I believe that the lesson that can be taken from the video, Unconscious Bias – making the Unconscious Conscious , (2014) relates back to our critical thinking assignment and confirms the importance of critical thinking skills in a leader. In my paper, I wrote, “critical thinking is taking the facts of a situation and not readily accepting them at face value.” This means that leaders need to know and consider all information before acting.
It is a natural thing that people develop bias’ over their lifetime. I can think of an example in education where people often think that males are better at math and science than females. In education, it is rare that males teach at the elementary level. It is more common that they teach junior high or high school. Growing up with these experiences, naturally a person would develop some bias’. It is important to make decisions based on factual information.
In the trusted 10 exercise, I had an even split of 5 females and 5 males. This wasn’t planned, just coincidence. Most are university educated with a few who had high school education. Most are close to my age, or within 5 years of my age. Out of the 10 that I listed, only 2 females are married. All 10 of my trusted 10, fit into my inner circle. They are people that I consider myself to be close with. I believe that they all fit in the innermost circle because I am a very trusting person. I always look for the good qualities in people, and trust them with my whole heart. People may make it to more outer circles such as acquaintances if I feel that I could not tell them anything about my life and have them listen without being judgemental. These people have been there for me through some difficult situations that I have encountered in the last couple of years. They are people that I trust and feel that I could talk to about anything. I hope that these people feel the same way about me.
I found that most of the people in my trusted 10 are quite similar. When I reflect on their personalities, I feel that they all have a lot in common. I think that this tells me that my circles are not that diverse. I believe that part of the reasoning behind this is that I am very similar to these people as well. This tells me that I need to develop my leadership skills by expanding the diversity of people in my trusted network. This will require me to be more conscientious and to make sure I am not judging people based on first impressions. In my life, I don’t feel like I do this, however, that findings from my trusted 10 activity tell me that this could be an area for growth and improvement.
Armstrong and Nouman tell us in the article, “Leadership Competencies in a Diverse Culture” that, “leaders need to promote and to engage in divergent thinking if they are to be effective in a world of diverse cultures. One of the critical challenges that leaders face today is how to move beyond a merely theoretical agreement to accommodate diversity and instead use diversity as a strategic lever that propels innovative ideas and solutions. “(Armstrong, A and Nouman, A, 2010, P 1). They tell us the importance of diversity and how it can empower a leader to be more effective. I believe that it is the due diligence of a leader to look after and inspire their followers so that everyone can work towards accomplishing a common goal. Effective leaders need to have diversity and each person needs to feel valued and to have a voice.
References
Armstrong, Ann, and S. Nouman Ashraf. “Leadership Competencies in a Diverse Culture.” Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: A Reference Handbook. Ed. Kathryn A. Agard. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010. 267-74. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
- (2014, September 25). Unconscious Bias @ Work – Making the Unconscious Conscious. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW5s_-Nl3JE&feature=youtube
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.