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Future-proof your leadership with High Octane Leadership, a place where business leaders—whether by title or aspiration—share cheat codes for unlocking workplace excellence, lessons learned along the way, and insider tips for future generations of next-level professionals. With a career rooted in building people and businesses, Donald Thompson is an award-winning CEO, speaker, and author who empowers leaders to scale with purpose. Over the last 25 years, he has helped startups and enterprises alike drive cultural change, unlock performance, and deliver exceptional results through strategic leadership.
Find him on LinkedIn, and listen here to learn how you can become future-proof too.
Don - 00:00:04:
Welcome to High Octane Leadership with Donald Thompson. This season, we're diving deeper with more solo episodes where I'll share the experiences that have led to recognition by EY, Forbes, Fast Company, and others. Not as a boast, but as milestones on my entrepreneurial path. From growing multimillion dollar firms to successful business exits and building high performance teams with a global perspective. I'll reveal the insights and strategies from my journey and share them with you so that we can win together. Alongside these solo episodes, we'll have industry visionaries and thought leaders, and we'll explore effective leadership. Ready to empower your leadership journey with real success stories? Let's embark on this transformational journey together. Today I'm joined by Amber Keister. Amber is a certified diversity executive and content strategist who believes that everyone has a story to tell and that these stories have the power to bridge divides and build common ground. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Amber's career has spanned editing, writing, and even podcasting as a co-host of the Peak City Podcast, a public affairs program based in Apex, North Carolina. Amber brings a wealth of experience. Having worked as a writer, graphic designer, and editor for a regional lifestyle magazine. Today, she channels her passion for storytelling and DEI expertise into creating meaningful content and conversations that drive change. Welcome to the show, Amber.
Amber - 00:01:45:
Don, thanks again for inviting me to talk to you today about... Realigning business goals and DEI strategies. So where I'd like to start is to just set the stage a little bit. So earlier this month, Toyota announced that it was realigning its DEI program to fit more with business objectives. For example, it's going to focus on STEM education and workforce readiness, and it's not going to participate in external DEI surveys or external awards and evaluations. So the announcement was interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that the announcement followed similar moves by Ford Motor Company, which also announced that it was taking a fresh look at its DEI policies and, again, still keeping those core internal... Employee readiness objectives, but it's not going to be participating in those external surveys. So. The second thing that's really interesting is that, and why I wanted to talk about this today, is that both of these announcements appeared in the media, in Bloomberg and then the Associated Press, CNBC, under headlines that said that companies were walking back their DEI policies. And I think that was misleading.
Don - 00:03:31:
Yeah.
Amber - 00:03:34:
They were executives at these two companies were actually following best practices to align DEI initiatives with business goals. And that's what I want to talk about today. So let's...
Don - 00:03:50:
Yeah, that's exciting.
Amber - 00:03:52:
Why do you advise senior leaders to align diversity initiatives with business strategy and their corporate mission? Why is that a best practice?
Don - 00:04:03:
So a couple of thoughts, and I'll start out by a comment on your opening in that we're living in a sea of misinformation. In the headline, companies are walking back DEI. And the reality is they're actually more tightly coupling DEI with a better workplace for all. They're more tightly coupling DEI with the business needs of their organization. One of the things that we have struggled with as DEI practitioners, advocates, allies, whatever word that you want to use that feels good to you, people that promote equality, equity in the workplace. Is that we've always struggled with how to get this message through to the C-suite. So the language of business is profit and loss. The language of business is growth. The language of business is innovation. So what we have to do and what these companies are doing, which is very positive, right, is they're saying that we're going to move away from. The verbal food fights about what DEI is in the media. And we're going to align what we need to do to make better, safer cars. And in order to make better, safer cars, you need a more diversified workplace that is skilled in the STEM areas. In order to make better cars, you need a broader, more diversified workforce to sell your cars in a global. Ready economy. And so what these companies are doing is not new, not actually nuanced. It is actually just very smart and best practices. When you're entering, and back to your specific question about how do I encourage executives to align DEI with strategy, that's the only way it'll be sustained. And so any kind of initiative that you introduce into your organization, you want it to have some quick wins. A lot of business leaders call it low-hanging fruit. You want it to have measurable outcomes so that people can see the progress that they're making. And then you want it to be able to be innovated upon over time so that it moves correctly in alignment with the business's growth and strategy. These things are common business principles for those in leadership. What we did incorrectly that no one will say out loud is we created some level of confusion between social justice. And how to build a better workplace. Both things matter. But a corporation's business value is around creating growth for its shareholders. And so you do that by saying, how does hiring a more diverse workforce create value for our shareholders? Well, many companies say we need the best talent. You can't have the best talent if you're only talking to people that look the same. You cannot have the best talent if you're only talking to people from one gender. You cannot have the best talent if you don't have psychological safety in your organization so people stay and have good relationships with their managers. You can't be a best place to work. If, in fact, you don't have mentoring and sponsorship programs that allow emerging talent to grow and thrive in your organization. Here's the thing. In the last five analogies I used, statements I made. I didn't say the word DEI once. What I did very smartly, very simply. Is use language that leaders are familiar with to do the same things we all agree on. A lot of times things are packaging issues. And if you package something incorrectly, you can get a different response. Right? I'll make it even simpler than this. Right? If... My kids. Ask me for money. The reason they're asking me for money is because they want to do something. Right now, if they say, Dad, I need money. I want to go to the mall. No, why? We have, you have plenty of clothes here. Why do you need to go to the mall? Right? Why do you need this? I've got all kinds of questions, right? If my kids say, dad, is there anything I can do for you? Earn some extra money. So that I can go to the mall. I didn't hear anything about what they wanted to do. I heard the fact that they wanted to earn. They asked a question that involved a balance of mutual value. And I was very supportive of that packaging. But the end result is my kids wanted the extra money. And so in business, a lot of times what we want is we want leaders to do things because it's right, because it's fair, because it makes us feel good. Okay, I get it. Me too. But in talking to my boards, my boss, it don't work like that. In fact, our company was just acquired by a much larger company, Workplace Options. So I'm the CEO of The Diversity Movement. We are a workplace options company. We were acquired about a year ago. So now as the CEO of a small company, I have more rules, more budget, more protocols being part of a bigger company. And so if I'm having a conversation with my manager, the CEO that I work for about money, hey, Alan, can I get some extra money for my department? No. Right. Like this. Now, I don't I don't want to give you extra money for your department. Right. It doesn't make him a bad guy or right guy. But if I say, Alan, can I have some extra money for my department? And it's going to bring you back a million dollars in revenue if you give me this extra money now, because it's an investment that's going to make you more money in the future. Oh, I want to hear about that. Well, how's that going to work? Well, what market are you going to go after? How are we going to test that? What is the risk of that? Well, all of a sudden, it went to a conversation very quickly because I discussed and asked with mutual benefit. What we did incorrectly with DEI. Is we didn't link the ask for resource, the ask for programming, the ask for attention, the ask for focus with the equal and reciprocal benefit. The multiplicative benefit. Of what it was going to do for the organization. And so what Ford is doing, what Toyota is doing, what many companies are doing is they're taking all of the digital food fights that are going on around DEI, they're taking a step back and going, wait a minute. What are the elements of our DEI programming? That are required for us to win in the marketplace. Those are the things that are staying. Those are the things that deserve to stay. Those are the things that will be sustainable. And so it's a packaging exercise. And that's something that I see we all can do. And I think it's a worthy thing to do, to have return on investment aligned with anything that you want the employee to invest in or you want the employer to invest in. That mutual value exchange is really what these companies are talking about.
Amber - 00:11:18:
Well, thank you. And I want to stay on what you were talking about, the packaging issue, because I find that super, super interesting. Because it seems like these companies are... Messaging to two different audiences, their internal workforce stakeholders that, of course, want all the great things that you were talking about. They want a sense of belonging. They want employee engagement. They want inclusive leaders. They want all of these great things that, you know, really, who doesn't want?
