Intel Sports Teams up with Hashtag Sports to Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion

Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work at several companies with distinct cultures. In the process, I was exposed to some outstanding leadership—those who inspired me to dream more, do more, and become more. What I learned was that great leaders are acutely aware that their responsibility is to foster a culture where every employee can thrive.

Recently, I came across research from the University of Michigan conducted by Professor Gretchen Spreitzer, which highlighted that thriving employees not only have more positive individual outcomes, they also help their organizations better achieve goals.

In today’s corporate world, it is no longer enough for a leader to meet financial expectations and flawlessly execute on strategy. Rather, a great leader must also focus on employees. This is why I am not surprised that in many recent leadership reports they emphasize that great leaders are individuals who emphasize a focus on their employees. “Focusing on employees” seems like a broad concept, yet a research project, code -named Project Aristotle, revealed a vital trait in high performing teams. The importance of psychological safety. In the report, psychological safety was described as a space where “teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.”

Establishing psychological safety within an organization yields meaningful results. Gallup published data revealing that just three in ten U.S. workers strongly agree that their opinions seem to count at work. However, by moving that ratio to six in ten employees, organizations could realize a 27% reduction in turnover and a 12% increase in productivity. Creating a psychologically safe space for employees seems like an important and achievable goal.

Yet, I would argue that instituting psychological safety isn’t enough. What good is psychological safety if it is a product of an office of like-minded individuals who share similar solutions to complex problems? Rather, I suggest that an organization needs to have both psychological safety and diversity to thrive. At Intel, I have seen the benefits of a diverse and inclusive organization. Sitting in a room with diverse backgrounds and experiences and listening to the various ideas has led to more creativity and ingenuity. 

It is with this understanding many of us allocate a portion of our time to psychological safety, diversity and inclusion to establish and nurture a thriving organization. I have seen the results firsthand. Many team members have been the subjects published in case studies for leading several firsts, exceeding business results, growing businesses and closing deals that many have thought could never have been done.

Many leaders have recognized that focusing on their immediate team and sphere of influence is not enough. Many are helping others and making themselves available both inside, within and outside the company walls, in addition to creating programs to catalyze the diversity within organizations.

Understanding the value of psychological safety and diversity of perspectives, my team decided to establish a program called Women of Intel Sports. The goal of the program is simple: to advance women leaders in a traditionally triple male world: sports, media and entertainment.

First, we wanted the women within Intel Sports to know that they had a safe harbor. A space where they can discuss anything with a leader in the organization. We would not judge but listen and provide advice. Basically, it’s an open door mentoring program that embraces psychological safety. Early in my career, I didn’t have access to senior mentors and had many instances where I could have benefited from speaking to a female leader who would actively listen, provide practical advice and offer support. One of these instances was when a male executive told me I would never make it up the ranks not because of my capability but because of my XX chromosomes. The day he told me I wouldn’t make it to the top, I went home and played out what to do next. Perhaps I was too na?ve or perhaps too courageous, I decided to resign the next day. Could I have benefited from an open door mentor that fostered and embraced psychological safety? Yes. And now as I reflect back, if I could have spoken to someone within senior ranks, I possibly could have begun to shift their mindset that a woman can surely smash the glass ceiling with her red suede pumps and XX chromosomes.

Second, women are notoriously known for not prioritizing professional networking. There have been several research studies, including the recent November 2018 study in the journal Human Relations, that highlight why women struggle with networking. Below are just a few of the reasons:

1)     Women rush home after hours to pick up their second shift.

2)     Women focus on establishing deep connections versus broad connections. In other words, we try to “best friend” every connection and that simply doesn’t scale.

3)     Women are concerned that networking with men could be misconstrued.

4)     Women simply do not focus on the immediate ask.

I see these reasons play out among my own team and understand that these issues won’t be resolved if women are not part of the larger conversation and networked in.

Finally, the Women of Intel Sports program is intended to remind every employee in our organization, and the industry at large, that we must address the lack of diversity in sports. Similar to the entertainment industry, the sports industry influences the broader narrative in our society. When women are involved in sports, they became a larger part of the cultural narrative. One timely example, particularly given their recent outstanding performance, is the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team. This talented group of female athletes is captured in the documentary Dare to Dream, inspiring countless young women to dream big athletically. Another favorite example is Jessica Mendoza, a former professional fastpitch softball player, who was hired by ESPN in 2016 to broadcast baseball games and was most recently hired in an advisory role with the New York Mets. Having female representation in sports addresses a long-standing deficit of half of the population.

Thus, this year Women of Intel Sports, has teamed up with Hashtag Sports, a global platform for athletes, executives and influencers to deliver inspirational and actionable insights to the sports ecosystem. The goal is to promote diversity and inclusion and to celebrate those individuals who are enabling everyone to get in the game. This year we are excited to acknowledge Renée Tirado, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the MLB. Renée is relentless about ensuring we see diversity at the top of the ranks by focusing her efforts on the MLB fellowship pipeline program. She understands that making it to the top is easier when you’ve been offered opportunities from the very beginning, and opportunities to excel in any organization should be available to a diverse range of candidates.

We’d also like to acknowledge the men that are playing an active role. In particular, we want to recognize Scott O’Neil, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. He is actively engaged in driving diversity and inclusion and evangelizes the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. In addition, he believes that women are just as capable as men; as such, he enlists hiring events that encompasses both genders. He understands that establishing a thriving organization requires diversity of perspectives.

These great leaders are fostering cultures where their organizations can thrive by creating psychologically safe and diverse spaces where authenticity is valued. At Intel Sports, we’d like to offer our most sincere congratulations to our 2019 honorees and implore other organizations to follow these tremendous examples of leadership as well as many of the great companies that are embracing diversity and inclusivity. I for one am happy to be working for a company, Intel, that is leading the way.