Suddenly, says Mike, the CEO decided to stop arguing with her. She thanked him and said it was a wonderful offer but then spent half an hour arguing with him about all the reasons she wasn’t ready for this kind of position.” He’d been about to choose one of the men, but after hearing me, he told the woman he thought she’d make an ideal candidate. He was looking to appoint a new CFO and two men had put their names in the ring, but the woman he believed was most qualified for the job had not. Afterward, a CEO in pharma called to say that he’d been struck by my remarks about women’s reluctance to volunteer for promotions. Mike says, “I talked about this experience in a speech to an external group. Putting this idea into practice quickly resulted in more women being promoted. Mike recognized that the company’s hiring managers could benefit by building prospective job slates based not on who volunteered to apply, but on who the manager believed were the most qualified candidates. Several women joined in the discussion, making clear that they often hesitated to apply because they believed they lacked all the required qualifications. One such moment came during a town hall when a couple of hiring managers discussed the apparent reluctance of many female employees to apply for senior positions when they became available. These narratives spur plenty of aha moments. He engages employees at every level to share personal stories, as individuals or on panels. And he assembled a group of internal truth tellers who meet with him regularly to give feedback on racial progress and roadblocks.ĭuring the quarterly town halls Mike holds for all employees, he always spends two hours on topics related to DEI. He brought in an outside coach, an African American with long experience, who would tell him what he needed to hear. Two years ago, Mike expanded this approach to include race. But I’ll make sure whoever it is starts moving forward.” I won’t necessarily fire the bad apple–– though I have done that. They help me learn who’s a good apple and who’s a bad apple, who’s working to improve gender diversity and who’s not buying in. What did you think? How did that work? What could I have done better? I also ask them what’s going on in the company, where there might be potential problems. Second, he enlisted 5 to-7 “truth tellers” from within Cardinal, internal people tasked with keeping him informed about the company’s successes and setbacks in regard to women. Mike made the wise decision to hire one of the giants in the field of women’s leadership: my magnificent colleague, Rayona Sharpnack. And who would tell me what I needed to hear instead of what I wanted to hear.” He says, “I needed someone who knew the issues and knew what progress looked like. As a consequence, he took two actions aimed at more effectively championing women in the company and increasing female participation, especially at senior levels.įirst, he hired an outside coach with decades of women’s leadership experience to work with him solely on gender issues. This hands-on experience helped him better understand both what women could contribute and the cultural and structural constraints that held them back. Mike Kaufmann, CEO of Cardinal Health Care, is so passionate about advancing women in his company that he only accepts invitations to deliver keynotes to outside groups if he can speak on topics relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.Ībout fourteen years ago, Mike decided to work directly with Cardinal’s women’s employee resource group, then a new and relatively small network. Here are some reflections from a CEO who’s been helping his people rise together for years. The topic of bridging divides gets at many of the big, pressing questions of the day: How do we create solidarity while honoring what’s distinctive about our own identity? How do we find common ground with those whose values we may not share? How do we make diversity a source of power rather than of division or distraction?ĭuring the course of writing the book, I conducted some inspiring interviews, which I’ll be sharing in this newsletter. And although my focus, as always, is on how we can most skillfully navigate the world of work, there are many lessons that can be applied to policy, education and the arts, as well as our personal lives. The topic feels more relevant than ever in our divided, often contentious world. My next book, Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace, is now officially done and with the editor.
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