An Open Letter To Corporate America’s CEOs And President Elect Job Biden

HOW TO CREATE A PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE, POST-TRUMP WORKPLACE

Two days after the 2020 Presidential Election, while many Black American citizens were still celebrating the Biden/Harris presidential victory, I ran across a skit created by Jazmyn W (@jazymynjw), a black American ex-corporate professional, turned comedian and content creator. Jazmyn created a soberingly funny Tik Tok episode titled, “Black Women on Monday,” about a black female co-worker who is listening in on her Monday morning after the election team conference call. The call is led by her white female team leader who starts the meeting with an overly zealous tribute to the Biden/Harris victory and makes uncomfortable references to our “changing country.”

The increasingly frustrated black woman interrupts the meeting and poses the following question, “There are 12 white women on this call, which six or seven of you all voted for him?” The team leader launched into an awkward moment of “ whitesplaining, “ to which the Black female colleague repeatedly says, “spit it out!”

And there it was, a Tik Tok skit that cleverly introduces what many Blacks I have spoken to over the past few days are fearing as they head back into their virtual American workplaces. When Trump voters commit acts fueled by white fragility and rage against their Black colleagues, who will protect us?

Evidence of white rage from “Karen” episodes to police brutality are in abundance on social media platforms frequented by millennials and Gen Z workers. Yet a question looms that nobody wants to talk about across the workplace race line. What should CEOs do to guarantee that their Black, Latinx and non-white employees feel “psychologically safe” while working in workplaces where 57 % of white American women and 71 million Americans voted for a President whose policies, practices and actions have done more to denigrate the contributions of poor, working class, immigrant, non-white, Americans than any other U. S. President in their millennial lifetimes?

A psychologically safe workplace for black employees must forge beyond an assuaging white guilt and defending white innocence by over focusing on “implicit bias” in the workplace. We need CEOs to assume a bigger leadership role in creating policies, systems, and metrics that guarantee a safe workplace culture for people of color. We need CEO’s assurance that Trump devotees cause a spike in actsof collusion and retaliation against non-white employees and particularly Black women under their watch?

A game of thrones is sure to play out daily between black female Biden supporters and white female Trump supporters for years ahead in the American workplace, especially in functions where white women congregate like human resources. CEOs should not let the unearned privilege of one group generate unfair burdens for members of other groups. After all, we are referring to the same President Trump who just a few months ago signed an executive order banning the military and federal contractor’s use of diversity training programs that suggest that the United States is “an irredeemably racist and sexist country.” And what happens to black American citizens in a nation and workplace where the mention of Black Lives Matter in many company training classes is now against the law?

Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonson defines psychological safety as “the shared belief among team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” She explains that “team psychological safety is involved but goes beyond interpersonal trust; it describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.”

I invite you Mr. President Elect Biden and corporate America’s CEOs to be a part of the solution? We need much more than implicit bias training and an onslaught of Chief Diversity Officer hires who are powerless to invoke sustainable change. We need a new brand of c-suite leaders, shepherds, warriors and architects to build a more beautiful workplace and nation. We need leaders who can demonstrate the meta-competences of “beautiful leadership” that is defined, measured and experienced as care, transparency and trust for all.

I am just one of a number of global thought leaders and trusted advisors who want to help America’s CEOs rise beyond this moment and create psychologically safe workplaces for all Americans, most especially black Americans and other groups of marginalized talent.

Toby Thompkins is the Founder and CEO of SAFIOO Inc., a global leadership development and decision-making support platform for managers, leaders and teams in remote and global workplaces.

[1] Page 350 in Edmondson, A. 1999. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44 (2): 350–383

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.