Hidden costs of unconscious bias and how we can tackle them

DESPITE increased corporate focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, the state of female leadership today is still found wanting, with female to male leadership in the Asia Pacific region in 2021 remaining slightly under 28 per cent.

Perhaps it's time for us to dig deeper and tackle a hidden yet difficult barrier to address - unconscious biases.

It's human nature for us to gravitate towards people like us. But sometimes, this instinct - known as affinity bias - can be harmful. For example, when male decision makers find themselves relating more to male candidates who come from a similar background, and thus pick them over an equally qualified female candidate. An Asia Pacific study by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) reported that when asked if male managers were less likely to select women than men, and less likely to promote women than men, more women agreed than men, with a 29 percentage-point difference for each question.

How we define leadership also matters. For far too long, we've conflated leadership with men, and women with empathy. The same CCL report found that while both women and men agreed that ambition was critical for leadership, women were "unsure of how ambitious to be or appear". According to the study researchers, this could be due to how women associated ambition with egotism, selfishness, self-aggrandisement, or the manipulative use of others for own ends, unlike men, who associated it with positive attributes. Perhaps this is because of the general perception that when women display "masculine" leadership characteristics such as ambition, dominance, and risk-taking, they tend to be viewed in a negative light, making it doubly hard for women to navigate leadership.

On the flipside, men are also pressured by conventional gender roles. Not usually seen as caregivers by society, fathers may not be provided adequate paternal leave, face external pressure against or feel hesitant about taking childcare leave. In Singapore, eligible men are offered 2 weeks of paid paternal leave. However, only slightly above half of them took paternity leave in 2019, according to latest government figures.

This has many implications - men cannot enjoy fatherhood, and their female partners have to compensate by taking up more caregiving responsibilities.

Besides facing biases externally, women may internalise these feelings of inadequacy, leading to self-doubt and limiting beliefs. They may be discouraged from pursuing their professional goals, and may even decide to downshift in their careers. Some 11 per cent of women surveyed in the region said they would reject challenging leadership opportunities, compared to 2 per cent of male respondents who would do so. The study also found that women were more likely to have self-limiting thoughts and deal with issues such as perfectionism, self-criticism and imposter syndrome.

Because these behaviours feel so natural, they often go undetected, and we may not recognise that we are perpetuating these biases. The question then becomes - how can we identify and effectively tackle something so innate?

First, companies should provide unconscious bias training at all levels of the organisation. For such training to be truly effective, encourage employees to reflect and recognise their own biases, and set goals to correct these beliefs. Continued training sessions, instead of one-off sessions, also go a long way in strengthening inclusive culture.

Second, buck conventional trends and redefine what leadership means. I highly recommend Growth Mindset training, which encourages employees to continue growing and improving their skills. We started the training with our leadership team, and then launched a multi-month campaign to help our employees cultivate new learning habits in this area.

Third, provide initiatives that support women leadership. 3M's Women's Leadership Forum (WLF) develops leaders at all levels to accelerate the inclusion and advancement of women globally. We now have over 5,000 employees across 65 chapters globally, including all countries within Asia where 3M operates.

Men as advocates

Fourth, help your male employees better understand the true gaps in achieving gender equity, and how they can be better advocates for diversity, equity and inclusivity.

At 3M, we focus on REAL Allyship, which stands for Reflect, Empathise, Act and Learn. We encourage our employees to reflect on their experiences, perspectives, and innate assumptions, how these assumptions affect others, and how they came about.

Empathy is also key to advancing equity. Thus, we encourage male employees to learn and understand the challenges for women in the workplace, through listening, reading, and participating in dialogues with women. From these activities, employees can then take action to build a culture of belonging, advocate for those who are marginalised, and continue their path of learning.

We acknowledge that allyship comes in various forms and allows us to advocate in ways that feel most authentic for each individual. Through our male allyship programme Men as Advocates, we invite everyone to challenge gender stereotypes and work towards gender neutral mindsets and behaviours. I personally find it crucial for men to better understand the need to be advocates in order to make a positive step forward in equity.

Finally, redesign talent acquisition processes to better engage candidates from underrepresented groups. Starting with the United States, 3M is redesigning our interview processes to remove individual discretion and bias, and investing in a new interview management system focused on skills-based hiring.

We also sponsor various initiatives to encourage more women and girls to join the science field. Last year, 3M partnered United Women Singapore in its flagship Girls2Pioneers programme. The year-long collaboration aimed to encourage 1,750 girls, aged 13 to 17, to take up STEM subjects in their higher education and careers. This year, we also participated in Science Centre Singapore's DiscovHER, which showcased women in STEM.

Gender inequity is a complex and layered challenge. Diversity goals or women leadership initiatives alone are often not enough to close the gaps. Only when we peel back the layers of gender stereotypes and tackle unconscious biases that hold women back can we kickstart real change from the inside out.

The writer is senior vice president, 3M Asia Corporate Affairs and managing director of 3M Korea.