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Episode 30: The biggest professional blind spot you don’t realize you have: a conversation on equity with Minda Harts

Welcome to The Career Clarity Show, where we help you find a lucrative, soulful, and joyful career path for you! 

“Professional blind spots.” 

That phrase right there? It strikes fear into the heart of any ambitious worker. 

Professional blind spots are simply areas of work information where you have no knowledge or experience. These spots are a big liability for you not because you don’t have the knowledge, but because you don’t know you have the blind spot in the first place. (They aren’t called blind spots for nothing…)

Ambitious professionals sometimes obsess over their weaknesses, falsely believing those are their blind spots. They believe if they just work hard enough – put one more ounce of effort towards getting the teeniest bit better – they’ll magically be perfect professionals. The dream employee. Bulletproof. 

(Spoiler alert: this is a symptom of unconscious perfectionism.) 

But because you know your weaknesses, you can develop strategic ways to work around them. Therefore, they’re not blind spots.  

The most problematic type of professional blind spot arises from the assumption that everyone experiences the same things you do at work. They can complete tasks the same way you can. They think along the same lines you do. And, importantly: they don’t have challenges or obstacles that are different from your own. 

Know another term for this kind of professional blind spot? Privilege. 

Equity and inclusion thought leader, author, and speaker Minda Harts sees accidental blinds spots, which she calls empathy gaps, in companies all the time. It doesn’t always manifest as an obvious, “open mouth, insert foot” style gaffe, but it’s forgetting to consider that others have needs and experiences that aren’t like yours. 

If this has never crossed your mind, you’ve probably been benefiting from privilege in your career. 

Take a moment to imagine what it’s like to be in a workplace and not see anybody who looks like you. 

Or that all the people who look like you are only in the bottom half of the org chart.  

Or that there are people who look like you in the company but aren’t in your department. 

It would feel weird, right? Unsettling. Unnatural. 

Not everybody gets the same opportunities to advance. Studies show that only 4% of companies’ C-Suite members are women of color. 

And just having someone on the team who looks different doesn’t mean you’re checking the box and are free to move on. (South Park’s animated sitcom character of “Token” is a great example of when jokes aren’t always jokes.) 

As a career coach, I’ve heard from women in painful “bro”-forward work situations, where they are the only female researcher, computer programmer, ad buyer, or environmental engineer. They want to do their work – and do a great job – but the subculture created on these teams is horrifyingly disrespectful, myopic, and toxic. The leaders of these workplaces have no idea the impact that their culture has on people in the minority.  

If you want to avoid your own huge professional blind spot, you need to know you’ve got a job you might not have been doing: advocating for all members of your team so they feel safe to contribute. Looking for equity, not equality. Deciding that the “way it’s always been done” isn’t good enough anymore.

Take a look at the faces in your organization. When you look around at the team you’re on, does it represent the rich diversity of your community? 

Looks aren’t everything (of course), but if your company doesn’t look diverse, it’s going to have a tough time truly having diverse thoughts and experiences. 

It’s also worth asking why doesn’t this team look more representative? What barriers might be in the way? Am I thinking or behaving in ways that might not create an inclusive and safe workplace culture?

If you need a cheat sheet of what you should expect to see at work, I’ve got you. Here’s a rough estimate of the country’s average distribution of diverse groups, based on recent United States census data. 

Let’s say your department has around 20 people on its team. In order to be representative of the country, roughly…

  • 10 team members should be women
  • 4 individuals should be Hispanic or Latinx
  • 3 should be Black or African American
  • At least 1 would be Asian
  • 2 people won’t have high school degrees
  • 14 won’t have undergrad degrees
  • 1 would identify as LGBTQ
  • Maybe 1 would have non-Christian religious beliefs (not that the rest *are* Christian, just that non-Christian religious groups have fairly small relative populations in the U.S.)
  • And 2 to 3 would have a disability. 

Surprised? You really shouldn’t be. The U.S. is diverse AF. 

But does your workplace truly reflect that diversity? Do you have a workplace that makes it easy for someone with a disability, different color skin, a different educational background, or a different religion to feel comfortable there? (Don’t tell me the company “holiday” party is nondenominational if you’re bringing in a dressed-up Santa…) 

Companies spend billions on diversity and inclusion “initiatives” that might score them great press but don’t often make a real difference when it comes to representation in the organization.

Why?

They focus on the wrong things: thinly supported and disempowered employee resource groups that often make minority members feel more ostracized than integrated, posing the one Latinx employee front and center in every team photo, or not giving employees comp time to participate in the company’s Pride Month or Black History Month events.  

What are the right things to focus on?

Retention. Mentorship. Encouraging new people to sit at the table. Asking the quieter members of the team to share their opinions. Making people feel welcome, valued, and heard. Being willing to question your own unconscious biases. Challenging workplace norms you might perpetuate (or benefit from) that don’t account for unique cultural expressions. 

(The recent Super Bowl Halftime Show is a great example of negative reactions to less-familiar behaviors rooted in international cultures. If you don’t like the tongue-waggling Middle Eastern zaghrouta, you sure don’t have to do it, but you better not tell others to suppress their own culture’s expression of joy because you have beliefs about the right and wrong ways women are allowed to use their own bodies. Maybe Euro Trip was right, and we are a country founded by prudes…)   

We have to redefine success within our companies. Success isn’t doing things fast because everyone is subscribing to the same internalized dominant cultural norms. Success is only achieved when we slow down enough to benefit from the knowledge and experiences of all, and don’t assume that one experience is representative of all. There’s a reason there are so many studies showing that diverse businesses are more profitable and more sustainable.  

Minda said she asks company leaders, “How much of your workforce do you want to use? You’re not using everyone’s talent at capacity, and [you are] picking and choosing who gets to use their talent in these workplaces.” 

What can you do? For starters, don’t just charge up the corporate ladder and leave those who aren’t in the majority behind due to your professional blind spots. True leadership is a rising tide that lifts all boats, and trusts that if you advocate for others’ needs and voices, not only will they grow and thrive, as well as create a more profitable and sustainable business, but you’ll get incredible professional opportunity karma in return, too. 

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

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About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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