I have always felt that affirmative action was an insult. Being a women who broke into a man’s field in the 70s it was hard But at no time did I ever want to be treated differently. The best manager I had that taught me what it meant to lead was a tough as nails women manager. She did not pull any punches in her expectations of me. When I was promoted into the executive leadership I knew I earned it. The best present I could give to my minority and women employees was to do the same. I remember one in particular who was a black man who had been there for 15 plus years and although technically great lacked the leadership skills to move beyond the second level entry. I read all his performance evaluations and knew he wanted very much to move up. I decided I needed to get to know him personally a bit more. What was he like outside of work. What I found shocked me. In his outside world he was a strong leader in several areas now you could conclude that the system was biased or racist and I am sure there was some of that. But the worse part of the racism is having low expectations to avoid conflict. Well my women boss taught me well and at a one on one I confronted him on this issue how in the world did he have all these great leadership qualities outside of work but not inside. I gave specific examples and he was shocked but it opened a door and all his assumptions and frustrations came out and they were quite actionable for both him and I. The end result was he slowly but surely transferred those leadership skills to his work and he moved up to where he should have been. This was not an isolated case. It happened to me again and again. I believe the managers/leaders who engage in low expectations are both lazy, fearful and incompetent. A system such as affirmative action just encourages this and even rewards this incompetency and further exasperates the fear that stymies real relationships such that honest communication can take place
I have always felt that affirmative action was an insult. Being a women who broke into a man’s field in the 70s it was hard But at no time did I ever want to be treated differently. The best manager I had that taught me what it meant to lead was a tough as nails women manager. She did not pull any punches in her expectations of me. When I was promoted into the executive leadership I knew I earned it. The best present I could give to my minority and women employees was to do the same. I remember one in particular who was a black man who had been there for 15 plus years and although technically great lacked the leadership skills to move beyond the second level entry. I read all his performance evaluations and knew he wanted very much to move up. I decided I needed to get to know him personally a bit more. What was he like outside of work. What I found shocked me. In his outside world he was a strong leader in several areas now you could conclude that the system was biased or racist and I am sure there was some of that. But the worse part of the racism is having low expectations to avoid conflict. Well my women boss taught me well and at a one on one I confronted him on this issue how in the world did he have all these great leadership qualities outside of work but not inside. I gave specific examples and he was shocked but it opened a door and all his assumptions and frustrations came out and they were quite actionable for both him and I. The end result was he slowly but surely transferred those leadership skills to his work and he moved up to where he should have been. This was not an isolated case. It happened to me again and again. I believe the managers/leaders who engage in low expectations are both lazy, fearful and incompetent. A system such as affirmative action just encourages this and even rewards this incompetency and further exasperates the fear that stymies real relationships such that honest communication can take place