CAREY’S CORNER {carey peña reports}
DIVERSITY MAKES US BETTER LEADERS Valley woman teaches how a shift in mindset can boost innovation Carey Peña | Contributing Writer
I had a conversation recently with a woman who I have an incredible amount of respect for. Her name is Joelle Hadley, and she is founder of The Culture Coaches and an expert in teaching emotional intelligence. Hadley appeared on my podcast, Carey Peña Reports, to talk about leadership and a course she teaches called “Lead Like a Genius.” Sitting in our Inspired Media 360 studio, we discussed how great leaders learn and identify their own personal values. How they create a purpose statement, learn empowering language skills, and figure out how to deal with difficult things. She also supplied me with some rather eye-opening statistics: • 71 percent of companies say that their leaders are not ready to lead their organization into the future. • 83 percent of companies say it’s important to develop their leaders at all levels ... but only 5 percent actually do it. 16 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | SEPTEMBER 2018
• Nearly 25 percent of American companies say less than 10 percent of their leadership positions have a ready successor. In a follow-up conversation, we talked about the importance of diversity and how it strengthens us as leaders because it allows for better decision making, and better results. Let’s examine this further.
WHY DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT IS IMPORTANT IN THE WORKPLACE Hadley explained that allowing diverse ideas out into the open is often referred to as a “shared pool of meaning.” This community pool, she said, should be full of ideas so leaders can make the best decisions. The more perspectives, ideas and approaches to a challenge or goal, the more likely there will be quality decisions. The key, however, is creating a safe environment in organizations for diverse ideas to flourish. Hadley emphasized that if employees, or customers, feel like they don’t have a voice, don’t have some aspect of choice, or don’t
