The Authenticity Challenge

by Cindy R. Kent

The race topic. Again. Let’s face it, race is a complicated subject and from all accounts, not getting any easier. Even in 2019, crucial conversations about diversity, inclusion, and equity have never been more prevalent. Yet for black folk in Corporate America, the relationship between ethnicity and authenticity remains fraught with tension.

ICINDY R. KENT has been a member of The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) since 2010. She was also a participant in The ELC’s 2008 Strengthening the Pipeline initiative. She is a Healthcare Executive, Corporate Director, Public Speaker and Philanthropist. I REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I heard an Executive Leadership Council (ELC) officer say in an open forum of both members, as well as non-black executives from partner companies, that the focus of the organization was unapologetically black. To be honest, the statement caused me to shift in my seat, as I quickly and covertly glanced around the room to see if anyone else had had a visceral response to the statement. To be clear, we all knew that being unapologetically black was an implied and fundamental belief of the ELC, a membership organization that aims to advance the representation of African Americans in C-suites and on corporate boards of directors. But to hear it said out loud to this audience, I thought would conjure images of racial revolutionaries storming into the boardrooms of their respective corporations—corporations whose strategic partnerships were so vital to the mission of the ELC. To my surprise (and relief) there was no obvious discomfort in response to the statement. Interestingly the only responses of note were just a few of the ELC members who had caught each other’s glance – a subtle acknowledgement that we had all shared this common thought. So what was this about, one may wonder? New leadership currency Authenticity, Transparency, Purpose and yes, even Failure are all prominent tenets of modern leadership teachings. Just as bitcoin and blockchain are disrupting financial markets, so too, is authenticity one of the relational currencies disrupting the traditional practice of corporate leadership. The

advent of millennials and Generation Z’ers in the workplace is placing demands on leaders, as well as the organizations they lead, to rise to a new standard of existence. In the U.S., millennials and Generation Z account for 40 percent of the U.S. Labor Force. 1 Shareholder value is a necessary, but insufficient, performance standard. Similarly, stoicism, command-and-control, and fear-based models of leading are quickly becoming C-suite relics of old. This seismic shift was symbolized most notably in August 2019 when 181 CEOs of the Business Roundtable signed and published the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation 2 as public declaration of their commitment to a broader cast stakeholders beyond shareholders— to include their employees as well as the communities they serve.

Based on these new leadership models, corporate environments are becoming more welcoming and inclusive for non-majority populations. Right? While it is my hope that corporations in America are on a journey to becoming meritocratic entities for which talent trumps all, the truth is we are not there yet. Going by college completion rate, there is no shortage of black talent. Based on the rate of college degree completion, there should be 50 black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. There are only four black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies.

The black tax

A research by Great Place to Work suggests that organizations where ALL employees have a great experience no matter who they are or what they do for the organization see much higher revenue growth at their organizations. 3 Are black employees having great experience at their organizations? Black employees experience conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace. The collective effects of conscious and unconscious bias for blacks seeking to advance in their respective spheres is fondly known as black tax. In Corporate America, the black tax is reflected in hiring practices, longer promotion cycles, having to take on riskier assignments to prove oneself, pay gaps and a host of other inequities. It may also include the undue burden upon the highest leveled black in the company being expected to represent, speak for, and wear the mantle for all things black both inside and outside of the organization. When outlined as such, it seems ridiculous, but a so-called black tax is a daily reality experienced by most black professionals.

Although it doesn’t use this phraseology, a study by Korn Ferry released in October 2019 entitled, The Black P&L Leader: Insights and Lessons from Senior Black P&L Leaders in Corporate America examines the attributes and barriers that impact blacks ascending into the C-Suite and more

specifically, P&L executives who desired to be well-positioned for CEO succession. In this study, dominant and consistent themes emerged; the rigor and intentionality required by participants to manage their careers, the need to take on high risk assignments to prove themselves; the stealth-like agility required to navigate setbacks and failures so that they did not become career-limiting, and the seminal need for sponsors who can provide exposure and access to advancement opportunities. 4

In the Predictive Index’s Annual CEO Benchmarking Report 2019, 156 CEOs were asked what keeps them up at night. Eighty percent indicated that their top five challenges were related to talent – finding it, keeping it, aligning skills with strategy, etc. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that with a real war for talent looming ahead, leaders and organizations would want to optimize their most important asset, their people? Wouldn’t companies also want to set ALL their employees up for success? If it is as critical an issue as the CEOs in this benchmark study suggest, why don’t we just fix it?

While talent optimization is hard, the issue of race is even more challenging. The conundrum is personal

One of my favorite instructional YouTube videos is the six-minute “Bob Newhart—Stop It” video. 6 In the video, Bob Newhart plays a psychologist who advises a patient about her irrational and long-held fear of being buried alive in a box. His advice to her is simple and direct. He instructs her to just “Stop It.” I was referred to this video several years ago by a mentor, in response to my obsessing over some then- important work situation. One that now completely escapes my recollection. Oddly enough, since that time, I have referred countless other friends and mentees of my own to the video as well. It is interesting how issues that were seeming crises in the moment, with time and perspective are hardly even memorable blips on the timelines of our lives.

