How Do You See Diversity?

　　As a manager, Tiffany is responsible forinterviewing applicants for some of the positions with her company .During oneinterview, she noticed that the candidate never made direct eye contact. Shewas puzzled and somewhat disappointed because she liked the individualotherwise.

　　He had a perfect resume and gave goodresponses to her questions, but the fact that he never looked her in the eyesaid “untrustworthy,” so she decided to offer the job to her second choice.

　　“It wasn’t untilI attended a diversity workshop that I realized the person we passed over wasthe perfect person,” Tiffany confesses. What she hadn’t known at the time ofthe interview was that the candidate’s “different”

　　behavior was simply a culturalmisunderstanding . He was an Asian-American raised in a household where respectfor those in authority was shown by averting(避开) your eyes.

　　“I was justthrown off by the lack of ye contact; not realizing it was cultural,” Tiffanysays. “I missed out ,but will not miss that opportunity again.”

　　Many of us have had similar encounters withbehaviors we perceive as different. As the world becomes smaller and ourworkplaces more diverse, it is becoming essential to expand our under-standingof others and to reexamine some of our false assumptions .

　　Hire Advantage

　　At a time when hiring qualified people isbecoming more difficult ,employers who can eliminate invalid biases(偏爱) from the process have a distinctadvantage .My company, Mindsets LLC ,helps organizations and individuals seetheir own blind spots . A real estate recruiter we worked with illustrates thepositive difference such training can make .

　　“During myMindsets coaching session ,I was taught how to recruit a diversified workforce.I recruited people from different cultures and skill sets .The agents were ableto utilize their full potential and experiences to build up the company .Whenthe real estate market began to change, it was because we had a diverse agentpool that we were able to stay in the real estate market much longer thanothers in the same profession.”

　　Blinded by Gender

　　Dale is an account executive who attendedone of my workshops on supervising a diverse workforce . “Through one of thesessions ,I discovered my personal bias ,” he recalls . “I learned I had notbeen looking at a person as a whole person , and being open to differences .”In his case , the blindness was not about culture but rather gender.

　　“I had amanagement position open in my department ;and the two finalists were a man anda woman . Had I not attended this workshop , I would have automatically assumedthe man was the best candidate because the position required quite a bit ofextensive travel . My reasoning would have been that even though bothcandidates were great and could have been successful in the position , I assumedthe woman would have wanted to be home with her children and not travel.”Dale’s assumptions are another example of the well-intentioned but incorrectthinking that limits an organization’s ability to tap into the full potentialof a diverse workforce.

　　“I learnedfrom the class that instead of imposing my gender biases into the situation , Ineeded to present the full range of duties, responsibilities and expectationsto all candidates and allow them to make an informed decision .” Dale creditsthe workshop , “because it helped me make decisions based on fairness .”

　　Year of the Know-It-All

　　Doug is another supervisor who attended oneof my workshops .He recalls a major lesson learned from his own employee.

　　“One of mymost embarrassing moments was when I had a Chinese-American employee put in arequest to take time off to celebrate Chinese New Year . In my ignorance , Iassumed he had his dates wrong , as the first of January had just passed . WhenI advised him of this , I gave him a long talking-to about turning in requestsearly with the proper dates .

　　“He patientlywaited , then when I was done , he said he would like Chinese New Year did notbegin January first , and that Chinese New Year ,which is tied to the lunarcycle ,is one of the most celebrated holidays on the Chinese calendar .Needless to say , I felt very embarrassed in assuming he had his dates mixed up. But I learned a great deal about assumptions , and that the timing ofholidays varies considerably from culture to culture .

                      （实习编辑：王晓晓）