Why People Need To See Themselves In Leadership Positions

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jul 26, 2013

I’m going to tell a true story.

I’m working out of town, and I went to drop off some shirts at the dry cleaners the other day. The woman behind the counter, a black woman, started talking to me like she normally does.

She asked me if my wife missed me since I was out of town so often. I told her that my wife was also working out of town right now.

“What does your wife do?”

“She’s an EEG technologist.”

“What’s that?”

“I tell people she tries to get people to have seizures. In truth she measures brain waves and activity and sometimes in the process of doing certain procedures some people actually have seizures.”

“Really? You must have married a white woman.”

That’s a true statement. No idea where it came from. So I responded “No, she’s black.”

“She is? Then she must be really smart.”

Over the course of 12 years of being in business for myself, I haven’t done as much diversity work as I would like to. However, I don’t let it stop me from giving my opinion here and there when it’s needed. I can say this without anyone contradicting me; except for where I am now, since I don’t know who the top people are, in only one company has there been a single black person in a position of any real power. And that was a company where the employees were predominantly black so I’m not sure it counts as much.

But that’s not all. In every company, including that one, there’s never been anyone Hispanic, Native American, or Asian American in a position of power either. Well, that’s not quite true; there was one director who was born in Cuba who was in a director position in New Jersey, but that’s it.

Why is this important?

It’s important because when people don’t see anyone who they perceive is like them getting opportunities to be something better than the next person, having a true opportunity to be someone who has true authority and power and the opportunity to change things and be a leader, they think they’ll never have those opportunities either so why try. Sure, it’s not 100%, and many people have achieved because they had something in them that pushed them forward. But historically that’s just not the case.

Extending this point, it takes more than just one person to help change a culture as well. For instance, there may be a president whose last name is Obama, but that didn’t suddenly mean that most black children really believed they could grow up to be president. To start a culture change it takes at least one, but to fully change a culture one has to be willing to break the mold and truly open things up to everyone, no matter their background.

Sometimes it may involve a mentoring program of some sort, being proactive in some way. Sometimes it may involve taking a chance and stepping up to the plate on your own to advocate for change. I did that at the last place where I was a permanent employee.

I first took the step of going to HR and saying they needed to recruit more minorities from the town; they said that wasn’t their job & that they needed people to apply.

I then went to a couple of people working at the hospital who were, of course, in housekeeping. I asked why people in the community didn’t apply for positions and they said no one ever got hired except for housekeeping and the cafeteria. I told them to talk to people who they felt were as smart as anyone else who could represent themselves well to apply for positions at the hospital and that I’d guarantee that some of them would get interviews.

I hired the first black employee other than myself who wasn’t in those other two departments. By the time I left we had black people, Hispanic people and a deaf person working there. In my own way I helped change the culture, even if I wasn’t there long enough to help lead someone into a leadership position.

Still, I proved it can be done if someone cares. It’s my hope that more people will care; true leaders want divergent voices giving them opinions and people of all skills and backgrounds working with them to help them expand in many ways. There’s enough opportunity for everyone if only given a chance.