Three Steps Toward Fairer Talent Management

Leadership competency models often unintentionally reinforce bias, and organizations frequently use them without recognizing their implicit associations. In one energy company my team and I worked with, for instance, its leadership model identified five qualities as the most attractive: the abilities to “motivate,” “communicate,” “deploy,” “engage,” and “execute.” We pointed out that the model mirrored the traits associated with a stereotypical soldier — and, more broadly, a traditional male archetype — and joked that it might be quicker to say, “We’re looking for a bloke.”

Leaders must challenge their models by questioning them. Research has shown, through simulation modeling, that even small biases, such as a 2% preference for male candidates, can, over time, create significant imbalances — in this example, in gender representation in hiring. Challenging organizational leadership models means auditing such models for biased constructs, having conversations about ways in which stereotypes might be affecting hiring decisions, and encouraging dissent when someone sees this type of narrow model at play. This is procedural justice in action.

For an engineering company we worked with, that meant reengineering its performance review process. The company had been using a forced distribution model (also known as “stack ranking”) in its performance reviews, in which employees were ranked relative to one another. Analysis showed that women were consistently underrepresented in the top rating categories. After we conducted structured discussions with senior managers, we identified how gender bias was influencing assessments in ways that did not accurately reflect performance. The next year, training delivered just before the review cycle focused on sharing the ways in which gender bias had been impacting decisions and, in particular, how it was reducing the objectivity of the process. The training used anonymized examples from the review process to demonstrate the types of things that all managers, men and women, needed to pay attention to. Following this training, the gender gap in performance ratings significantly narrowed.

2. Foster Justice in Everyday Leadership

Fair systems and structures are critical, but fairness is also interpersonal. Interactional justice refers to having a culture of respectful, inclusive communication in day-to-day interactions. Inclusion not only heightens psychological safety and makes people feel better, it also makes them perform better.

Leaders can move their organizations in this direction by promoting micro-affirmations such as recognition, active listening, and constructive feedback. They should receive training on how to spot and address micro-incivilities such as interrupting people or excluding them from conversations. And organizations should track individual participation and influence patterns in meetings: Who weighs in, and who gets shut out?

We worked on this process with a South African data analytics company that was intent on overcoming divides. In one team, employees raised concerns that racial dynamics were creating divisions. To find out more, we conducted confidential interviews with a range of team members. In addition to discerning the areas that needed to be improved, we also wanted to learn about what the team was like at its best. The team then came together for a session on inclusion that began with guidelines on how the discussion should be conducted. This included encouraging people to be willing to speak up and share their views, and also to be prepared to listen, respectfully, to the experiences of their colleagues. There was a discussion about what inclusion means, its benefits, and the impact exclusion has not just on individuals but on the performance of a team overall. This then led to a dialogue on the strengths within the team and the obstacles preventing the group from reaching its potential.

These discussions, though challenging, led to deeper understanding and connection. Team members left with a commitment to taking action together to enhance relationships and performance. Six months later, they described the experience as “transformational.”

3. Develop Inclusive Leadership as a Core Capability

Building leaders who are dedicated to creating an inclusive and truly fair organization is not a side initiative. It must be a central mission of the top management team.

This means integrating inclusion metrics into leadership KPIs; providing coaching and 360-degree feedback on inclusive behaviors; and encouraging self-reflection on who makes up each leader’s personal network, who they mentor, and what they advocate for.

This can be taught. HSBC partnered with us to cocreate a four-stage inclusive leadership program aimed at equipping leaders to have a demonstrable impact on diversity across their teams and functions. The program included a leadership survey, group workshops, individual feedback, clear action plans, and ongoing progress reviews.

The goal was to go deeper than promoting diversity messaging, by enabling senior leaders to understand their role in unlocking talent across all groups. One of the key issues to address in training related to inclusion is overcoming self-serving bias — a person’s belief that they are better than others. The effect of that bias is that people come into a session thinking that while this type of professional development is necessary overall, “it’s for other people, not for me.” Using our 360-degree feedback on inclusive leadership, data from the organization’s surveys on employee engagement, and video testimonies from colleagues, we were able to show that not only can the organization be more inclusive but that each individual leader can develop themselves further.

The key to success was not just the framework itself but the commitment and engagement of leaders, including those who were initially skeptical. Evaluation of the program by the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield found that the training led to significant improvements in employee perceptions, including increased feelings of respect, greater acknowledgment and idea sharing, more effective communication of inclusion goals, and clearer leadership accountability. The program also resulted in higher promotion rates for women.