Stories about the bad work habits of the ethnic group the new team member belongs to begin to surface in my mind.
How will the team deal with a member who doesn’t pull his weight?
Why can’t the other new employee be assigned to our team? Maybe I can suggest that the new staff members be switched.
I feel depressed.
At lunch…
I go out for a walk. I see how my anxious feelings about X, whom I haven’t met yet, are weighing me down.
I peak under the veil of my anxiety. What is it that is making me so unhappy and worried? Am I prejudiced against this ethnic group? Where do these assumptions come from? Am I insecure about my skill as a team leader?
In the evening…
I sit quietly, reaching down through the noisy fears and protests of my mind to a silent place where I find the courage to meditate on my prejudice and face my feelings of insecurity.