5 Executive Blindspots That Sabotage Their DEI Success (part 1 of 5)

Orienting too strongly towards “knowing” versus “learning” 

One of the conditions for success & innovation in any company or role is having the breathing room to learn. Vishen Lakhiani, CEO of Midvalley, sets the expectation that each employee (including him) should be spending 4-hours per week learning. This is part of their work time, not the thing they do after work. Kevin Hale, CEO & founder of Woofoo, required that every software engineer on his team spend one day per week answering customer support calls. Why would he pay high-salary engineers to answer the phones? Because it helped them learn, stay close to customer issues, and fix the most pressing issues quickly. Learning had a direct impact on their ability to innovate. They were profitable within months of bringing their product to market, and he chalks part of their rapid success up to the learning mindset that permeated the culture.

Executives sometimes forget to do their own learning. They learn what they need to learn to understand the industry & competitive landscape. They learn what they need to learn to demonstrate strong financial acumen. They learn how to lead people effectively. They are often strong in public speaking & business development because they have done their 10,000 hours of practice (as Malcolm Gladwell says). They understand the science or the technology that is at the heart of their business. They learn these things because they cannot survive without knowing them. 

Executives must treat DEI with the same level of importance and urgency if they want to be successful in this arena. 

As the Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.” I think many of us feel overwhelmed by the amount of learning we have to do in order to get ourselves up to speed on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion--issues related to race, gender, LBGTQ+, visible & invisible disabilities, etc etc etc. There is A LOT that we are supposed to know these days in order to be effective human beings and leaders. But, slow and steady wins the race. My encouragement is to commit a certain amount of time to learn, every week. Before you know it, your level of acumen will be transformed—and so will your relationships and company culture!

I had a leader ask me the other day, How am I supposed to balance learning with leading? How would you coach me on that, Mitch? We talked about this for some time, but for the purposes of this article, I will bottom line it for you. It is important for people to see their leaders learning. Learning is part of leading. 

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, is a great example of this. Microsoft was known for being pretty cutthroat, prior to the promotion of Satya in 2014. Being “right” was deeply valued & rewarded, and it was not uncommon to see people pounding their fists on the table to get their point across. It is well documented that this culture grew in the early days of MS, under the leadership of Bill Gates, and continued to some degree through the Steve Balmer era. When Satya came in, he brought with him an emphasis on “Growth Mindset.” He did not simply tell others that they needed a growth mindset, he demonstrated it himself. Satya was on stage as a panelist at the biggest women-in-tech event, the Grace Hopper Conference, when he inadvertently showed his ignorance and bias, as related to women asking for raises. He misspoke. It was an innocent but obvious blunder (to the many women in the room), and his comments immediately went viral. Exposed and vulnerable, Satya had a choice. Deny or admit. He talks about going home to his daughter who scolded him for his ignorance. Instead of claiming that others “misunderstood” or that he “wasn’t that kind of guy,” he saw an opportunity to live into his purported commitment to growth mindset. He admitted he had made a mistake, and used the experience to grow and teach others—publicly. The result? The collective hearts of women across the world opened to Satya. Instead of his error being a stain on his record or a chink in his armor, he was viewed as brave and vulnerable. 

Come back for part two tomorrow...

Mitch Shepard is an author, speaker, behavioral scientist, and the CEO & Founder of HUMiN Inc — a company dedicated to building DEI into the DNA of company culture. HUMiN helps companies measure and improve their diversity intelligence, from top to bottom, so they can accelerate their talent brand, make better decisions, innovate, and improve overall team performance. HUMiN is about unleashing human potential & building the habits & behaviors of inclusion.

Visit www.humininc.com to learn more and join our mailing list.