BEHAVIORAL DIVERSITY
Yesterday I was on a conference call with Dr. Izzy Justice, one of the global gurus on the topic of emotional intelligence (EQ). He had two expert executives, Leticia Knowles, of American Express, and Steve Larson, of Wells Fargo, (formerly Wachovia), to share their expertise in how to make our workplaces more emotionally safe. This topic strikes a powerful chord with me, being a senior executive coach. Often I work privately with executives who are not necessarily the most emotionally safe people to be around. Often the executive has no clue that people walk on eggshells around her, jump at the sound of her voice, and expect ranting and raving whenever an issue comes up. This does not promote feelings of safety, or invite employees to be honest and forthcoming with ideas, thoughts, needs, and questions. Sometimes employees will actually avoid the person because he is so intimidating. I have lots of experience with this issues, as I WAS one of those people once upon a time. Back in the day when I was busy reading Peter Drucker books and bossing people around.
As the telephone discussion circled around emotional intelligence, active listening, appropriate communication, and so forth, the word diversity popped up. Do you know how we humans put things into stereotypical boxes so that our minds stay orderly? Well, I don’t think of myself as a diversity coach, and diversity doesn’t seem to come up much in my work, for some reason. When I do run into diversity issues, it is usually related to a legal issue of some kind, and I am calling in an HR or legal expert, since it’s not my domain. At least that’s what I’ve been thinking so far. For instance, in this month’s Human Resource Executive (Sept 2 issue), there are three stories I would put in the diversity “category”:
- A settlement by a storage facility company of $95K involving a disfigured worker who was wrongfully fired.
- A $75K settlement (plus legal fees) paid by the Pennsylvania DOT to a Nigerian- born engineer for racial bias.
- A class-action lawsuit against United Airlines charging the airline with disability bias.
Regarding my stereotype of diversity categories, I think of things like pregnant women at work, age discrimination, sexual harassment, gay and lesbian issues, THAT sort of thing.
So, I wasn’t really thinking of our emotional intelligence conversation as a diversity issue. KAWAMMMM! It hit me over the head like a board. This whole topic IS a diversity issue. It’s about our behavioral differences and our lack of ability to understand how other people feel in certain circumstances. Behavioral diversity. That’s what I do….test for, and work to increase emotional intelligence, so that people can collaborate, get on the same page of the hymnal, and start plugging into a team together to drive revenue! Holy Smoke…..I’m a diversity leadership coach! I just never realized it.
Dr. Justice quoted a recent study that revealed people rank rank their workplace as more “unsafe” than a bar! That is sad.
So, what’s the bottom line here? We have a lot of employees who do not feel emotionally safe. They report feeling as if they have to be “on guard” . We have senior executives who are busy, unplugged and in denial that they have any part in it.
This demands emotional intelligence training. But I have decided not to call it that anymore, because it resonates more powerfully when I say “Your company leadership needs (Behavioral) Diversity Training”. The more our influential leaders understand different types of workplace behaviors and values, the more they can stay close and engaged with the front-line workers, the more they practice active listening, the more they can crawl into their employees’ shoes. Then, and only then, will we have the kind of deeper understanding that will lead us away from emotionally abusive behavior, and into providing a nurturing environment for our workers. The more your employees feel safe, valued and nurtured, the more productive they will become, and the more profitable we will be. Don’t say you don’t have time. You can’t afford not to. Your bottom line starts with the behavior at the top.
Copyright 2009 Julia Marrocco All rights reserved
Tags: Behavioral Diversity, Diversity, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Safety, Leadership, Workplace Environment