I can recall times throughout my nearly 30-year career, when I was told that my clothing colors of yellow and red were too bright and that I needed to tone it down. Or that I laughed too loud and I needed to tone it down. Or that I asked too many questions in meetings and that I needed to tone it down. And my all-time personal favorite, was when I was advised that my very presence was too big and others found me ‘threatening’ (actual word choice) just by me entering into the room. In this case, at least the accuser smartly acknowledged however, that it was unlikely that I would be able to tone it down, yet was at a complete loss in offering suggestions to allegedly fix me.

Though I was an early adopter and corporate partner of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In Movement, one criticism that I found quite valid, and that applies here, is that the responsibility for leaning in cannot solely lie with the respective gender or ethnic referenced group. There is only so much that can be controlled at the individual level. If companies and institutions want to unleash the power of all their employees, then they too, must do some leaning in of their own. I am a firm believer that the tone and soul of the organization is set at the top of the house. Beyond the mission statement being posted on the company website or framed and hung in the conference rooms, executives must think critically about the mission and values that they are espousing through their behaviors. When employees look up and around, what do they see? These are all signals of the normative cultural context – the unwritten rules of the workplace that instruct employees on acceptable behavior as well as how to advance up the ranks.

Earlier in my career, I would respond to this type of feedback by doubling-down on self-improvement (translate: self-fix) efforts until that particular feedback point went away. Even the mentors and advisors that I had at the time would advise me along these lines. Now with the benefit of age, and some modicum of personal growth and success, I think we would likely approach things differently. But at that time, we were all doing the best we knew how to do.

For years this has been the approach for many blacks and other non-normative groups in Corporate America—responding like stringed marionettes to a confusing confluence of feedback, that often conflicted from supervisor to supervisor. Whether it related to our clothing, hair styles, our language, diction or accents—we have gone about this schizophrenic code-switching 7 behavior in a futile effort to fix ourselves, sometimes consciously and at other times as an unconscious means of survival. But if authenticity is the new currency of leadership, why are black professionals in Corporate America still struggling with these behaviors that fly in the face of authenticity? Most likely because most organizations are still in the early stages of understanding inclusion and have not reached the tipping point of doing inclusion, let alone, doing it well. Simply stated, we’re on a journey and we are not there yet.

Time is ripe for change Please do not misinterpret my point here—organizations have every right to dictate who it wants to be as well as how it expects its employees to act and behave. What is NOT okay, however, is when those cultural norms are disproportionately restrictive or biased for a specific employee group.

Today I am often described as an authentic leader and get many questions asking about how I have been able to remain so grounded and authentic. It is apparent from some of the personal stories I have shared in this article, that this has not always been the case. But my journey to showing up more authentically, is grounded in my deep faith as well the confidence and conviction that everything will work itself out in time. Let’s be clear, I still get feedback, but I also now recognize that I am the only one who gets to decide what to do with it. Rather than allowing any and every feedback point drive me into a flurry of self-fix gyrations as I did early on, I consider the feedback through three different lenses.

First, ask who’s giving the feedback? If I trust that the provider’s intentions are well-meaning, and that they sincerely have my best interest at heart, then I am more inclined to consider what they are telling me. Second, ask would my response require a tweak to what I do versus a change to who I am? Obviously, I would be less likely to change who I fundamentally am as a person, and more likely to adjust behaviors. Finally, the third lens is asking what’s at stake? What are the implications to my making or not making the adjustment? These considerations frame how I choose to respond—but that too, is a great revelation: YOU and you, alone, get to decide.

Despite the real and personal experience of the authenticity challenge for blacks in Corporate America, several factors give me hope. First, the time is ripe for change. The talent fears of CEOs found in the benchmarking report will act as a forcing mechanism to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces – not only as an effort to be more competitive, but more importantly for companies to have any chance of survival. The war for talent is real. Great Place to Work study found that inclusive companies experience more than three times the revenue growth of less inclusive companies. 8

Second, each subsequent generation in the workplace is increasingly insisting that their employers reflect the world they want to live in. And when they don’t find cultures that are aligned with their values or ones that the organization’s vision statement promised, they leave.

Finally, as boards and C-suites become more diverse, black executives and board directors can lead from the front. We can normalize our authenticity in ways that have both subtle as well as more bold ethnic inferences. For example, during the period that I wore my hair natural, I was amazed by the number of younger black women who thanked me for doing so. Other black executive friends described similar experiences

when they switched to locs and braids as their hair styles of choice. Another opportunity we have is being willing to speak up during talent or management reviews when blacks in the organization are either not on slates or are not given fair consideration for promotions and stretch assignments.

I would like to believe that each such instance inches us closer to a truly inclusive workplace as well as puts us one step closer to resolving the authenticity challenge faced by black professionals in Corporate America.

Notes:

1 – Richard Fry, “Millennials Are the Largest Generation in the U.S. Labor Force,” Pew Research Center Fact Tank (April 11, 2018). 2 – https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-topromote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans 3 – https://fortune.com/2019/12/20/diversity-inclusion-key-to-beating-next-recession/ 4 – https://www.elcinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/korn-ferry_theblack-pl-leader.pdf 5 – https://www.predictiveindex.com/content/reports/the-annual-ceo-benchmarking-report-2019/ 6 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw 7 – https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching 8 – https://www.greatplacetowork.com/book