I should declare that I am a man. Not only that but a white man, and whilst I am at it I will also admit that my more generous observers have described me as well on my way to middle age.
So, no matter how you describe me I am always going to be defined as someone who has been blessed with a lot of natural advantages; My gender, my age, my race etc.
Less fortunately blessed people, those of a different gender, age or race might find it difficult to understand that I also know how it feels to be part of a minority.
They would be mistaken.
I have made my career, in human resources management, a career which is dominated by women.
I have been discriminated against on the grounds of my gender by male managing directors who told me that they found it difficult to imagine having a male HR manager and by female HR directors who had never worked with a man in HR before.
I have worked internationally, where I only saw a white face when I looked in the mirror, and the only British accent I heard was my own at the start of my answer phone message.
I decided to leave my first employer because I was told that although I was capable of a more senior role it would not be possible for me to be promoted until I was older.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the majority of people if they really thought about it would be able to identify incidents in their career when decisions that were made about them may have been influenced by factors totally separate from their accomplishments or potential.
In the past the decision may be explained as justifiable with a comment that refers to what we now define as a protected characteristic, but nowadays these decisions are shrouded in mystery and the decision maker may not be aware of the unconscious bias that fuels them.
Worryingly, it is also possible that our own unconscious expectations of what we can expect from life because of our own protected characteristics could be driving behaviours that signal our acceptance and expectation of the decisions other people use their unconscious bias to make about us.
Feeling less worthy than others because of elements of our make-up that we can not control can create the self-fulling perception that to be considered equal to other people we have to be twice as good.
This is the issue that this week’s free guide looks at. The free guide is based on the book Inside Knowledge – How women can thrive in professional service firms, by women’s leadership coach Alison Temperley.
In the free guide Temperley explains a strategy for being recognised for the contribution that you make, which can be applied to any work environment by not just women, but anyone who perceives that they are being judged by other people on the basis of something that is unconnected to the contribution that they make at work.
You can down load the free guide at this link
You can find out more about equality and inclusion learning at this link
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