Simon Sinek says leaders failed to respond meaningfully after George Floyd's murder because they lack skills for uncomfortable conversations about privilege and race. He argues empathy and active listening can be taught, and that leaders must go first, starting difficult conversations imperfectly rather than waiting for the right words.
Chapters
You've seen this event of privilege happen. You know, I've sat there. We did this on Zoom. It was so weird that we couldn't do this in person, but, you know, the social events were happening and we realized we need to listen, we need to talk. There's something going on here, and it's not something going on, it's just there's been a lot that has not been said that's always been there. Yep. What does privilege, what does that whole thing mean to you? And how do we. How do we deal with it? I mean, the correct response is empathy. Right.
And the sort of excessive apologizing, like to apologize for how you were born is a strange reaction. But the most important thing, I think, is empathy, to try to understand, to try and relate. And we saw this happen. It didn't happen, unfortunately, because we don't teach the skills. We don't teach active listening. We don't teach executives or any employee in our company how to make someone else feel heard, feel understood, feel seen, which is where it starts. And if that can happen, then all kinds of trust builds and all the other things start to break away. So, for example, after the murder of George Floyd, I was astonished at the number of people in a leadership position, regardless of mid ranking on up.
Did nothing. You mean in the police force or just in. Right? No, no. In companies, people who lead teams that after the murder of George Floyd, they didn't talk to their teams, they just did nothing. And it's not because they're bad people. It's because they didn't have the skills. They didn't know how to have an uncomfortable or difficult conversation. And so they chose nothing, which makes things worse.
And this is just a skill we can teach people. And here's how to have a difficult conversation. You bring your team together and say, we need to have an uncomfortable conversation about race and our company. And.
I'm nervous to have this conversation because I'm afraid that I'm going to bumble something. I'm afraid that I'm going to say something that will trigger somebody. And I'm afraid I'm gonna say something or someone will say something that may agitate and make this worse. But I think it's more important that we have this conversation.
Than my fear of doing this perfectly. And that's how you start a difficult conversation. And it is difficult, but it is necessary. And those conversations are not happening. And again, not because of bad people. It's because people are afraid and they don't have the skills to start those conversations. And it is the responsibility of leaders, because that's what we call you, leader. We call you leader because you go first. Not because you're in charge, but because you go first. First to the unknown, first to the difficult, first to the dangerous. And it is our responsibility.
As a corporation to empower and educate our leaders to do the things that they need to do with their teams. And of course, up on high, same thing.
So I think that's where it begins. There's a tremendous lack of listening in our nation.
And a lot of talking, a lot of yelling, very little listening.
