Disrupting Your Own Bias: Recognising the Micro-Behaviours That Hold You Back

Ever walked out of a meeting and realised you only heard from the usual voices, or the person that rarely speaks up actually had the most valuable insight?

These moments aren’t just oversights, they’re clues to our unconscious biases at work.

Our bias isn’t always loud or obvious. Its the subtle, consistent choices we make, who we go to for ideas, who we trust with responsibility, or even whose opinion we naturally validate. These show up as micro-behaviours, small actions or patterns that add up and send big messages over time.

What Are Micro-Behaviours?

Micro behaviours can look like:

• Interrupting certain people more than others,
• Smiling or making eye contact more with people we relate to,
• Offering stretch tasks to the same group repeatedly.

Individually they seem harmless, but put them together and they can shape someone’s entire experience of being on your team.

What Are Micro-Behaviours, and Why Do They Matter So Much?

Micro-behaviours are the small, subtle actions or responses we show in daily interactions, often unconsciously. They are the subtle things we do that can either include or exclude others. They’re shaped by our unconscious beliefs; things we might not even be aware we think.  They're things like who you make eye contact with when ideas are shared, who you interrupt or talk over, whose ideas you reinforce or repeat (and whose you ignore) or who you might check in with after a tough meeting, and who you assume is “fine”.

Each behaviour on its own might seem insignificant. But over time, they accumulate into a strong signal about who is valued and who is not.

These signals matter, because our brain is always scanning for social cues about status, safety, and belonging.

The Neuroscience Behind Micro-Behaviours

The brain’s threat-detection system, particularly our amygdala, is finely tuned to interpret micro-cues in social situations. Even small perceived slights can trigger a "social threat" response, activating stress pathways, sending us into fight, flight, or freeze mode, shrinking our cognitive resources.

In contrast, when people experience micro-affirmations, eye contact, encouragement, curiosity, active listening, it activates our reward centres in the brain, increasing dopamine and promoting trust, motivation, and openness.

Research shows that these moment-to-moment interactions have measurable impact on:

• Engagement: People are more likely to speak up when they feel seen and heard,
• Performance: Feeling excluded, even subtly, can reduce problem-solving ability and creativity, 
• Retention: Repeated experiences of being overlooked erode motivation and increase the desire to disengage or leave.

All of the things that we as leaders are working on.

So while micro-behaviours may seem small to the person delivering them, they land loud for the person on the receiving end, especially if they confirm a pattern of exclusion.

So how do you interrupt these patterns in real time, not just in theory? 

 Let’s go beyond reflection and into real disruption.

Because disruption means interrupting the patterns you don’t even realise you’re repeating. It’s about creating enough awareness, and enough courage, to choose a different response in the moment, not just in hindsight.

1. Flip Your Defaults

Deliberately reverse your ‘go-to’ choices. When assigning projects, asking for input, or forming a team, challenge your usual patterns. 

Ask yourself: Who is my go to person?   Who haven’t I thought of? 

Then intentionally choose someone out of the box. Even if it feels, this small shift can reveal your unconscious bias and broaden your team’s potential.

2. Turn Team Meetings into “Bias Interrupt Labs”

Pick one meeting a month and turn it into a bias lab. Let the team know the goal is to notice bias in the moment, who gets heard, who gets talked over, whose ideas get traction. At the end of the meeting, do a quick debrief: did we include a range of voices, what patterns did we notice, what could we do differently next time?

Use everyday routines and turn them into awareness and change. Bias gets surfaced while it’s happening, not just after on reflection.

3. Use “Red Flags” for Micro-Behaviour Coaching

Create shared, non-threatening language in your team to call out unconscious patterns. Phrases like:

• “Voice check” if someone hasn’t had a chance to speak,
• “Bias alert” if a decision seems to reflect assumptions or is based on previous experience rather than the opportunity right now,
• “Air-time audit”, if one person or group is dominating the space.

It gives your team permission to hold each other (and you) accountable, in a way that’s respectful and constructive.

4. Build a ‘Blind Spot Bank’

Set up an anonymous space for your team to share stories about times they felt excluded, overlooked, or stereotyped. These stories are powerful; they reveal patterns we can’t see from our position.

Share in a team session, then ask:

• What behaviours contributed to that?
• How might we be doing this unintentionally?
• What do we want to change?

This creates a culture of shared learning and shifts the conversation from “I don’t think I’m biased” to “How might I be, without realising?”

Disrupting bias is about pattern recognition. It’s not just about awareness, it’s about taking action. And the more you make it part of how you lead, visible, embedded, and normal, the more your team will embrace it.

Next time you catch yourself making a snap judgement or going to your ‘usual’ person, pause and ask:
What if this is a moment to interrupt the pattern, and open the door to something better?