COACHED WITHOUT LIMITS

Dr. Eric Frazer, PSY.D.

Chapter 31: Bias Awareness

Everyone has biases, and there are so many of them, countless well-researched books have been written about them. The first step, which is the most important, is being aware that you have biases. We all have biases that influence our perceptions, our thinking patterns, our decision making, and our preferences. It is critical to be aware of your biases, particularly when you are making high-stakes decisions with significant impact. This is true, both in your professional and your personal life, as either could be derailed by an important decision heavily influenced by an undetected bias. Have you ever known anybody who picked the wrong partner? Have you ever picked the wrong job? Have you ever made a decision at work that was a colossal failure? I encourage you to go back to these experiences and do a personal self debriefing session and analyze how biases were probably involved in some capacity of these detrimental outcomes. This journaling exercise will help you raise your awareness of your own biases and help prevent you from succumbing to them again in the future in your decision making process. Awareness of bias should always be part of your pressure testing to make sure you are not being influenced outside of objectivity, data, and science.

The Exercise:

Here’s a simple journal exercise to immediately raise your bias awareness. For each bias, uncover the origin of it.

Personal:

How have my biases influenced my selection of friends?

How have my biases influenced my partner selection?

How have my biases influenced the way I manage money?

How have my biases influenced my parenting or parenting philosophy?

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Professional:

How have my biases influenced my job selection or entrepreneurial choices?

How have my biases influenced work relationships?

How have my biases influenced my style of communication?

How have my biases contributed to my success experiences?

How have my biases contributed to failure experiences?