Everyone has unconscious bias. Here are three ways to discover yours.

How far you rise as a leader – in today’s modern inclusive workplace – now depends upon how free of unconscious bias you are. (You can check out your unconscious bias in 1-Minute for free here.) BIAS is like a mouse-trap, where the cheese is your favorite stereotype. By stereotype, I mean the automatic reaction you have to someone who holds an opinion which differs from yours on any subject, or someone who belongs to a different political group, who comes from a different culture, minority group or “tribe.” According to Psychology Today, everyone has unconscious bias. The unsettling truth the magazine reports is that “We have met the enemy of equality and the enemy is us.” Even people who makes friends easily or who are on a fast-track to the C-Suite use stereotypes to instantly categorize (stereotype) what other people think, say, or do. If you’re interested in discovering what your personal bias is, and willing to let it go, then check out these three easy techniques: Journaling. Create an imaginary dialogue with a person who may “trigger” a reaction from you. Start writing in your journal with a simple question such as: “I’m curious why you to (this)” or “I’ve been told (this) what do you think?” Then begin writing the response you imagine they would give. Continue the dialogue until you discover the unconscious bias and resolve to release it. Catch and Release: Make a decision to stay fully present and mindful in the presence of someone you’re talking to who thinks or acts differently than you Ask for their opinion, then listen deeply to their response....
Startup Leadership: What Question Would You Like People to Ask You?

Startup Leadership: What Question Would You Like People to Ask You?

I just signed up to attend my favorite event of the year: BoulderStartUpWeek. This week-long event is about to start and all available hotel and airbnb space in town is filling up. Hosted in dozens of venues downtown including many co-working spaces and supported by hundreds of volunteers, it feels more like a community potluck for the mind than an event. People who show up at this annual feast of free events includes everybody who has an interest in all things startup. Their curiosity drives them to take time off to take a look at the future of (almost) every field of endeavor that the human mind can imagine. If you, like me, are lucky enough to learn about the event before the more than 50 “high octane” talks a day by seasoned entrepreneurs fill up, you can get first pick of the panels that interest you most. And even if they’re marked “filled” chances are, you can still get in. Once inside an event, you’ll be certain to be asked The Question at least once. But first you have to fill out your profile. Most of the details requested in the profile are easy to fill out and none push the privacy alarm. But this one: “What question would you like people to ask you?” has a catch. It slows me down a bit because it makes me think of who is asking the question. Is it a millennial? A boomer? A venture capitalist? A potential customer? Or is it someone who simply asked the question and doesn’t really have time to listen to the answer? We live...

From Gender to Traits: This 1-Minute Process Unlocks Personal Power

Can a GROUP learn a skill together, in 1-Minute. YES. As the inventor of the Gender Equality Tool, I have some insights about how transfer the SKILL of Inclusion to a workforce to create diversity in 1-MINUTE. How is this possible? Recently, I was invited to talk to a group of lawyers in Florida about this instant transfer of knowledge process. I gave a brief description of what happens when the focus shifts from gender and labels to traits and trait balancing. I described how a dynamic synergy can be created by a pairing of these traits. I also gave a brief overview of the 12 fields of science that were used in creating the tool. Then I asked for a volunteer from the audience to experience it in 1-MINUTE while everyone else WATCHED. The tool was displayed on a screen along with his dynamic interaction with it. A group discussion followed. Afterwards he wrote to say: “I think it has tremendous societal and intra company value.” Another responded: “I would recommend it 100% in order to put an end to office conflict.” IMAGINE a workplace where everyone wins! #Gender #Leadership #Training #Inclusion Alexia Parks, inventor of the Gender Equality Tool and G.E.T. Smarter Together 1-Minute Learning Series is Founder 10TRAITS.org  She is also an award-winning entrepreneur and UN Mentor to the Goldman Sachs/Fortune #1 Award Winner “Most Powerful Women in the World” (2014), A best selling author and speaker, Alexia is a recognized global expert on gender equality and leadership. She has appeared as an expert on national, international TV news, in TIME magazine, and formerly wrote for the national desk of...

Lessons from Parkland: How Shall We Live?

What are the lessons we as a nation are learning from Parkland? We are learning to listen to a new generation of young leaders – driven by violent circumstances – stand up and speak out for those who lack a voice: the young, the vulnerable, and the victims. What these young leaders are desperately seeking is empathetic, compassionate leaders who are strong enough to put an arm around someone who is suffering, not arm them with a weapon. In this search, they themselves are becoming the leaders they seek to find. What we are witnessing is the RISE of a new generation of empathetic, compassionate young leaders who speak to the HEART of what makes us human, what makes us care about each other and what gives us hope. “We will outlive you,” Parkland surviver David Hogg reminded members of the Florida State Legislature. In the face of pain, suffering, and rage, these students are asking lawmakers to reduce children’s RISK of death by an AK-15 shooter. Their raw courage fills us with hope for the future. It inspires us to ask ourselves: How shall we live? Free of Fear? Mindfully? In community, with empathy, care and compassion for ALL life on Earth? Led by children, we are the generation that is emerging from the cocoon of a dark fear into the light. We are learning to fly FREE of fear. What unites us is a common believe that we can also LIVE free of fear. We believe in human kindness and random acts of kindness. We see that our compassion for others acts like gravity to draw us together....

Leadership: How to Break Free of the Janus Effect

What is the Janus Effect? How can an understanding of it break us free of it? And perhaps most important: Why are men highly susceptible and women IMMUNE from it? The Janus Effect comes into play in business or politics the moment an alpha male leader makes a decision that is dead wrong. At this moment, none of the men he has hand-picked for his inner circle seem to be able to go against his wishes because, as his followers, they know exactly what he wants and expects. For those in his inner circle, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to go against the leader’s wishes even if he asks them point blank: “Give me your opinion!” Decisions made under the Janus Effect by an alpha male leader such as Trump are so powerful because the team members will constantly reinforce the alpha male leader’s mindset. They are unable to make a different decision because they believe that to go against their leader carries the risk of becoming ridiculed, ostracized or even exiled from the team. We need look no further back than our evolutionary history to a time when male hunting groups were led by a strong alpha male. In the same way that a wolf pack sticks together, members of an alpha male’s inner circle stick together. Their deepest fear is to be told point-blank by someone who is deadly serious: “John, You’re not being a team player!” The deeply internalized fear of the team turning against them, of being isolated or exiled, is too much to bear. So what’s the solution? In an article in The Hill, Westen, Ph.D....
The Janus Effect (“Follow the Leader”) vs Gender Equality

The Janus Effect (“Follow the Leader”) vs Gender Equality

Gender equality is surely a no-brainer. Apart from being simply “the right thing to do” in any civilized society, its practical benefits can be enormous. My report lays out how it could benefit our country and the world, in the political sphere. ” When gender equality becomes the “new normal” in corporations and Congress it will free us from the Janus Effect and return America to its role as a global leader. ” ~  Alexia Parks is an award-winning entrepreneur, UN Mentor, and Founder of 10TRAITS...