Promotion Bias

You have two strong candidates for one team lead role. You promote the one who speaks up and asks for it. Eight months later, the other one resigns. Mark speaks in every meeting, talks about his results and has asked twice about the next step. Sofia speaks less, notices what everyone else missed, and is the person her colleagues go to when they’re stuck. She has never asked about promotion. We promote Mark. It feels like an easy decision. In this episode, Brendan Thomas Quinn explains promotion bias in multicultural teams. He covers why we trust people who remind us of ourselves, how confidence in the working language gets mistaken for ability, and how individualist, collectivist and high power distance work cultures teach people different rules for showing good work. He also looks at what promotion bias costs the business over the following year, and gives four moves to make your next promotion decision fairer. The person who waits to be asked still wants the role. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open: one role, two strong people 00:45 Intro and today’s themes 01:45 The friction: Mark, Sofia and the promotion decision 07:00 Reason one: we trust what feels familiar (affinity bias) 08:30 Reason two: confidence is easy to mistake for ability 09:45 Reason three: different rules for showing good work 11:45 What we were missing, and what it costs 13:00 Move one: define the role before we look at the people 14:15 Move two: collect evidence from outside the meeting room 15:30 Move three: ask about ambition directly, and in private 16:45 Move four: check our own pattern, and get a second view 18:00 The one thing THE BASIS LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME Seeing people clearly when they work differently from you is a leadership skill, and it can be learned. The BASIS Leadership Programme is leadership training for team leaders, managers and CEOs, built for real teams where people come from different backgrounds. It’s one-to-one, online, in Barcelona or at your office. https://brendanthomasquinn.com/leader... LINKS Episode page: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/cultur... Full article: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/promot... Cultural Friction newsletter: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/cultur... If you don’t want to miss the next episode, follow the show wherever you’re listening. Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay SOURCES • Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation. Basic Books. • Rivera, L. A. (2012). Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms. American Sociological Review, 77(6), 999–1022. • Neeley, T. B. (2013). Language Matters: Status Loss and Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations. Organization Science, 24(2), 476–497. • House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W. & Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Sage. • Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill. Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes. Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it. And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.