Nowadays, on the Internet, in newspapers, books and magazines, we can find the latest trends in management and leadership. Many authors focus their articles discussing the key elements of being a good manager. Throughout my experience as a student in the module "Thinking about thinking" at the MBA, I learned a new dimension of being a leader. Now, I feel I have acquired improved decision making skills and balanced management approaches by being aware of the four factors that affect how we think: social identity, emotions, unconscious and certainty.
How my social identity has biased my decisions
In 2009, I was hired by Cardenas Lawyers (CL) as a Marketing and Communications Manager. The Firm created this position based on the recommendation of an external advisor. The consultants recommended that the firm hire a person whose responsibilities would include ensuring that all customer communication is consistent and uniform.
Before this job, I worked for three years as a Marketing Manager at a consultant company in international business.
Based on my previous experience in marketing, I thought that I understood the expectations of my new position at CL. According to the model of Peter Senge (1994), I quickly ascended the ladder of inference and the element that mostly affected my decision-making process was my personal social identity with education and training in marketing. As I explain below, two examples come to mind of how this social identity influenced my actions.
Four people were in the department of marketing at the consulting firm: a manager and three analysts (technology, design and administrative). I decided that CL needed a team similar to the group I had at my previous job. I concluded that professional service firms likely had similar needs. Having the approval of the partners, I decided to look for a person in...