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We see the effects daily. Men at the top rung of business, sports, entertainment, and the arts resigning en mass because of indiscretions, because companies see the reasonableness (and the public consequences) of fostering an environment that is toxic, sexist, misogynist, and racist. There is still much work to be done—so much more—so we can all be our best in business. It’s good for employee morale. It’s good for productivity and by law, business leaders are mandated to provide a safe, non-toxic work environment.
As business leaders, we have to live up to our word. We have to ensure that our corporate culture reflects an environment where everyone is valued, respected, heard, and not harassed. These rules have been with us for years but they have seldom been enforced. It never affected our bottom line. But now, with lawsuits, Instagram, Tweets, blogs, everyone everywhere is watching, recording, and documenting behaviors. Big Brother and Big Sister are watching. But here is the question: As responsible leaders, do you do what’s right for fear of being caught doing wrong, embarrassing your company? Or, do you do what’s right because it’s the right thing to do.
CEO’s, Middle Managers, Business Leaders, do what’s right because it’s the right thing to do. You do what’s right to foster growth, exchange of ideas, profitability, and safety for all of your employees. You ensure that no one is subjected to offensive behavior, straight, gay, LGBT. It’s a business leader’s job to ensure they are free to work in a safe environment.
You set boundaries, you address what you see before they become problems. You ensure that there are mandatory sexual harassment prevention courses, you talk openly to the staff and remind them of what is acceptable and not acceptable behavior. You ensure that every employee signs waivers that ensure that they understand your corporate policies and the steps that are taken in case someone breaches the corporate protocol and requires re-education or termination. The phrase, “slow to hire, quick to fire” ensures that all employees are protected. There should be NO employee who is so valuable that they cannot be terminated when their behavior steps out of acceptable norms. No one, even yourself. If you have an employee that cannot be terminated when they step outside of what is acceptable then YOU have built your business wrong.
The frat boy as CEO deserves a stake through the heart. Take the recent incident with the music superstar Rhianna. She recently posted on Instagram that her “followers” should get rid of the app SnapChat (and many did) as a public corporation they lost $800 million in stock value because some idiot gave the green light to a game that promotes violence against women. Vanity Fair reported:
“After running an ad created by a third party, which modeled itself after a ‘Would You Rather?’ game. One of the would-you-rathers—which asked users to choose whether they would prefer to “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown”—drew criticism from users of the app, as well as from Rihanna herself, whose callout post on Instagram apparently cost the app $800 million.”
The highly publicized and violent ending to the relationship between Chris Brown and Rihanna is well known. His violence towards women is “who he is”. Why would a corporation get so big that they would miss this or think its funny or hip? It was stupid, childish and whoever approved that ad should be seeking unemployment insurance, immediately.
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Leading a company is lonely, its hard, but the payoff in just changing how things are done, providing jobs, improving communities is a blessing. It drives the economy, it makes us all more innovative and creative. Diversity makes for a stronger more profitable company. If too many people in your company look just like you (take the current President’s Cabinet) you are doing something wrong, you aren’t speaking to all of your customers, you are not getting all the potentially “good ideas” and you won’t grow as a company if you don’t use diversity to reach all of your potentially diverse clientele.
The New Vision? Simply put: Do better at enforcing what we have, what is required. Remember that your daughters, your wives go to work and school. Ensure that as a leader you protect all of your employees no matter what their race, gender or sexual preference is.
Reward Managers that seek to diversify their teams and ensure profitability (and corporate happiness) because they go the extra mile to ensure that all are heard, respected and valued. There have been countless surveys over the years that speak to what all competent highly successful employers, middle managers, and CEO’s know all too well to be true. From The Harvard Business Review:
“While pay can help get new talent in the door, our research shows it’s not likely to keep them there without real investments in workplace culture: making a commitment to positive culture and values, improving the quality of senior management, and creating career pathways that elevate workers through a career arc in the organization.”
Unsure of where to start? Look at what the best companies in the world do. Here is the list of the Top Companies to work for in a poll taken by women: Thomson Reuters, Kaiser Permanente, American Express, Vanguard Group, Apple, PwC, Deloitte, Salesforce* and others
Our vision as employers, as CEO’s as leaders, should be to be the best. Emulate the best practices of businesses that not only have high profits, but high profiles that are cherished in public, and by their employees behind the scenes. Don’t let your outside image be tarnished by internally toxic actors. It all affects the bottom line and you want your good people your productive people to stay and flourish. Anything less is unacceptable and you are a failure at leading your business.
The BEST leaders care about their product. They embrace their employees and seek to nurture those that are struggling to bring the best out of them. Employers are only truly sustainable when they ensure the safety, health, and welfare of their workers. So while your employees may not be in danger of falling into a meat grinder, or losing a limb in a factory. They are in danger if YOU and your Management Team do not provide a safe, sound, harassment-free work environment where all feel safe, and where harassment is unacceptable behavior. That is the direction that real business leaders are following where mutual respect, admiration, achievement, diversity, and profit all walk hand in hand.
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Related, here on GMP:
The Role of the Male CEO in the #MeToo World
A CEO must ensure that all employees—including the custodian, temp, and administrative assistant—feel safe to do their job without the fear of assault and reprisal for refusing an over-amorous and misplaced suitor.
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