Take A Deeper Dive

An Examination of Executive Conscience

After presenting at a recent conference I found myself sitting at lunch next to a CEO who seemed anxious to talk to me. He related that although his company had made significant investments over the past few years in diversity training, lean six sigma initiatives and team development, he still wasn’t satisfied with the speed of transformation within the company. Women leaders were not advancing at the hoped-for pace, silo mentality was still rampant, and opinion survey results suggested that many managers and executives weren’t really listening to their employee; thus the employees felt disengaged and not involved in the important decisions and actions of the company. The CEO concluded with his litany of disappointing results from his training investments with, “We dove into these activities, but results so far we aren’t making much of a splash!  What would you recommend, Becky?”

“You’re not breaking below the surface of the issues. I’d recommend a deeper dive,” I replied. I call this deep dive – an examination of executive conscience. Here’s how it works. Say that you are trying to understand why only about 13% to 14% of women are senior executives (the U.S. F500 national average). You could look at the behaviors of those who are doing succession planning and talent development. You could examine company policies, practices, procedures and controls, but you probably won’t find much wrong there. After all they were put place to drive equity, parity, and fairness in hiring the best-qualified candidates regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. But one has to delve deeper. One has to examine mindsets and underlying issues within a corporate culture to understand the “why” things are the way they are.

For example, those senior leaders who have the most influence in promoting candidates to the executive ranks may have a mindset that favors executive candidates’ decision-making skills by an ability to demonstrate linear, hierarchical and objective criteria based thinking. However, women are wired differently than men when it comes to how they weigh the evidence in support of the decision making process. Women’s relational approach to sorting, evaluating and making choices could be perceived as less desirable than the ways men make decisions. As a result, those most influential in a company’s talent development and succession planning process may unintentionally create a bias toward s prospective candidates who don’t demonstrate the desired behaviors around decision making.

These mindsets subtly and informally influence the values, beliefs, and norms of an organization. So although the language of HR policies and practices read politically and socially correct the human beings who actually implement and execute those policies and practices make choices and judgments differently based on how they’re “hard wired”.

The CEO sitting next to me was listening intently and asked for another example of the influence that mindsets have on corporate culture. “Okay,” I said, “Let’s look at a current hot topic, employee engagement.” All the training on empowerment, lean, team based decision-making, etc. is well and good, but it’ll only barely break the surface of an organizational transformation unless one examines the underlying assumptions and mindsets revolving around engagement. 

As an example, SHAMBAUGH was doing some consulting for a client who wanted an employee engagement program rolled out across the company.  Although it was a great opportunity, I intentionally didn’t immediately jump to a solution of just delivering a “program”.  Our consultants conducted a number of interviews and discovered that the underlying assumption within the company was to “just say yes” when a manager told an employee to do something.  Although there were instances where that was exactly the right thing to do by the manager, there were many other instances that the employees felt that they weren’t being heard, gave up, and gave in without an opportunity to share important information, insights or influence a better approach. The mindset at almost the sub-conscious level of the organization was, “Just say yes to management.”  The world’s best engagement workshop would do little good if that embedded mindset was allowed to remain.

As the CEO put his napkin down on the table he asked, “Well, how do you get rid of these poisonous mindsets and underlying assumptions that are crippling our ability to transform things in our business?” I replied, “You need to first identify the old or less productive mindsets and assumptions, bring them to the surface through a thoughtful process of examination, and then have senior leadership reject, revise or accept them.  Remember that what the company or you espouse may not always be the reality. An examination of executive conscience through a “deep dive” is the best way to ensure that the right talent surfaces in your company, training programs stay afloat and transformational initiatives deliver the R.O.I. you’re hoping for.”

To find out how organizations can rid themselves of outdated assumptions and self-limiting mindsets, click on this link www.shambaughleadership.com to find out what a SHAMBAUGH consultant can do for you to take a “deeper dive” on this critical issue.
 

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Rebecca Shambaugh

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