by Sheri Fella, Founder and CEO
Remember 2020?
We agree, it’s going to be impossible to forget. Many lost people, jobs, and friends. Homes were lost to fires in the west coast; there are so many stories…but there is one particular story Bloombase promises to remember. The masses in the streets standing up for Black Lives Matter. As professionals working to unhinge the old ways of corporate American thinking, we stand with #BLM and contribute the following thoughts toward forward motion in the year and years to come.
As leaders moving into a new year with eyes wide open and exploring how to diversify our thinking, our actions, our organizations and how to create a safer, more inclusive climate for our teams — we are all called to answer the following questions:
Are we a racist organization? Are we expressing or behaving in racist ways — intentionally or unintentionally? Are we investing in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) activities that have impact?
All fair and important questions, but not the most important questions for Bloombase. The most important questions, in our experience, are the “I” questions — the questions that take us internal. Do I have work to do to explore my own role in enabling the system of inequity? Am I sexist? Racist? What am I doing to hold myself and other leaders accountable in terms of measurable impact? How might I be confusing activity for impact?
Asking these “I” questions takes vulnerability. Hearing the answers takes courage. And working toward impact takes commitment for the long haul.
As CEO and founder of Bloombase, I agree that racism is not hard to miss, as this Forbes article points out, but accidental or intentional bias is hard to see. My passivity and enabling of a system that is shutting out leaders of color was hard for me to see. I had lots of work yet to do internally because of how I have experienced the world inside my white skin. That is why I had to dig for it — really explore my bias, my passivity, my enabling, my part in a system of racism to be able to understand my role in it, accept my role in it, and take action on my understanding as it emerges.
What it all boils down to is: “What am I, and what are we, Bloombase, really doing about diversity, equity and inclusion?”
When I initially sat with this question, the answer was: “Not enough.” I was unintentionally enabling the system of racism to continue in various passive ways. I had the right answers to questions to assure myself and others I wasn’t racist because I wasn’t. I am not now, overtly or intentionally racist. But I was biased and I was passive and I was not behaving in an anti-racist way. I wasn’t committed to doing my internal work to uncover and dismantle my own ignorance and bias, and to shift my role in the system of racism to intentional behavior to that system. My passivity — my choice — was enabling more of the system that was keeping way too many black and brown leaders out, way too many voices silent. I chose inequity — unintentionally, but it was a choice just the same. That was a hard pill for me to swallow about myself. And it was a critically important one for me to own if I wanted to have a different and positive impact going forward.
Ultimately, the way forward is through these questions. My responsibility to Bloombase, as CEO, sits directly in the questions and more importantly, the answers. Our work as leaders is to hold ourselves accountable for impact, not activity. To get under the bias. To get to the bottom of what is silent, what is not voiced, we have to commit to doing our own internal work.
As one of a myriad of changes coming to Bloombase, our team is dedicated to exploring our own accountability and we will do this together, as a company seeking impact.
So, what does impact look like? Impact looks like:
- Leaders having hard conversations with themselves, their teams and even families, frequently and consistently.
- Significant funding for DEI functions and ERGs who can impact outcomes, not just report activity or events (check out this article — Resourcing Black ERGs Right Now ).
- Leaders of color having a seat at the table of decision making:
- DEI leaders and ERG leaders must be in the executive room where decisions are made.
- The Executive Leadership Team must reflect the diversity of the world in which it operates.
- Accountability. And accountability means there are consequences when DEI goals are not met. For example, there is a consequence related to compensation, advancement, etc. when:
- Bias is uncovered in a leader’s behavior and that leader is not accountable,
- Organizations cannot retain diverse talent because their environment is not safe for diverse insights, styles, and approaches,
- DEI goals are not met.
We all must own our part in this transformation. If leaders who are currently in seats of power keep expecting leaders behind them to act like they do, to look like they do, and to lead like they do, diversity of thought and experience will be screened out along with innovation and potential. If leaders currently in seats of power cannot shift their own behaviors and expectations of what leadership is and how it might look and feel differently, how can they expect others to shift?
Until all voices are at the tables where decisions are made, leaders are not maximizing potential for all individuals and organizations. Until then, we are not maximizing profit and innovation or any key performance indicator (KPI) we might hold dear. Diversity of ideas is required for maximum potential to be achieved in any endeavor. Research has backed this up for decades — this is not new information. What I hope is new are our actions forward to realize that untapped potential.
As a leader, if you do not have all voices at the table, and hence, all the possibilities on the table — you are failing as a leader. You, the leader, are minimizing potential for your team and organization as a whole. I know what that failure feels like. It is an uncomfortable, hard space to sit in. I know failing is an important part of learning and we must sit in that space and the discomfort and let it teach us a new way forward. Until we own that and until we do our own work of exploring our role in the current system of inequity, we are just changing the curtains on the windows and confusing activity for impact and racism, sexism, and all forms of inequity will continue — whether we intend for it to or not. The system will remain the same if leaders remain the same.
If this message has impacted you or maybe even offended you in some way, we hope you explore that feeling no matter what it is. Dig deep to determine what it is trying to teach you about yourself, your racial bias, your impact. And then wehope you reach out and share where you are in this journey and how we might learn together to impact this system of inequity.
We ALL deserve to experience the true, immense power of diversity and how it can lead us to higher ground where there is not just space for all, but equal opportunity.
This is the vision for 2021 that Bloombase carries and we will dedicate ourselves to this journey, this forward-motionand internal work that can move the workplace to a higher ground.
We look forward to working toward that higher ground with all of you.
Let’s keep reaching for possibility -
Sheri and the Bloombase team
Originally published at https://thisisbloombase.com on January 14, 2021.
