Be Aware of Self-Serving Bias in The Workplace

     In social life, we may find people who exaggeratedly praise themselves when they are successful and tend to blame circumstances or other people when they fail. In psychology, it is called self-serving bias.

     Self-serving bias is a process of perception or cognition that is biased or distorted due to the tendency to maintain and strengthen self-esteem.

     Self-serving bias can invade your workplace and leads to dangerous problems. In worst cases, workers with self-serving bias in the workplace will undermine their self-perception, the ability to evaluate every issue clearly, and cause hostility towards others.

     In the workplace, self-serving bias is found in both the hiring and termination process. People tend to attribute their characteristics to the reasons they are hired and blame external factors when they are terminated.

     Self-serving bias in the workplace is also an obstacle to productivity. The self-serving bias will trouble the company’s project. The reason is, people with self-serving bias cannot take responsibility and evaluate the situation somewhat. When there are problems in project execution, she will blame others even though she is one of the problem’s causes.

     Here are some tips for everyone in the workplace to avoid self-serving bias:

•  Give credits to others when you are successful

When you succeed, try to remember the people behind your success. Thank them, as your success is also because of their contribution. Giving appreciation to other people who have helped you will also motivate them to be better, build better relationships, and keep your ego under check.

2. Give yourself an extra time to evaluate the results of your work

     When you get unpleasant results from work, you naturally will think to find the rationalization. Try to think about the failure longer, sort the events and actions you have taken, then finally, you will be able to realize what you lack.

     Keep in your mind that making mistakes is normal. If you still deny your failure, you will find it harder to identify and admit your mistakes. Otherwise, your mind will always try to defend what you have done and what you did wrong.  This habit will also make it more difficult to find solutions to mistakes that have been made. 

3. Realize that you are not perfect

     You have to realize that no one is perfect, and so you are. One day you will deal with mistakes and failures. But first, you must learn the value of failure and the responsibility to fix it. Then you will never easily blame other factors just to satisfy your ego.