Disagreement is NOT Disrespect

One of the key tenets of being an IGNITE employee, or an "Igniter," is having an obligation and opportunity to Dissent. It is the very first bullet point in how our team defines Our Culture. In my opinion this is one of the most meaningful things about the culture of our IGNITE team, but it is often times the most difficult ingredients to master in any organization.

Our world and company is blessed to be extremely diverse. In Ignite's most recent Equal Employment Opportunity audit, our auditors were impressed to find that Ignite's team employs women at a rate of 16% above the industry standard and minorities 14% above our industry standard. Truly, this is because we only hire the right candidate for the job and we are able to accomplish this by building relationships with traditional universities, technical and trade schools, HBCUs, and other internship and mentorship programs.

More importantly, Ignite's diverse workforce will naturally create conflict in the workplace. This conflict is not simply because our teammates come from different backgrounds or means, it means our Ignite teammates have a different view of the impossible problems we are trying to solve; because of these varying views and opinions disagreement will naturally occur.

This is the most important part of leading any great organization and it is naturally always the most difficult. As a leader you must have the wherewithal and cultural understanding of all of your teammates in order to understand, and most importantly, respect their views and opinions. However, because you respect the person and respect their views, you as a leader do not have to agree with them, and in the end, you must make the hard business decisions needed for the rest of your team.

This is not easy, however, only a fool would surround themselves with a bunch of followers who have the exact same opinion as they do. Group Think is a real thing and there are far too many case studies to prove how detrimental that phenomena can be to any organization.

Lastly, in today's work environment salary is not always the most important thing. Employees and if your company is like Ignite - Employee Owners, want to believe in their mission. My teammates want to believe they are solving impossible problems for our clients: and they are. Overarching in their needs, employees and teammates want the respect to have their voices being heard and the opportunity to openly dissent with an idea, even from the Chairman and CEO, is a powerful tool in creating a cohesive workforce.

My teammates may not agree with every decision I must make as CEO, but if they are given the opportunity to dissent, it allows me the opportunity to provide reason and justification to the difficult decisions that must be made. This dissent actually opens communication with each other and creates a more fluid environment for Igniters to share their ideas with the rest of our collective team.

Dissent more. Have more opportunities. It’s really that simple, but then again, you are permitted to disagree.