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The Newsletter | Edition 038
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In our Off-White Papers, we provide practical guidance on how to respond to our rapidly-changing world. This weekly newsletter explores those topics in real-time, with information and action steps on how to make progress now.
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...CONFRONTING STATUS
We aspire to live outside of “status,” and yet it's an unfortunate part of our lives. The power structures at play when it comes to social status can attribute an unspoken, but ever-present level of value to people in any given scenario, from our work lives to our personal ones, to society at large. What's more, status is highly contextual. And while workplaces strive for cultures of meritocracy, that dream isn't always achieved in practice—particularly for marginalized groups. So how can leaders confront status?
- Assume you know nothing, from Kennedy Whittington-Cooper
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Role play all day, from Camille Drucker
- Why titles can be complacent, from Ilana Bondell
And this time, our illustrations from Nora Mestrich.
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RESHAPING STATUS From Kennedy Whittington-Cooper
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TL;DRPerception is powerful. The beliefs cultivated from an early age around roles and responsibility create ingrained gender biases and assumptions. However, our perception of stereotyped roles, particularly rooted in gender, are slowly eroding with exposure to domestic responsibility and shared essential labor.
WHY IT MATTERSWe are quick to judge others based on the roles we assume they occupy. This collective bias hinges on the gendered roles and responsibilities that we have assigned unto others. But in reality, you have no clue about someone’s home roles based on their work responsibilities. At work, and in all facets of our lives, it’s essential to deconstruct the preconceived notions that reinforce biases, and instead foster a culture that erases these assumptions and embraces role-diversity.
ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
Widen job descriptions to embrace diverse responsibilities across the board.
THOUGHTSRe-examine job roles and responsibilities. Take a look back at the existing job descriptions and revise aspects that may be exclusionary to certain groups or that have a clear bias embedded in the position. Be mindful of the language you use—potentially invite constructive feedback from new hires to long-time employees to help.
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WHAT'S IN A NAME?From Camille Drucker
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TL;DRWorldwide clapping ovations for essential workers may have subsided. Still, if there’s one thing to keep top of mind as we move forward, it’s that we extend greater respect to our fellow humans when we acknowledge their power to pull us out of the metaphorical (or literal) rubble. In this week’s Dense Discovery newsletter, Kai Brach eloquently reminds us that while our modern lives—and by extension our corporate structures—trick us into believing we’re self-reliant individuals, none of us could thrive personally or professionally without a superbly elaborate, interdependent network of labor.
WHY IT MATTERSA healthy dose of individualism at work has its advantages—breeding creativity and high-performance. That said, our love of ‘self-made’ success stories becomes problematic when it imbues titles—and salaries—with outsized individual worth, leading senior executives to undervalue and underinvest in the talent they ultimately depend on to succeed.
ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
Normalize titles as qualitative markers of contribution, rather than quantitative measures of individual value.
TIPS ON HOW
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Put your interdependency on display. Consider keeping a complete org chart in full view of employees daily; use it to remind junior talent that they have an important role to play, and leaders that they could not succeed without dedicated teams
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Experiment with title conventions. Consider what your titles would be if they were used not to denote rank, but rather to depict the full spectrum of responsibilities associated with each role
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Make time for role play. Consider making roles and responsibilities contextual rather than constant. At SYLVAIN, directors of strategy often work alongside junior strategists to support a project, and junior strategists are sometimes tasked with leading a project, managing senior talent in the process
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WHEN STATUS BECOMES VIRTUE-SIGNALINGFrom Ilana Bondell
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TL;DRAccording to a Q4 2020 study from LinkedIn, ‘Chief Diversity Officer’ was the fastest-growing C suite position in 2020, growing 84% as a proportion of the total senior executives hired. While placing these thinkers in positions of power should, at face value, signal progress, we remain in danger of back-patting all too quickly.
WHY IT MATTERSLeveraging the status conferred by job titles as a method of values-communication within an organization is a tricky dance. On one hand, elevating intersectional folks into positions of traditional power to oversee “less traditional” areas of corporate responsibility is critical. It’s a practical way for businesses to begin reckoning with and preparing for the realities they’ll need to have a POV on to survive. But the key word there is “begin”: a status-y title badge is one thing, but implementing meaningful change throughout an org is a whole other. We need to remain vigilant against complacency here.
ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
Consider whether the values of your organization are reflected in your highest-ranking positions.
FURTHER THOUGHTSFor better or for worse, the C-suite still can and does wield heavy status. It’s not surprising that Chief Diversity Officer is the fastest-growing C-suite title following the race and equity reckoning we as individuals and corporations have been grappling with over the last year+. That said, it’s worth considering what other leadership titles might be worth elevating at your organization, as one (!!) step in actioning a fresh commitment to 21st century values. For example, these other titles are on the rise:
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Chief Learning Officer: Signals a commitment to employee growth through both formal and more informal, widely accessible solutions
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Chief Sustainability Officer: Signals the prioritization of a company’s environmental impact, and its interplay with ROI
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Chief Privacy Officer: Signals the value placed on protecting customer data, compliance and customer rights
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Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer: Ah, the good ol’ CAIO. Signals a company’s interest in centering AI-driven solutions and ensuring their deep complexities (ethical, technical, and otherwise) are being considered.
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