The ‘Suite’ Lead: BLIND SPOTS... Take Action. Take Ownership!

I’m Merritt McKenzie: healthcare executive, business strategist, clinician, life-long learner, and eternal optimist. My life’s passion is to help people and businesses achieve their fullest potential through people engagement, strategy implementation, change and organizational renewal, operational excellence, and executive leadership.

In the article The Key to Inclusive Leadership, the Harvard Business Review details six traits that inclusive leaders all seem to share: visible commitment, humility, awareness of bias, curiosity about others, cultural intelligence, and effective collaboration. We talked a little about “curiosity about others” in my previous article.

Today I’d like to discuss the third trait: “awareness of bias.”

WHY I LEFT WELLS FARGO

In a recent CNBC article (and others like it), Charlie Scharf, Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented that Wells Fargo had difficulty meeting its diversity goals because there’s “a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from.” 

A limited pool?

As you can imagine, Mr. Scharf’s comment is concerning and disheartening in many ways, to say the least. My heart goes out to the Wells Fargo employees who are troubled by this, as well as its many customers – myself included among them, until now. Although I am not a Wells Fargo employee, I am the person that Mr. Scharf is referencing, with regards to the limited pipeline of black talent. As a Black executive who aspires to continue growing my career, it’s very difficult to receive such a message. There are a plethora of black and people of color leaders and senior executives who are available. Further, there are great organizations, such as The Executive Leadership Council, whose mission is “to increase the number of successful black executives…” Their Interim President and CEO, Crystal Ashby, has stated multiple times during live broadcasts that “there is no shortage of black talent.”

When I showed my wife Mr. Scharf’s quote, I didn’t have to say anything more. I didn’t have to convince her of anything. She took one look at it and said, “We’re done.” My wife went to Wells Fargo and shut down our account. When they asked her why she was closing the account, she stated, “It’s because of your CEO’s comments.”

How can we as leaders recognize the power of influence that we have in our words?

RECOGNIZE YOUR BIASES

Everyone has blind spots. I do! We all do. That’s not the issue. As leaders, it is our responsibility to recognize that we have blind spots and address them. Especially in today’s climate, there are lessons that every leader can learn. We all need to be intentional about identifying and eliminating these biases.

As leaders, we must dig deep into our own self-awareness around these biases, as well as how and why we have developed them. Is this bias true, or have we surrounded ourselves with people who reinforce it and don’t challenge us when it shows itself?

ASSESS & IMPACT YOUR NETWORK

Look at your personal and professional network. Then ask yourself, does my network align with and represent the customers or employees I serve? Do my closest confidants or team members have diverse points of view and/or represent varying ethnicities, backgrounds, and experiences? If the answer is yes...well done! If the answer is no, then it’s time to act. It’s time for some personal disruption. 

We need to LISTEN & LEARN from others!

We will evolve into more impactful leaders by consistently exercising intentional listening and learning from a diverse network. We need to surround ourselves with team members, family, and friends who can help us with our continuous growth and development. Expanding our networks to include people who do not look like ourselves will make each of us better. Not only that, but we have to give these folks authority to hold us accountable. They must have full psychological safety to give us feedback in addressing our biases.

It’s a delicate balance to entrust your team with the authority to “check” you, but at the same time not be made to feel that they’re shouldering a burden. No single person should be responsible for the perspective of their entire culture. But you should be able to help them understand that you’re seeking their counsel, feedback, perspective, and points of view, without negative repercussions. 

Leaders must take personal accountability and action. Show vulnerability. Be transparent. Let your teams know that you are working towards eliminating your blind spots/biases, and they will respect you for it. 

As leaders, we should also be prepared to show our vulnerability and be transparent. Let folks know, hey, I need your help with this. That has the ability to take down people’s barriers. A lot of people these days think that asking for help is a sign of weakness, and that shouldn’t ever be the case. 

Self-awareness is so incredibly important. Nobody is perfect, and nobody knows everything. We need to make a conscious effort to identify our blind spots!

And if we don’t know them ourselves? We must surround ourselves with people we trust, to whom we can turn and ask for help. 

That’s what helps us become better leaders.

That’s what helps us be authentic leaders!

THE TAKEAWAYS

In reference to Wells Fargo, I am not advocating for you to take the same approach my wife and I did.  What we did was a personal choice based on a documented history of allegations against Wells Fargo, of which Mr. Scharf’s comments are only the latest, so we did what we thought best for us. 

Self-reflect on your own personal values.  

I recently heard a quote from someone, which I’ll paraphrase: If we put our values before our money, we will always win on this journey called “life.” I challenge you to take stock of your personal values. Right now. Are you backing up your beliefs with your personal and business decisions? Are you implementing your values into every aspect of your life? And ask yourself, does your personal and professional network fully represent the community, the customers, and the employees you have the privilege as a leader to serve? 

Think about it! 

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback, and for joining me on this journey!

If what you read here speaks to you, please leave a comment below and share the post with your network! Also, feel free to contact me directly via LinkedIn direct message.

Until next time…

Be The Influence!

Merritt

“Excellence is a journey” – Arthur Ashe

“The best way to predict the future…is to create it” – Abraham Lincoln