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Is Your Bias Showing?

How to spot and change unconscious bias in the workplace

By Ron Price and Stacy Ennis

Unconscious bias matters. Greatly. Not just for the people on the receiving end of bias, but also for the leaders, teams and companies who are missing out on a team that is diversified through age, race, gender and other factors.

Where is the diversity?
During a session at a recent leadership training afternoon that was focused on hiring practices, the presenter spent the better part of an hour laying out his strategies for attracting and retaining top talent. These processes, he said, were effective beyond his company. They were attractive: online forms, spreadsheets, detailed reports, company transparency – all the latest and greatest in finding and keeping the best of the best.

Then he pulled up a slide.

The slide contained an organizational chart with about 30 employees. Rather than just names, it also included faces. The trouble was, nearly everyone in the company looked alike. It was like a carbon copy of the same person with slightly different smiles and hair colours. With some exceptions, nearly everyone was the same gender and about the same age.

Finding Opportunity in Times of Worry

By Dr. Evans Baiya

We can all agree that we are facing challenging times. COVID-19 and public precautions to slow the spread of it have left businesses in a space full of unknowns. And for many people, unknowns equal worry. It is natural for leaders (all people in fact) to feel overwhelmed during moments of crisis, especially crisis that is unpredictable and with many factors they cannot control.

Yet there is possibility, even in times of uncertainty. In times like these, we encourage leaders to work through a very simple model that helps to identify priorities and define proper resolutions within those priorities, which ultimately leads to successful outcomes. It is the Worry-Opportunity-Barrier Model.

Effective leaders embrace the mindset that crises are guaranteed, but how you deal with a crisis is an integral part of leadership. Ultimately, great leaders learn through crisis. The situation either gets better or it gets worse, based on how you handle the most stressful moments. Every crisis brings with it some stressors. It is common for leaders, especially those who feel the added weight of responsibility on their shoulders, to worry. But you cannot worry yourself out of a crisis!

Are You Too Busy to Recognize the Talent That’s In Front of You?

By Lori McNeill

It is all too common for managers to have busy schedules to the point of having back-to-back meetings all day long. Deadlines have to be met. Unexpected issues arise that need to be addressed. Does this sound like an average day or week for you?

When over-packed days become the norm, leaders may not take time to develop the talents of their employees or even recognize the potential of individuals when it is right in front of them.

What’s at stake if this occurs? Great ideas may not be heard. Employees may not feel valued and may become disengaged. Talent is wasted because employees are not coached to reach their full potential.

The Washington Post did a social experiment a few years back by asking Joshua Bell, one of the world’s most talented violinists, to play in the D.C. Metro Station. He was dressed in regular clothes and the performance was unannounced. Anyone passing by may have thought he was just some guy off the street trying to make a quick buck but consider this: he was playing a violin valued at $10-$15 million, and the music he played was some of the most complex arrangements composed for violin. In fact, he was scheduled to perform those exact songs just days later to a sold-out crowd.

Times That Try Our Souls

By Ron Price

One of the advantages of being 66 years old is that I don’t get as anxious I used to when unexpected, negative events occur. Depending on how each event is interpreted, the current coronavirus disruption is, at a minimum, the seventh crisis I have experienced over the past 45 years while in a variety of leadership roles. These crises have included a major fire, negative front-page press coverage, a debilitating breakdown in our supply chain, regulatory abuse, major contracts broken, the great recession, and the tragedy of 9/11. And we have survived every one of them!

What to do? How are we to respond when our world is disrupted so dramatically? As I reflect on this and shift gears into problem-solving around a seventh major crisis, here are things that guide my thinking:

Get above the noise. There are businesses (such as the media and others) that thrive on crisis. It actually increases their “product inventory” and compels their customers to engage. I’m not one who thinks everyone in the media is evil with ill-intent. However, it is a fact that they get better ratings (and more income) the more we engage with what they are selling.

The Problems with Problem Solving

By Ron Price

One of the primary jobs of a leader is solving problems. We often joke that if all the problems went away, we would be unemployed. Some problems are quick and easy to solve. Scheduling conflicts, customer complaints, and equipment failures are examples of problems we can often fix quickly and move on. However, there are also many problems that are much more complex and tedious to solve. It is these tougher problems that test and demonstrate our skills as problem-solving leaders.

