Leaders Should Consider This in the Age of Social Justice & Social Responsibility
The year 2020 exposed every company’s ability to survive in an alternate universe, or in other words, in a world that doesn’t thrive off best practices, innovations that can predict human behavior, and perfect storms. Leaders were previously safe to sidestep conversations about race and mental health, however, companies that now remain silent on socio-political issues are assumed to be aligned with the “bad guy”. Employees and customers are beginning to speak up and demand more authenticity from organizations through clear proclamations and the proper support for talent outside of the C-suite. Consequently, some leaders feel “exposed” and perhaps ashamed to be as vulnerable as their employees and customers require. Within organizational structures, executives who led with their hearts focused more on progress instead of process and were comfortable being uncomfortable, found that their decision to be vulnerable with their teams was well received by their employees. Inevitably, those “human-like” leaders and organizations also received employee support and praise in social media and other public forums. However, “[leaders] with a tendency to use professionalism as a shield to avoid difficult but necessary conversations… struggled to cope during the lockdown”, according to “Why ‘Messy’ Leaders are the Future”. For many companies, that lack of ability to adapt and support humanity harmed employee morale, and in more severe cases, impacted sales and customer loyalty. Unfortunately, the road to a more humanistic approach to leading organizations is not crystal clear or linear and may receive pushback internally. It is, however, important to build bridges instead of causing greater rifts between leaders and their employees, ultimately understanding, the customer is always listening.
In “Why ‘Messy’ Leaders are the Future”, Jerry Connor sets the foundation for us to explore what organizations could look like when executives lead with the skills needed to whether times of uncertainty and social unrest and what that means for the future of organizations. Though more traditionally-minded leaders who stick to best practices in times of uncertainty, often struggled to embody qualities such as empathy, the temperament to engage in tough conversations, having a holistic view on their company’s role within the society, intuition, trust in their employees, and adaptability, these characteristics are now a requirement for future success.
What does it look like to help those in power lead with these characteristics? Executives must willingly invest in the possibility that there is more to learn from the team than they can offer in every situation. Accepting that they do not hold all of the answers and transferring responsibility to others takes a process of relinquishing control. Supporting leaders through this transition could mean 1) having check-ins with leadership coaches whose primary goal is to work on measures of empathy and adaptability, or 2) enlisting coaching from a non-biased entity whose sole responsibility is to help the leader think critically about others, tap into their emotions long enough to truly understand the morale of the team, and make a decision based on fact and emotion. There will be times when strong, structured leadership is necessary to keep the team on course, therefore with time, executives will learn to balance process with intuition. I believe leaders can be supported and guided into having more effective working habits and relationships with their employees, companies, and the larger community.
If this exemplifies taking a human-like approach and if humanism is an essential component of future successful leadership, how can we measure this competency going forward? Sandford Medicine provides several measurement tools that can help companies understand where this hidden quality hides in their existing leaders as well as informs new development processes that will consider these qualities of a “more in touch” leader. The Emotional Empathy Questionnaire and the Empathy Index are examples of psychological assessments that can be tailored for use in the corporate workplace. In a true developmental leadership discussion, these tools can be administered to begin the discussion and act on implementing new habits into their daily routine.
Corporate Social Justice (CSJ), a reframe of Corporate Social Responsibility as Lily Zheng explains, is another component of leadership that organizations must consider in 2021. History tells us that when companies neglect to acknowledge their employees and consumers, profits are negatively affected. Millions of dollars were at stake when Amazon sold its facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies who over-index in targeting Black people and communities of color. Zheng also expounds on the idea of companies leveraging the voices and minds of black entry-level employees, managers, and senior leaders to engage with their stakeholders externally. Creating robust and representative working groups like these has the potential to improve employee morale, leadership-employee engagement, and profitability. In the midst of social unrest as a result of the recent police shootings of African American young men and women and acts of Asian hate, it is minimally appropriate for companies to take heed and learn to show up differently.
This topic of discussion opens the door for many future conversations about the value of nontraditional leadership and the path toward equipping leaders and their successors with the skills they will need to connect and display the level of awareness that is required. Executive leadership is a collective power that, when done well, can drive a company to new levels and profits. That power impacts the culture among their employees and guides innovations for constant customer affinity. This power does often meet tough roads that meet failure and require education and patience even for the most senior leaders, but it should never be forgotten that with great power, comes great responsibility. It is the leader’s responsibility to use their power to maintain, pivot, or terminate as necessary for survival and growth.
