Business leaders are speaking out on racial justice. Now the hard work begins

This is Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. With protests sweeping the country over the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, we’ll talk about what needs to change to make our workplaces more equitable moving forward. For more on this conversation, join us LIVE here.

The day after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida in February 2012 marks a vivid memory for author Minda Harts.

She stepped into her office in Los Angeles, as the story of an unarmed black teenager killed by a white policeman dominated the news cycle. And yet, not a single one of Hart’s colleagues — not even her boss — spoke to her about the death as she went about her day. 

“It's really tough when we're asked to bring our authentic selves to work and nobody recognizes us and our black pain inside the workplace,” Harts told me earlier this week in a live conversation. “We have to address those issues.”

Eight years later, countless workers of color feel helpless as they are asked to go to work and not acknowledge the widespread protests against police killings of black Americans. Yet as we watch these acts of defiance play out amid a global pandemic, executives across industries are speaking out in unprecedented fashion.

Hundreds of CEOs of prominent companies — United Airlines, Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company), Marriott and Citigroup, to name a few — have posted publicly not just in support of the protests, but in strong opposition toward the racism that pervades across the U.S. 

The public outcry from leaders in the business community could signal a turning point for diversity and inclusion efforts.

“Amidst a global pandemic, the whole world is sort of breathing the same breath for the first time,” Harvard Business School professor and inclusion expert Frances Frei told me. “Somehow, that has made us finally react with some appropriateness to the murdering of someone because of the color of their skin.” 

Historically, executives have relied on the business case for diversity: More diverse teams yield better results. But in the wake of the most recent protests, more corporate figures are focusing on the moral case: Diverse teams are best not just for shareholders, but for customers, suppliers and communities as well. 

“We cannot stay silent in the face of racial injustice,” wrote Paypal CEO Dan Schulman on LinkedIn. “We all have a responsibility to speak out against racism and injustice when and where we see it,” wrote Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen. “We stand in solidarity against racism and for racial justice,” wrote Richard Branson of Virgin Group. 

These appeals go far beyond the bottom line. 

“It requires all leaders to reflect on their values and say, ‘What kind of world do we want to create? And what is my role as a leader in creating that world, both within my organization, but also in the society more broadly?’” said Laura Morgan Roberts, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who has written extensively on this topic. 

Changing corporate rhetoric around diversity and inclusion has the potential to create the workplaces that leaders have longed to talk about but have failed to achieve. In the U.S., just 8% of managers and 3.8% of CEOs are black. By promoting real conversations about race, executives are opening the door to rethinking diversity and inclusion programs and better manage the career progress of black professionals on every rung of the corporate ladder. 

Of course, Roberts and other experts say leaders must go further than a public post in support of this cause. Executives will have to do something many are not familiar with: Be comfortable making mistakes. Many white workers would rather remain silent for fear that they will say something wrong related to race and offend their colleagues. But silence often results in the very offense a white colleague may have been trying to avoid, said Microsoft director of diversity, inclusion and events Megan Carpenter.

“It signifies you don't know what is harming me and therefore you don't value me,” she said. “The opportunity is to get comfortable with getting it wrong. Part of that is you're going to make mistakes.” 

For this to happen, corporate America will need to reconsider its thinking about leadership overall, said Roberts.

“The new take on leadership needs to address these 21st century issues,” said Roberts. “The leader [needs to be] an expert in learning and have the humility and wisdom to be able to listen and to learn.” 

For more thoughts from corporate leaders on the protests across the country, I encourage you to check out the conversations here, here and here. 

What topics do you want to discuss next time? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether