May 06, 2005

Inaction Speaks Louder than Words

I was in a meeting recently with a group of senior managers who were discussing employee loyalty issues particularly as they relate to minority employees. This was particularly important because the organization had difficulty in recruiting minorities and the data showed that minority groups were significantly less happy than non-minority groups.

What struck me about the meeting was the story that one senior manager (let’s call him Joe) told about the interaction he had with one of his managers (let’s call him Dom) about the importance of treating all members of his staff equally. Joe said that Dom was agreeable to concept but said that this would be difficult to do because some of the members of his team were “different” from him. Joe then went on to say that no matter how much you work with some people you are not going to get them to change their attitudes towards treating all employees fairly.

What struck me about this story was not Dom’s perspective on the world. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that Dom was simply telling the truth. And Dom’s truth is not too different from what many people feel. What struck me was that Dom was still working for Joe and still had people management responsibilities.

I wish I had asked Joe why he hadn’t removed Dom from his managerial role. Since I didn’t ask, I can only assume that Joe felt that by raising the issue, his obligation had been met, and given that Dom did not have any other performance issues, there was no reason to move him to a different role.

What I am curious about is the impact that Joe’s inaction had on the minority staff. Were they aware of Dom’s feelings towards them relative to other employees? Did these feelings impact their work assignments? Did they feel left out of the communication loop? Did they feel that the company didn’t value them as much as other employees? Did they feel like equal performance would lead to equal pay and promotion opportunities at this company? Did they feel like they were working on a level playing field?

Employees look at what managers say and the values statements that organization make and compare it to their actions. A picture is worth a thousand words. They also look at what managers and organizations don’t do to judge the sincerity of the organizations words and assess the gap between the stated values of the organization (what the organization says it believes in) and their operating values (what the organization actually values based on what it chooses to reward). The wider the gap is between stated and operating values, the greater the cynicism and distrust in the organization.

Organizations need to make sure their stated values and operating values are aligned. They also need to measure the extent to which people are living these values on a daily basis and hold them accountable for doing so. Making this happen is critical to keeping your entire workforce fully engaged.

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Have your physical characteristics ever negatively impacted your career opportunities? Yes No View Results

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What should Joe have done differently? Nothing. He fulfilled his obligation by talking to Dom. He should have required Dom to attend diversity training and left him in his current role. He should have moved Dom to a non-managerial role. Joe was actually the problem for tolerating the attitude and should have been removed from his role View Results

Posted by Greg Robinson at 10:33 AM | Comments (7)