Don - 00:11:56:
Sure. Right.
Amber - 00:11:57:
But they're also messaging to external customers and those... I would say very loud critics. For example. Toyota and Ford are very clear on their internal messaging on their website about their commitment to belonging and inclusion. Yet the external messaging is perhaps maybe they're less committed.
Don - 00:12:28:
Yeah, a little bit more muted, right?
Amber - 00:12:30:
So tell me about that balance. How do you make both sets of audiences happy?
Don - 00:12:37:
It makes them smart. Right. Like we all live in our personal and our professional lives, have different stakeholders. Right. We have different conversations with our very, very close friends. Our family and friends around the dinner table. Or at a cocktail party with work colleagues. And so what corporations are doing is they're being smart about their messaging while they keep their mission very closely held and driven for their internal employees and stakeholders. I think it's smart. The one thing that the naysayers, the negative purveyors of misinformation is what I like to call them, because I'm very open to honest critique about the business value of DEI. That's a good thing. That makes it stronger. That makes it like I, you know, if I'm talking to an executive and that executive says. I believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion, but I think we're trying to get too far too fast. I think I feel that my stance as a Christian is being attacked when we're talking about LGBTQ-ish. Well, okay, let's unpack that. Why do you feel like that? How can we do it better? What we're trying to do is create belonging for an underserved community. We're not trying to attack you. So if we're getting that off balance, let's discuss that. These are discussable things, right? And I'm super open, super happy to have these real conversations with thoughtful people. But there are purveyors of negative information and insight that are just using the terms DEI and weaponizing it. And those are the folks that we need to. Neutralize. And what that means is we can't give them all the oxygen to set the narrative about what creates a better workplace. Because all of their articles, all of their information are a negative point of view. And number two. They offer no information or insight of what should be done instead of. They don't say, don't do this. You should do this. They just say, don't do this. This is bad. Right. If somebody is a nutritionist and they tell me don't eat carbohydrates. Okay, what should I eat? I don't know. Just don't do that. What does that mean? I was talking to a young person about their resume, right? And I didn't love their resume. It didn't really portray their skills in a powerful way. Don't say that. And then he goes, okay, well, what should I say, Mr. Thompson? I don't know, but just don't say that. That is horrible advice, right? That's a terrible strategy. And so internally messaging care concern belonging to your employees while being thoughtful that you are working in a negative environment externally. Corporations have a very, very difficult balancing act. So I don't begrudge corporations for making sure that they think about all of their different customer segments. So long as they're making sure that they're taking care of the team that they committed to care for. Right? And that they're making sure that they have psychological safety, physical safety in their environment, well-being in their environment. We can't fix everything at once. And so I'm super happy when employee engagement is a pillar of CEO success. And so I'm not going to judge you for everything you've got to do to keep that train moving. I am very aware of the politics of the moment. And so if you have a board of directors at a big company, if you have a shareholder base at a big company, and we live in a 50-50 society. Then you have to manage to multiple constituents. And I'm not going to begrudge a corporate comms leader, a CEO, a CMO for having to manage that delicate process to continue to grow their business financially. I'm going to focus on the fact that you're doing good stuff for the people that you care about, that you're responsible for, and that you need to message it in a way that matches the business goals you got to go after. The reason that I've been successful in the DEI space, in the business space, I run technology companies, marketing companies, is I'm pragmatic. I'm not a social justice warrior. I'm a business process improvement advocate. I am a people operations excellent. I am a marketer. I am someone that says, if the business grows, then we have more money and programs to take care of our people. So let's do both. Let's grow our people and our market share. Right. If we had to coin a phrase, it would be pragmatic DEI. Let's focus on what can work in this environment, not what we hope should work because it's right or just or different things. And again, I get all that. I would love to my life have been fair and not be discriminated as a black man in this country. I would have loved to not have to go 15 years in my career without selling to someone that looks like me. Right. We can talk about fairness. Right. From a gender perspective, from an ethnicity perspective, from a sexual. Like I get it. Like I want it to. Right. But since I live in the real world. Where people have biases, where people have different things that motivate them. We got to teach people how to navigate the chaos. And we got to be real about what that looks like.
