While for some of you Mini-Me might resonate with the name of the character played by Verne Troyer in the movie Austin Powers, here we are actually talking about our unconscious affinity bias as leaders.

Let me explain.
Research has proven that as humans, we have a tendency to sponsor and support not only people that remind us of ourselves or with whom we have something in common, but most importantly people that we trust.
It is human nature to place our trust in people who share our ethnicity, our religious or cultural background, our educational experience, or our interests.

This is the reason why up until now most multinational leadership is predominantly white and male, and why in many organisations we end up with people that have similar ethnicity, gender, education throughout different groups.

How as leaders can we change this narrative ?

Until we become aware that we are subconsciously engaging in an affinity bias, we will be entertaining this blind spot and perpetuating the chain of mini me’s.

Humans like habit and dislike being disturbed by change, so when asked to change the way they hire or sponsor, they will resist. Especially as dealing with unconscious bias is very hard. You cannot change what we do not see.

As living creatures, we see the world as we are, and not as it is. We then project this belief outside, making it THE TRUTH as we see it.

Now other than having a chief diversity officer, what else can you do to actually put an end to the mini me chain:

• Change the observer you are : the range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. In order to see new things, you need to change the way you look
• Recognize your current weaknesses and hire people to complement your strengths by addressing your weaknesses
• Think of the WHY : what are the real reasons behind this choice and challenge this thought
• Finally, Remind yourself that shared values more than make up for dissimilar backgrounds

Think about it, the more diverse your team, the more likely you’ll have the toolkits necessary to solve the challenges outside your experience and the less prone you’ll be to the perils of groupthink.

Diverse teams become better prepared for decision-making and accomplishing the task at hand as
differences among team members force each person to anticipate that there will be alternative and unexpected viewpoints to consider and evaluate.
Reaching consensus will take more effort.
People must work harder to communicate their own thinking, and they need to broaden their own views to consider unexpected perspectives of others.
This takes more work and preparation, but it is significantly valuable as it further enables nonlinear novel thinking and adaptability that innovation requires.

Shall we start ?