles.

Here’s an example of how this could be phrased: “I hear you saying Person Y is not ready for the next opportunity. What specifically is missing to be ready? What if we put Person Y in the role tomorrow, what would they be missing? What would be the business impact?”   

6. Use visuals, such as headshots or color-coding names to represent known diversity dimensions of talent and reflect on insights about the mix of representation and business impact.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. An image showing the diversity makeup of the provides insight into processes and cultures that are either supporting or hindering the organization’s innovation and performance. This can lead to an insightful conversation to either leverage the mix of diverse teams or understand if there are roadblocks.

7. Use assessment tools to be data driven on strengths, capabilities, and future potential.

There are many types of assessment tools available depending on the purpose including 360 feedback, StrengthsFinder, Hogan, IDI to name a few. The benefit of using these tools is they provide objective and measurable insights, which remove bias. Just like weight on a scale is only part of one’s health measures, assessments are only a piece of the story and should be used as a broader approach to talent assessment and development.

My invitation to you is to courageously be The One who leads from the front to combat unconscious bias.

Choose two or all of these strategies to improve decision making in talent discussions. Share this with others so we can grow together. By doing this, you will boost innovation and growth, and positively impact career trajectories and the lives of others.