Amber - 00:18:06:
You've given some really great advice about, you know, focusing on. What can be accomplished, what can be achieved. And, and really, again, Keeping that. That primary focus on your mission and how you can take care of your employees. I'm going to pull back a little bit. What lessons can, can other companies learn from? From organizations like Toyo. In other words, Are there... Low-hanging fruit to align your DEI strategy to your business mission? What are some things that really can help your business and create that employee engagement?
Don - 00:18:57:
Yeah. So we talked a lot about Toyota and Ford and they're doing some good stuff. And I don't want to go too deep on those because I don't work with them directly. So I'll pivot and talk about some of the companies, not necessarily by name, but that I work with more directly. And some of the low-hanging fruit. Let's just think about client service or customer service. Let's just say you're a banking organization or financial organization, right? A thing that is always, it's not shocking to me, but it's awesome, right, is the LGBTQ community has $1.4 trillion in buying power globally. If I'm in the financial institution, or if I'm selling cars, I want my frontline professionals to understand pronouns. To be thoughtful and ask people how they would like to be addressed. To be thoughtful in the way that you communicate with people, knowing that it's not always the man that makes the buying decision. So to give equal time in a conversation, if it's a... Male-female couple, if it is someone in that traditional frame, then we're just talking about gender bias. And so training your frontline professionals to be thoughtful in their communication is good for business. That's not changing the way your employees as an individual feel about their life, their family, their religion. It's helping them perform better at work because they're better communicators. So we need to talk about inclusive listening so that we can better listen to people that may have different accents because they're from their country of origin may be different. These are the types of things that employees need to equip them to operate successfully in an extremely diverse society. You can like DEI, hate DEI, be a proponent of DEI, but math says. That our society is more diverse than it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. So you need to create a workforce that can manage that. Workforce that is more diverse, sell to a more diverse workforce, and integrate with in a way that meets your corporate goals. So inclusive communication, inclusive leadership. Another low-hanging fruit is your marketing. When you're building out a marketing program, when you're building out a digital path forward, right, externally, make sure you have a diverse team that's looking at it before it gets put into market. And that diversity is not just gender or sexual orientation. It also could be generational. Do you have the folks that are in that Gen Z demographic on your team looking at some of your marketing content so that you really are thinking about diversity with a broad kaleidoscope? And you're thinking about neurodiversity. You're thinking about ageism. You're thinking about the generational diversity and how are young people assimilating into the new economy. All of these things align with a better workplace for all, which creates a more impactful workplace for us to make and grow and make money. And at the end of the day, that's really what we're trying to do. So what we've done at the The Diversity Movement Workplace Options Company is we've started to focus on employee engagement. And employee engagement allows us to create a broad conversation about what most leaders want very specifically, which is a more productive workforce. And if I have more engaged employees, then guess what? I'm going to beat my competition more often than if I don't.
Amber - 00:22:42:
Well, Don, that's a great place to end it because who doesn't want to work in a great workplace? So thank you so much. I just so appreciate the conversation and the opportunity to talk about a couple things in the news. So I appreciate it.
Don - 00:23:00:
All right. Thanks, Amber. It's always fun and absolutely my pleasure. Thank you for joining us on High Octane Leadership with Donald Thompson. Today's episode is a step in our collective journey towards leadership excellence. Remember. Every story we share and every insight we gain is a piece in the puzzle of our leadership journey. For more insight and detail, hit the subscribe button so that we can stay connected. For deeper information and more episodes, go to donaldthompson.com. Continue to lead with vision and purpose. And until we meet again, embrace your role as a high-octane leader in the ever-evolving world of business.