Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? – It’s really all about Respect and Trust

In an age where diversity, inclusion and employee retention are top of mind, I recalled a recent vendor conversation. The vendor complimented the team, spoke about the culture and the amount of work that they had taken on. He wanted to know the background on the team such as how long they had worked together and how the team dynamic had developed. The vendor complimented the team for completing 3 years’ worth of work in just over a year.

Over my career, I have had the same conversation several times. People are often surprised to learn that some team members have worked for me at 2, 3, or 4 different organizations. The comment is always the same, something like, “that really speaks to your ability as a leader.” While I understand the comment and appreciate the sentiment, it is really a reflection of an environment based on mutual respect and trust.

Three years of work in a compressed time frame is not uncommon for my teams. They have accomplished the impossible! Need a Dynamics Sales CRM implemented in 12 weeks? We have done that. Need to upgrade an electronic health record system, while adding in new functionality and creating the basis for data driven decisions in 5 months? Done. Implement a Revenue Cycle Management system in 4 months? We did it in 3. Need 250,000 lines of data migrated into a new system? Completed in 6 weeks. Need the entire IT infrastructure updated, modernized, and supported? Completed in 7 months for sixteen nationwide locations while cutting costs by 33%. These are a few of the projects that were supposed to take multiple months or even years, but we have accomplished them in record time.

Organizational management is asking for more results, faster turnarounds, higher efficiencies, and more achievements with less resources. How does an IT leader build a high performing team that consistently exceeds expectations while meeting these demands? How do you promote loyalty and reduce turnover? How do you create an environment where people thrive and want to follow you? Why do my teams consistently meet or beat timelines?

One answer is, we never stop learning. This approach allows people to view every situation as an opportunity to learn both from themselves as well as from others. My career has taken me though many industries and many organizational cultures, both positive and negative. This presented opportunities to observe what the team liked, disliked, motivated them, challenged or defeated them, what created more clarity and focus, what to emulate and what to avoid. All of this time and experience together, I learned a lot about myself. All these projects and interactions helped me identify my strengths, my weaknesses, and I learned that any personal trait that any of us possess can be both beneficial and detrimental at the same time. Knowing who I am and having the vulnerability to let my team see my authentic self has been a crucial part of my leadership success.

While many leaders believe that they must strive for perfection and have all the answers. The critical difference for me is the belief that perfection does not exist. It is not possible to have all the answers. Organizations are inherently complex what that really means is that there are almost never any right or wrong answers. In complex environments we are always working to nudge the system forward in a positive direction. With this complexity we are always stronger working together, no one of us has a completely accurate vision of reality but collectively, we almost certainly do.

My goal is always to do what is best for the organization. That means embracing my strengths and weaknesses and allowing others to compliment my skills. I am visionary, strategic, risk-oriented, and driven but I do not have an “off button” and my team is ready to “build the plane while flying”. The awareness that these behaviors need to be balanced is key. The highly detailed, risk adverse team members are asked to review ideas and often temper my enthusiasm giving a different perspective and providing additional information. My team members are experts in their respective areas and their insights, guidance, and opinions are valued. Each of them has skillsets that are employed in different situations depending on what is needed at the time. This level of collaboration, transparency and trust is not only encouraged, it is key to our success.

Leaders need to be aware that the team will not be willing to engage in these kinds of behaviors if they do not trust their leader. Similarly teams cannot achieve these kinds of results if their leader doesn’t demonstrate these principles every day. Leaders must take time to learn and know their team. I know my team as people, together we have been through births, deaths, weddings, graduations, injuries, transplants, and other significant events. Learning who your team members are and what motivates them is extremely important. Do they love learning? Are they good with people? Are they highly detailed? Are they drivers? Does their current role fit their skillset? If not, how do we change the role to take advantage of each of our team members particular strengths? It does not matter what generation the team members are part of; whether they are Baby Boomers through Gen Z. It does not matter what abilities or challenges they may possess. It does not matter what their heritage, race or ethnicity is because all are welcomed and we all belong on our team. This leads to a very inclusive, diverse, engaged, and ultimately, a high performing team.

Many leaders who read this may disagree with me or believe that it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish this type of relationship with a larger team. I respect that opinion. However, I believe that if you understand your team, know who they are, support their growth, encourage their development, and foster an environment where they can be themselves, you will gain their trust and respect, resulting in success. So, bring on the transformational initiatives, the disruptive technologies, the “impossible” projects with the tightest timelines – my team is ready. Together we will do remarkable things!