In The Complete Leader, Randy Lisk and I wrote about two basic kinds of problems that leaders encounter on a regular basis. The first are linear problems. These are problems that have a clear root cause. By applying a scientific approach, whether asking “why” over and over again until you uncover the original cause, or by completing a more complex root cause analysis such as the fishbone model of identifying several potential contributors, one or more causes can be identified and solved. This is often the work of process engineers and is most effectively applied with problems are primarily connected with tangible parts, processes and results.

My Team Isn’t Working Together Well

By Dr. Francis Eberle

I have heard some version of this many times from clients over the years. Leaders often tell me that a team isn’t as effective as they once were, team members don’t want to participate, or they need more cooperation so they can move faster.

Many leaders forget that teams are fluid. What I mean is they change over time due to variable factors. These can be things like someone joining or leaving the team, projects changing dramatically, tasks becoming routine, fear about job safety due to changing market forces, or more. All of these dynamics impact the people on a team and their performance.

Teams are more important now than they have been in the past, partly because problems are more complex than they have been in the past. Solving them requires multiple perspectives and experiences.

Focus on Value-Creating Investments

By Dr. Evans Baiya

One of the challenges for growing a company is knowing exactly where to focus your investment, time and resources. When you introduce a new value (innovation) to the market, there are many processes you must have in place such as sales, marketing, delivery, and of course financial processes. These all require investment in the form of money, people, effort and research.

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is to try to invest in all of these processes right away. Remember, to invest in an operational system requires a lot of resources. It takes up the leader’s time. This is time you should be spending on delivering increased value to customers. It is impossible for an entrepreneur to do everything early on, so the tendency is to have a bulky budget and to hire people to help you do all these things. This leads to a variety of issues: getting into early debt, promising features to potential customers that you cannot deliver, even getting paid but losing money. This can be a fundamental problem.

Working InSync and Price Associates Join Forces

Whit Mitchell, CEO and Founder of Working InSync, is pleased to announce that he has joined forces with Price Associates, bringing his years of executive coaching and team building experience to the team. The two companies have been working closely together on client projects for over 12 years. They will go forward operating under the Price Associates brand.

“Having been a crew coach, I strongly value teams, and working with the Price Associates team has been an excellent fit,” said Mitchell. “Our work together over the years has provided enhanced value and opportunity to both Working InSync and Price Associates clients. The Price team has a strong bench of knowledge and diversity, and I am proud to be a part of it.”

“We are very excited about this merger,” said Ron Price, CEO of Price Associates. “After our years of working together, it was a natural next step to officially join forces. Whit has brought a wealth of experience to the team at Price Associates, and I am honored to partner with him in an official capacity.” Read More

Dancing Down the Mountain: A Lesson in Change Management

By Lori McNeill

I recently took a trip to the mountains of Austria. My destination was a beautiful ski resort and my goal was to learn how to ski. In order to accomplish this goal, I enlisted the help of a talented ski instructor named Florian. What I eventually came to realize was the lessons I learned that week applied directly to change management.

On the first day, Florian and I worked at the very bottom of the mountain, as I learned the fundamentals of skiing. These were not hard concepts to learn, but it took practice and repetition to acquire the skills. After day 1 of practicing fundamentals on the bunny slope, we got on the lift to make our climb to my first challenge.

Looking down from the top of the lift, the incline appeared to be too steep for my ability. If I am completely honest, I will admit that tears were streaming down my face and I felt a sense of dread and defeat before we even started our descent. Read More

Trying Easy Rather Than Hard

By Jalene Case

From playing a sport to working a job, the phrase “trying hard” implies that we’re attempting to perform at our very best, pushing ourselves harder to go beyond our limits. Why? I believe it’s because we want to be successful on our own terms.

We receive accolades for trying hard: “She’s a hard worker.” “He’s trying hard to be the best leader he can be.” Yay for us! Most of the time. The problem comes when trying imperceptibly slips from positive to negative.

On the positive side, trying drives us to go all-in toward what we truly want to accomplish. It feels light, invigorating, and clear, like we know what we want and how to get it.

On the negative side, trying forces us to do what we think we should do (a hallmark red flag!) which causes overcomplication and stress. It feels heavy, tense, and anxiety ridden with a tinge of panic, ready to explode at any moment.

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Is Your Bias Showing?

Finding Opportunity in Times of Worry

Are You Too Busy to Recognize the Talent That’s In Front of You?

Times That Try Our Souls

The Problems with Problem Solving

My Team Isn’t Working Together Well

Focus on Value-Creating Investments

Working InSync and Price Associates Join Forces

Dancing Down the Mountain: A Lesson in Change Management

Trying Easy Rather Than Hard

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