Unlocking Potential

A 2017 TV commercial for SNHU almost got it right. The voiceover says: "The world in which we live equally distributes talent, but it doesn't equally distribute opportunity." I would have said it differently. The world in which we live equally distributes potential, but it doesn't equally distribute the opportunity to develop that potential. If an organization says it's committed to diversity but doesn't have a system for equally developing all who desire to be developed, then the practice of diversity will always take second place to the need for performance on behalf of the stakeholders.

The Diversity Dilemma was written to challenge traditional and current approaches to achieving diversity while answering stakeholder demands for performance. It presents a program, born out of my experience as a senior executive, to develop aspiring leaders from all walks of life – equally – to be authentic and highly-effective.

Your ability to lead and sustain a diverse, high-performance organization is tied directly to your willingness to invest in people. Diversity initiatives and awareness training, alone, won’t do it.  It’s the personal investment, over time, with directed learning, practice, and feedback, that creates leadership potential and a bench of high-performance leaders. The problem with curated leadership training material that depends on self-identifying development needs to select from a smorgasbord of options is that the research shows we are poor at self-reporting – that is, knowing accurately what we do and why we do it.  That’s a long way of saying that left to ourselves we will invariably miss the areas for development that could most affect our leadership effectiveness.

The only thing that gives us the accuracy we need to make the right changes in style and behaviors is the wonderful gift of feedback. That is, perhaps one of the most important leadership behaviors: listening to feedback from a variety of sources – even those who may not necessarily like us, but know us well – to make changes to our approach so that we will become more effective at building trust and motivating people.  (Of course, this implies that perhaps the second most important leadership behavior is the humility to apply the feedback.) This is the beauty of #Liz Wiseman’s bestseller, Multipliers, used in the mentoring program.  It provides a systematic way to garner feedback to change one’s approach to leadership.  The same is true for #Doug Stone and #Shiela Heen’s bestselling book, Thanks for the Feedback, also used in the mentoring program. These are both invaluable for helping aspiring leaders become highly effective.  The direct result of highly effective leaders is a high-performance organization.

You’ll find that the curated material used in the program that is outlined in the book is designed to lead to thoughtful assignments and discussions, ultimately leading to change and more effective leadership. All leaders need to be keenly aware of and have an accurate view of themselves and the effect their behaviors and style – including their communication – have on others.  When coupled with a sense of curiosity, true (not feigned) empathy, and the humility to receive feedback, leaders can inspire their employees to engage and accomplish more than they believe possible.