• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Michelle Ray

Business and Leadership Keynote Speaker

Call Michelle
Call Now: 1-877-773-2561
Book Michelle
  • About
    • About Michelle
    • Videos
    • Brochure
  • Speaking
    • Leadership: It Starts with Me
    • Leading in Real Time
    • You’re Not the Boss of Me
    • Who Moved My Future?
    • The Transformational Leader: Be Bold. Be Real. Be Ready.
    • Elevate Your Influence!
    • Staying Power! Success Strategies for Resilient Leadership
    • Safety Professionals
  • Workplace Solutions
    • How to get people to be more accountable
    • How to keep your best people from leaving
    • How to deal with employee disengagement
    • How to build a great leadership team
    • Embrace change and manage uncertainty
  • Testimonials
  • Shop
    • Lead Yourself First Book
    • Leading In Real Time Book
  • Blog
    • Michelle in the News
  • Contact

Business and Cognitive Bias

August 16, 2019 by Michelle Ray

Imagine a workplace where managers and coworkers viewed one another through a purely objective lens. Or where customer concerns were resolved without blame, judgment, or misunderstanding, 100 percent of the time.

Sounds pretty far-fetched, right?

Many organizations’ perceptions of their workforce, customer service standards, and brand reputation are far out of alignment with those of their employees, customers, and respective industry as a whole.

To put it more simply, it comes down to cognitive bias about business.

Managers are often surprised to learn that negative employee and customer perceptions of the business are the direct result of their own cognitive biases.

Cognitive bias in business

Managers are often surprised to learn that negative employee and customer perceptions of the business are the direct result of their own cognitive biases. Click To Tweet

Very Well Mind describes cognitive bias as a “systematic error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments that people make,” and “a type of error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them.”

When you apply those cognitive biases to business processes, you can see how this becomes problematic.

Due to cognitive biases, managers or organizations may fail to see consequences of protecting a culture stuck in the past or unwilling to embrace divergent opinions.

Want to learn more about getting to the root of these unconscious biases? Don’t miss this post.

Consider the example of Jack, a talented millennial in the sales profession.

Jack’s client base is largely comprised of an older demographic that prefers “closing the deal” with his baby boomer manager.

Jack shared his frustration with me regarding his customers’ lack of trust.

He lamented: “My friends tell me that I should grow a beard so I’ll be taken more seriously.”

Seriously? 

The harsh truth is that Jack’s customers don’t perceive him as capable or competent.

Jack’s manager runs the risk of losing a valuable employee by knowingly or unknowingly maintaining the status quo. Even worse, Jack is perceived as lacking the ability to build business relationships, both internally and externally.

When a genuine display of trust is encouraged, people are motivated to be their best.

In the absence of trust, individuals are likely to question their employer’s credo, become increasingly disengaged, or potentially shut down and quit.

Want help building a collaborative, trusting space at work? I’ve outlined important steps for this process here.

Business is often won or lost based on how we perceive people and enterprises. Click To Tweet

Subjectivity in business

Business is often won or lost based on how we perceive people and enterprises.

And whether or not we’re prepared to admit it, subjectivity creeps into almost every human interaction.

A prospective employee forms impressions of an organization based on research and the job interview. They can be highly influenced by a friend’s recommendation when deciding to accept a position.

Once on board, his or her actual experience may not resemble what they envisioned.

Similarly, a customer decides to return to an establishment or take their business elsewhere based on how he or she discerns and then experiences the overall encounter.

Overcoming preconceived notions and cognitive bias

Changing perspectives and biases that have been ingrained for years is a process.

In order to expand our perspective and suspend judgment, we first need to recognize our frames of reference, attitudes and perceptions that have been honed over a period of time. Influences can include family, geographic location, education and culture.

Many individuals are unaware they view the world through a myopic lens and may not realize the negative business consequences of these cognitive biases until they experience the impact directly.

Others may remain oblivious for a multitude of reasons and never transform their thinking.

You perceptions are indeed your truth. 

Only you can decide if your discernments are attracting or repelling potential talent or clientele from doing business with you.

Would you like more help with leadership accountability and overcoming cognitive biases in business? Have a look at my consulting and coaching services here.

To learn more about increasing accountability (and much more) in the workplace, you can also WATCH and subscribe to Michelle’s brand new Leadership Insights TV Series!

Did you enjoy this article? Be sure to visit these posts too:

Passionate Leaders: 12 Key Traits that Distinguish the Best from the Rest
How to Improve Team Engagement: A Leadership Challenge
Accountability Starts With You

 

This article was originally published on March 20, 2017, and has been updated.

 

Filed Under: Attitude, Business, Perception Tagged With: business, Business Keynote Speaker, cognitive bias, Michelle Ray, personal leadership, workplace

Primary Sidebar

Return to Blog Home

Recent Posts

  • The Power of Positive Communication at Work and in Life
  • Leadership and Influence: Why it Matters More than Ever
  • The Great Reawakening: Why Employees are Reclaiming their Purpose and Power
  • Top Leadership and Workplace Trends for 2022
  • Myths and Truths of Working in a Virtual World

Categories

  • Absenteeism
  • Accountability
  • Adversity
  • Ahead of the Curve
  • Article Analysis
  • attitude
  • Attitude
  • attiude
  • Australia
  • Authentic Leader
  • Best Motivational Speakers In The World
  • best places to work
  • Best workplaces
  • Business
  • business meetings
  • Business Motivation
  • career
  • change
  • Change Management
  • Communication
  • conferences planners
  • Conflict
  • Coronavirus
  • Creativity
  • customer service
  • Diversity
  • economy
  • Effective Hiring Practices
  • employee engagement
  • Employee Motivation
  • Experience
  • financial planning
  • Front Line Employees
  • Future of Work
  • generation Y
  • Goal-setting
  • Happiness at Work
  • healthy living
  • High Turnover
  • Hiring a Motivational Speaker
  • Hockey
  • HR
  • Influence
  • Innovation
  • Innovation
  • Inspirational Speakers
  • Leadership
  • Leadership Lessons
  • Meeting Planners
  • meetings industry
  • Millennials
  • Mindset
  • Motivation
  • Motivational Speakers
  • Motivational Stories
  • Multigenerational Workforce
  • multigenerational workplace
  • Negative Thinking
  • New Year Resolutions
  • Organizational Development
  • overcoming adversity
  • Pandemic
  • Passionate Leadership
  • Perception
  • performance reviews
  • personal leadership
  • Positive Mindset
  • positive thinking
  • presentation skills
  • professional development
  • Quick Quips
  • Recruitment Strategies
  • Relationship Skills
  • Remote Work
  • resiliency
  • self-improvement
  • Self-Leadership
  • SHRM
  • Social consciousness
  • Social Media
  • Sports
  • Stanley Cup
  • success
  • Syndycated Information
  • Talent War
  • Team Chemistry
  • Technology
  • The Great Resignation
  • Top Motivational Speakers
  • Tweets
  • Uncategorized
  • uncertainty
  • Unconscious Bias
  • values in business
  • Vision
  • Well-Being
  • Winning
  • work
  • work-life balance
  • Workaholism
  • Workplace
  • Workplace Culture
  • workplace wellness programs

Footer

  • Problems Michelle Solves
  • Speaking
  • Safety Speaker
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Conference Speaker
  • Inspirational Speaker
  • In-House Workshops
  • Michelle in the News
  • Meeting Planners
  • Lead Yourself First
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Contact

Head Office

Lead Yourself First Enterprises

Suite 250 - 997 Seymour St.

Vancouver, BC V6B 3M1

CANADA

1-877-773-2561

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Michelle Ray · Legal Information · Site Map