Bridging the Nation’s Socio-Geo-Political Divides

More than ever, business leaders are having to address – in real-time - the practical implications of our country’s social, political, and public health challenges inside their companies. And some of them are managing these issues in a more powerful, effective, and positive way than our political leaders are doing at the national level.

Matt* leads a privately-owned company that employs people in the Northeast, California, the Midwest, and the South. Approximately half of his team members are more conservative politically, and about half are more liberal. The majority are vaccinated, but a large minority are not. The vaccinated employees are demanding he set hard rules about vaccination. If he does so, he risks alienating those who are not vaccinated and potentially losing them, which would cripple the business. If he does nothing, he risks alienating the vaccinated employees and potentially losing them, too, also crippling the business. His solution is to generate a set of company-wide situational policies that both protect the health of all without losing half of the workforce on either side of this issue. He found a fair, neutral, middle path that also honors his personal value of protecting all employees’ wellbeing.

Sam* found a middle path through very challenging racial issues in his company. He leads a company with operations in every state and a very large, talented African American employee population. His company prioritizes diversity and inclusion in its culture to support employees of color, who have looked to him to take a stand on BLM and to publicly respond to some of the dramatic racial events that have occurred in the last couple of years. At the same time, there is a large number of more politically conservative employees who oppose BLM and would feel alienated if the company took a major public stand on the issue. Sam risks losing both sizeable and necessary populations with his actions or inaction with regard to race. Sam found an approach to include both sides of this divisive political topic by creating special interest groups for team members of color, giving them time off to attend BLM events, and checking in with African American team members individually when racial tragedies occur. The company has made public statements about supporting social justice broadly, without explicitly aligning with BLM. He also disallows people to wear clothing with BLM or other political issues/affiliations at work. While neither side feels fully satisfied with this middle path, at least Sam has not lost any team members over these issues, and they are able to work together productively.

While elected officials pander to one extreme or the other as a matter of political strategy, business leaders cannot afford to exclude half of their employee- and customer-bases when creating policies and making decisions. Many of my coaching clients are therefore doing what politicians are not: finding the “middle path” through extreme differences in opinion about the pandemic, race, political parties and candidates, and myriad other topics. They are finding ways to enable people on opposite sides of these spectrums (and everywhere in between) to co-exist in a productive, collaborative, harmonious way. Because they have to.

The beautiful thing about businesses is that most of them touch all of the very different groups – racial, gender, socioeconomic, geographic, political, urban/rural, sexual orientation, religious – that represent the divides in American culture. Some business leaders choose to take a bold stand in support of one position (think of some technology companies making it difficult for President Trump to use their platforms). Yet others choose to find a way to include everyone.

If you are a business leader being “called” to confront divisive national-level issues inside your company or among your customers, you may wish to consider the following:

Get very clear about the organization’s values.
Also get very clear about your own values and positions on these divisive topics.
- What is your “north star” value(s) you wish to prioritize over everything else in addressing this topic in your organization? This may be different for each divisive issue you need to address.
Closely monitor your emotional responses to these issues. They can be triggering, causing strong feelings of anger and frustration, blaming, and black-and-white thinking. These feelings are totally legitimate and natural, but they do not create the best internal platform upon which to make big business decisions. Work with someone to feel and release these emotions, without suppressing or diminishing them. You have a right to your natural response.
Solicit feedback from all perspectives inside your company. Just hear them out, without responding immediately. Thank each person for sharing their views.
What does “both-and” look like? What policies and approaches can you creatively imagine that would honor the organization’s values, your own values, and the needs and interests of as many constituents as possible? What path forward is the in the highest and best interests of all involved? Brainstorm ideas, and then turn off your mind. Allow your creative unconscious to work on it. Solutions and possibilities will come to the surface.

As much and as quickly as the political process is deepening the divides in our nation, CEOs have the opportunity to bring us back together.

**Note: These cases are based on my work with clients who have given me explicit permission to share this part of their story. The names and some details have been changed to preserve confidentiality, which is a cornerstone of my leadership coaching practice.