White Males Only Hire White Males
But all leaders are guilty of hiring people that look like us
A year ago, I joined forces with two of my colleagues to interview potential candidates for our respective teams. All three of us are Vice Presidents at a big bank. We put out a posting and organized a panel interview.
Panel interviews can prevent bias in hiring, as long as each leader is an independent thinker, and doesn’t fall prey to groupthink. You also walk away with a more balanced view of the candidates — three heads are better than one.
All three of us leaders had unique viewpoints and worldviews that we freely expressed in the workplace. We had distinctive leadership styles. We were also diverse by gender and ethnicity. I am a South Asian woman and my fellow interviewers were a white woman and an Asian male. And so, we thought a panel interview was a great idea.
After each interview, we debriefed and talked about the candidates. And that’s when an interesting phenomenon emerged.
Each of us was naturally gravitating towards the candidate that looked most like us.
The candidate I liked best was a South Asian woman who was dismissed as overconfident and underprepared by my colleagues. They felt…
