Tag Archive for: cognitive diversity

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg shows the value of cognitive diversity; stepping down from META

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Sheryl Sandberg shows that diversity is more than skin deep.

Facebook’s visionary founder, Mark Zuckerberg, struggled to make the social media platform profitable. He had the big ideas right but was having trouble making the company successful. He needed someone whose superpowers included creating systems so the company could do routine things routinely and to a high standard.

He hired Sandberg, and the rest is history.

Zuckerberg, a Pioneer in SLA’s PROM ArchetypesTM, had the vision but could not make the trains run on time. He needed an Operator — someone who had a natural affinity for building processes and holding people accountable for doing the right things the right ways. Sandberg was the perfect fit.

sheryl sandberg

Had Zuckerberg based his COO decision on identity groups, Facebook would probably have gone the way of MySpace. Hiring a Pioneer of a different race or gender would have boosted the leadership team’s biological diversity but not its ability to be successful.

Lincoln’s cabinet and Google’s leadership team, once founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin hired Eric Schmidt and Jon Rosenberg, are also case studies in cognitive diversity.

Physical diversity improves your legitimacy; cognitive diversity improves your performance. You need both to succeed.

Sandberg’s advice to Harvard graduates, “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on,” misses the central point of her own contribution to META’s success. She was the right person for the right role, which made all the difference. Sometimes we need help seeing the real reasons for our successes.

Here are three great ways to boost your team’s performance.

1. Set up people for success by putting them in roles where they use their superpowers daily. The PROM ArchetypesTM self-assessment is a great starting point.

2. Make doing the right things simple. Standards and processes that are clear and intuitive will be light years more successful than cumbersome and confusing requirements.

3. Meet people where they are and move forward from there. You make more progress when you go to someone else’s bus stop and see things from their perspective than you do by demanding that they adopt your point of view.

If inspiring people to contribute their best to your team’s success is important to you, then you will love my 8-week program, Becoming a WHY? Leader TM. It’s ideal for leadership teams because the program helps you communicate better, create shared understanding, and develop common operating principles. These results build trust and lasting success. To see if the program is a good fit, reply to this email or go to https://callSLA.as.me/Chris to set up a call.

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The Trusted Adviser Program is my most intensive 1-on-1 program. Within 90 days, you’ll gain sustainable habits that create breakthrough success. You get personalized coaching and support, strict accountability, and commonsense action steps that get results so that you reach your goals more quickly and consistently. Soar to new heights here.

The Founders Forum is a mastermind group for consultants, solo practitioners, and owners of boutique firms who want to shorten their path to a meaningful, joyful, and profitable business. You’ll accelerate the quality and speed of your thought leadership, develop a business development process that you are proud to execute (and avoids the awkward pushiness), and brand building that you are pleased to display (and avoids the slimy feeling of self-promoting).  

CEO Mastermind group is for Milwaukee-area small business leaders and consultants who want to accelerate their growth in 2022. We meet monthly for lunch, and you get unlimited access to me for coaching and advising. I’m limiting the group to 8. Four places are remaining.

The CEO Global Mastermind is for CEOs and senior leaders who want to surround themselves with people united in the common purpose of being the best they can be, learning from each other, avoiding drift and complacency, and soaring to new heights. We meet monthly via zoom, plus you get unlimited access to me.

Mastery programs include Expert Consulting Mastery, Innovative Thought Leadership, and leadership experiences at Antietam & Gettysburg, Normandy, West Point, and many others.

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cognitive diversity

We have a Cognitive Diversity Problem

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How can I better integrate cognitive diversity in business and in life

Affinity bias is the subconscious tendency to favor people who look, think, and act as we do. Attitudinal bias, on the other hand, is conscious bigotry.

I find that most people, outside of traditional bigots and woke bigots, recognize the benefits of diversity and take steps to reduce the impact of affinity bias.

The CEOs and leaders in this community (I admit there’s a selection bias of good people here) want a physically diverse workforce, so that race, gender, and other demographics reflect the community they are serving. The differences tend to be whether you hire to a particular outcome or look at representation and broaden your inputs as necessary.

Correcting for biological diversity is relatively straightforward, and decent people don’t need punitive and demeaning programming to figure it out.

Cognitive diversity (bringing together people who think differently) is a more daunting challenge because it’s difficult to see and recognize. A subconscious disdain toward people who think differently is commonplace because there’s comfort in the status quo, and leaders tend not to like boat-rockers.

Complacency is often the consequence of doing the same things repeatedly and expecting the same results. This problem affects businesses, governments, militaries, and nonprofits.

Leaders such as Abraham Lincoln valued cognitive diversity. His so-called team of rivals was a cognitively diverse crew. George Washington built his cabinet the same way, and Dwight Eisenhower picked people of varied observable contributions to be on his staff. Cognitive diversity plus buy-in for the common good made the whole more significant than the sum of its parts.

OK. I get why cognitive diversity is essential. How do I make it happen?

We created the PROM Archetypes TM to give you a helpful framework. Pioneers, Reconcilers, Operators, and Mavericks have distinct and observable contributions when using their natural talents. Representation from all four provides you with powerful advantages over organizations where everyone thinks alike. Google, Facebook, Apple, and others have cultivated cognitive diversity alongside other forms.

The PROM Archetypes TM gives you ways to recognize these distinct and observable contributions and help people be their best selves. Leaders not attuned to cognitive diversity will tend to select and promote people who think and act as they do — the mini-me syndrome (as my mentor Michele Flournoy calls it). This affinity bias turns off people who aren’t like you, and before long, they vote with their feet, and only the clones remain.

You can start building cognitive diversity by taking our PROM Archetypes TM quiz and having your team do the same. SLA’s content will help you make the best use of this information, and I or any SLA team member will be delighted to help you gain the cognitive diversity that’s right for you.

What action steps are you taking to promote cognitive diversity?

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Growth Programs

The Trusted Adviser Program is my most intensive 1-on-1 program. Within 90 days, you’ll gain sustainable habits that create breakthrough success. You get personalized coaching and support, strict accountability, and commonsense action steps that get results so that you reach your goals more quickly and consistently. Soar to new heights here.

CEO Mastermind group is for Milwaukee-area small business leaders and consultants who want to accelerate their growth in 2022. We meet monthly for lunch, and you get unlimited access to me for coaching and advising. I’m limiting the group to 8. Four places are remaining. Reply to me for more details.

The Global CEO Mastermind is for CEOs and senior leaders who want to surround themselves with people united in the common purpose of being the best they can possibly be, learning from each other, avoiding drift and complacency, and soaring to new heights. We meet monthly via zoom, plus you get unlimited access to me. I’m limiting the group to 8. Reply to me for more details.