Bias, what bias?

I want to talk about something I call the ‘silent career killer’. It isn’t a lack of skill, or a lack of ambition, or even a lack of resources. It’s something far more subtle, and far more dangerous because most of the people who suffer from it have no idea they’re doing it.

I’m talking about the failure of managers to see past their own personal filters. The failure to lead with curiosity instead of certainty. I’m talking about the manager who has already made up their mind.

We all have filters. They’re mental shortcuts, built from our experiences, our biases, and our relationships. They help us make sense of a complicated world. But for a manager, for a leader, those same filters can become blinders. When a manager looks at an employee, a project, or a problem through a filter of preconceived notions, they stop seeing what’s actually there. They only see what their filter allows them to see.

And the damage this causes is immeasurable. It stifles innovation, it destroys morale, and it quietly pushes your best people out the door.

Let me tell you a story from my own career.

A few years back, a position opened up in my department. It was a significant step up—more responsibility, a chance to lead a new initiative I was passionate about. I was qualified, I had a great track record, and I had put in the work. I spent days updating my resume, documenting my achievements with concrete data, and preparing a detailed plan for what I would bring to the role. I was ready. I was excited.

I walked into the interview, and the hiring manager—someone I’d worked with for years, someone I respected—smiled at me from across the table. She motioned for me to sit down and said, with a little laugh, "Honestly, I haven't even read your resume. I know you, we're good."

She meant it as a compliment. A joke. A way of saying, "You're a known quantity, you're one of us."

But in that moment, the air went out of the room for me. It felt like a punch to the gut. All that preparation, all those late nights quantifying my successes, all the value I had carefully laid out on paper—it was dismissed with a wave of her hand.

What she was really saying was, "My personal, informal opinion of you is more important than the professional case you've prepared. The 'you' that exists in my head is the only one I'm interviewing today."

In that single, thoughtless comment, she told me that the decision had already been made. My performance in that interview was irrelevant. My ideas for the new role were irrelevant. The professional I was, and the professional I was trying to become, had been rendered invisible.

I felt completely insulted. And more than that, I was deeply disheartened. Because I realized that I wasn't being evaluated for the role; I was being measured against the box she had already put me in.

I didn't get the job. And honestly, by the end of that meeting, I didn't want it anymore. Not under her. That feeling of being unseen, of being prejudged, was so profoundly demotivating that it fundamentally changed how I saw her and the company.

They completely demotivated an employee that day because a manager chose the comfort of her own filter over the responsibility of genuine leadership.

This happens every day in a thousand different ways. It’s the manager who thinks, "John is a quiet guy, so he probably wouldn't be a good public speaker," without ever asking him. It’s the leader who thinks, "Sarah is great at data analysis, so let's keep her there," without ever exploring her passion for creative strategy.

They’ve already made up their mind. They stop asking questions because they believe they already have the answers. And in doing so, they put a ceiling on their people’s potential and, ultimately, on their team’s success.

So, what’s the solution? It’s simple to say, but incredibly difficult to practice: Lead with deliberate ignorance.

Approach every conversation, every performance review, every interview as if you know nothing. Take off the filter. Put aside your history and your assumptions.

• Read the resume.
• Listen to the project pitch, even if you think you know a better way.
• Ask the quiet person for their opinion, and then actually listen to the answer.

Challenge your own certainty. The most powerful question a leader can ask is not "What do I know?" but "What might I be missing?"

Your job as a manager is not to confirm what you already believe. It's to discover the potential you never knew existed. Don't let your personal filters become the reason your best people walk out the door.