Every day another business management or leadership book comes out and every day you are wondering how to best leverage your existing workforce.  We read about the top ten CEOs, what we “should” be doing to best manage our people, and we are overwhelmed with quotes and advice from all the top leadership ”gurus”. Just for a moment, let’s STOP.  Take a deep breath.  I want to talk to you about diversity.

DIVERSITY?  Are you kidding?  I have had my employees go through diversity training every year and we do it because we have to.  Employees find it boring. And it’s a waste of time.  And what’s it got to do with leadership?

Everything. I’m not talking about ethnic diversity.  That’s a given.  If you are still paying someone to come in and “teach” your people about ethnic diversity, you’re living in the stone ages.  Your employees know everything they need to know about working in an ethnically diverse workplace or they should be fired.  In general, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that in  many cases, front-line ranks know more about real diversity than senior leadership does. 

Now, more than ever, we need to think about every kind of diversity that exists.  If we are going to compete and lead companies (and other organizations: that includes non-profits) in today’s business world, our understanding of this topic needs to go way deeper than what’s in our training and policies and procedures manuals.

Here are just a few:

1. Generational Diversity   Recently, I was speaking with a colleague who mentioned Costco: Costco’s eldest employee is reported to be 81 and their youngest 16.  That’s 5 generations of employees, and they have warehouse locations in 8 countries.  They work with people all over the planet. A friend of mine mentioned his 91-year-old aunt, who works as a greeter at Walmart.  We now talk about Generation “U”, referring to the Baby Boomers in your workforce who are “unretired”, or unable to retire due to their economic situation.  As a leader, you must know how to get 5 completely different-thinking generations to work productively together and communicate in a way that will create sustainable relationships and productivity.

2. Cultural Diversity. I am not only referring to knowing when to kiss, bow, or shake hands when doing global business, and managing people across cultures and in developing countries, but I am referring to working with sub-cultures as well.  How well do you understand gay and lesbian cultures?  How about transgender issues? How will you help your CFO when he tells you he is in the process of becoming a she?  If you have tenured people on board, how do you help them adapt to constant change without becoming negative nellies?

3. Ability Diversity. I loathe the word “disabled” and much prefer “differently-abled”.  This category is not just about people in wheelchairs.  This is about people who may be functioning with a diagnosed mental illness, living with cancer, schizophrenia, bipolar depression, chronic pain (no sign of debilitation on the outside), PTSD, diabetes or arthritis.  It is also about a person whose face has been badly burned, is obese, or has a cleft palate. Many disabilities go unknown because of stigma. What happens when one of your senior executives gets handed an alcoholic drink at a business party of function and she is a recovering alcoholic with 2 months sobriety under her belt?  Who may be dealing with an eating disorder or sex addiction? The leader needs to be the most aware of and sensitive to these kinds of issues.  This takes high emotional intelliegence (EQ or EI), which, according to data, is lower among CEOs than other employees.

4. Behavioral Diversity.  Scenario: the comptroller is trying to balance the books late Friday afternoon. The sales manager is trying to drag her out of the office to partake in a “Kum-Baya” style TGIF party.  The comptroller wants to kill the office manager and snaps at her, and makes her cry.  The office manager doesn’t speak to the comptroller for 10 days after that. You know this type of behavior. Behavioral misunderstanding is the major reason for conflict in the workplace and the easiest to fix. A half a day of training can make a miracle happen.

5. Experiental Diversity. We all come to the table with experience from different backgrounds.  We had different parents and upbringing, we had different prior careers, and have rich knowledge from which others can benefit.  What do you know about your employees’ past work, college, military, career, geographic, and cultural experience?  What are their passions and hobbies?  Am I saying become their best friend?  NO.  I am saying ask more questions, listen more, and find out what’s behind the curtain that your team can bring to the table to help each other. I often find out that a company has people on board who have been doctors, pastors, peace corps workers, radio announcers, actresses, and journalists, and no one at the company knew because it wasn’t on their resume and they don’t get an opportunity to find out in the workplace.  How sad is that?  Why not leverage the talent you have and let people blossom by sharing their true selves?

Political Correctness. No, I am not an attorney, so you will have to use your judgement and your counsel’s advice.  Obviously, some of the things I am talking about do not get asked in the interview.  DUH.  Here’s the problem.  There’s the Law of PC versus the Spirit of PC.  The law of being ”PC” creates an attitude of having to obey rules that stifle what we can say or do. Leaders who shine at leveraging their human capital are truly able to love their people, and are genuinely interested in them as individuals. Over time, with appropriate leadership, employees begin to feel comfortable, if not empowered, to share their uniqueness and individual strengths, history, culture, and so on, with teammates and leadership.  This is a process, as all relationships are.  And it takes work.  And it needs to come from genuine caring, not personal agenda.   Then a culture grows, and you have witnessed this in certain companies, and found yourself saying “I wonder what they PAY to find people this good?” It’s usually not the money: it’s the relationship.  It works every time.

To learn more about true leadership and emotional intelligence, contact me. julia@mentaliron.com

Tags: Behaviors, Diversity, EI, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, Executive Coach, HR, Human Capital, Leadership, Motivators, Multi-Generational, Mutli-Generational

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