CIICPD 2023

raises the managers’ ability of metacognitive and meta-behavioural processing, which helps them improve the quality of their leadership practice. 3.2.2 Critical Incident 2: Halo effect The next incident shows that strong leadership skills also include the ability to withstand cognitive biases based on the halo effect. Making independent judgements without yielding to both personal biases as well as influence from the surrounding environments is the theme of the following story. A team leader, upon starting his new job with the company, was provided with a negative evaluation of some of the members of his new team from other company colleagues: I have been a coordinator of the team for only three months, so everything is in fact very new to me. And of course, I talked with my bosses and my colleagues, and I was warned by the person I report to – you have two persons there who kind of deviate from the standard or how to express that. Regardless of receiving negative feedback, the manager’s first stand on this incident was to resist the influence of others’ judgements about his new employees. In the following narration, he provided the rationale behind his decision as well as the experience he built with his approach: I tried to avoid the prejudices about the people, have a clear start. It very much helped me, that I had no prejudices about the people, I simply decided to try to approach them equally. And I think that in both cases it paid off and worked, that I made my own opinion about them. I started to work my way and practically it does not correspond at all with what I was warned about, at least so far. The manager’s experience described in this part shows the importance of unbiased attitudes toward people when managing diverse teams. An open-minded, individual approach to employees then allows for utilising their full potential. Independent decision-making and an objective approach to the manager’s employees is also apparent from the metacognitive and meta-behavioural re-evaluation of the situation that follows. In the concluding part of the story, the manager first sought an understanding of the aforementioned employee’s personality and needs. Then, upon being addressed by one of the employees, he again confirmed an impartial and empathetic approach: It is probably the people’s style. They may have been a bit afraid of what I learned about their history from others. When we had a problem with one of the employees in the beginning, we addressed it openly. He came with the problem on his own, but I indicated to him that for me, we start together from scratch. I do not want to occupy myself with any history. Even though the core of the employee’s problem indicated in this story was not explicitly explained in the manager’s words, by pointing out his preference to focus on momentary experiences made while refusing to deal with historical issues, the manager demonstrated an ability to form his own judgements while resisting biased decisions and views of others. What is more, he also proved strong interpersonal skills, firm attitudes and self-confidence when managing a diverse team, an ability that is a prerequisite to modern leadership in an interconnected world.

100