Episode 301: Do you understand the value of emotional IQ?

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

My name is Donald Thompson. I am the chief executive officer at the Diversity Movement. What we do is help organizations link their diversity, equity, inclusion efforts to the business growth measurements that they need to thrive in, in the new economy. And we do that very simply by providing product and tools, for example, e-learning, mobile learning, so that they can use diversity, equity, inclusion at scale.

Well, Donald, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2, what is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?

One of the things that makes me smile and laugh is how many misconceptions there are about diversity, equity, inclusion. Unfortunately, today you say diversity, people think that equals race equals critical race theory equals bad, when really diversity, equity, inclusion is about socioeconomic. It is about neurodiversity, right? It is more than just race, gender, and sexual identity. It's about people that are coming out of the military service and back into their careers, right? There's so many different layers in the kaleidoscope of DEI. We enjoy demystifying diversity, equity, inclusion.

Oh, and I love that too, because my son is actually in the Air Force, and he's going to be transitioning out in the next year. And I hadn't thought of it that way. So you've taught me something new as well.

Fantastic.

Question number 3, I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Most business leaders should read the chapter on emotional IQ. So many leaders are tactically proficient. Many leaders are visionary, and storytelling is something that they're gifted with. At the end of the day, we're dealing with people, and we have to learn to lead where people are able to learn and grow. And that's usually pretty difficult for many leaders because we all have dominant styles, and we have to slow down and work and reference from the style of the person we're trying to lead and grow.

Mm-hmm. I think that that's really insightful, especially if you want to connect with the people that you're leading with, because if you try and push a certain style that doesn't fit with what they're receptive to, I can only imagine what kind of, of stress that would create. Would you agree?

I would absolutely agree. And if we think about it generationally, for example, right, it's learning styles, it's introvert, extrovert, all those different things. But then we have a lot of different generations working together more so than at any other time in our corporate history. And we all have different perspectives on life and work and balance and integration. And we have to really be careful not to radiate our point of view that discounts the point of view of others.

Uh-huh. That is so, so insightful. Thank you so much. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice would you give to other business leaders?

One of the things that I try to continue to work on is how do you link the daily efforts of the folks on your team to the overall business strategy of the corporation. When people understand what they do every day and how it aligns with the corporate vision, how it helps their community, how it grows the bottom line, how it creates more security for them and their coworkers, we tend to put more engagement into something we fully understand. The further away we are to that mission, the more we just kind of go through the motions just to meet the basic numbers. So my advice to business leaders, something I've learned, is how do you link those daily activities, those behaviors you want to encourage for your employees, to the overall mission of the organization?

I love that because it's not just about having, let's say, the corporate values on a, you know, on your card that you get into the facility, but it's actually helping them understand what their contribution makes to the overall corporation. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

And I'll give a very, very super quick example. When you're talking to somebody in finance and they think they're just crushing the numbers, but their ability to accurately forecast the measures of the business help for planning and growth for executives to make better informed decisions. So now all of a sudden, getting it right has a direct alignment for the organization growing and thriving because the accuracy allows us to be more visionary, take a little bit more smart risk, in growing the company. So that's a quick example of somebody that could think that their daily tasks don't really mean a lot when in actuality, the outcome of those tasks means a lot for the business leader.

Oh, it's a great example. And we have a lot of people who are in finance that listen to the show. So I think they'll be able to relate to that. So thank you. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

So a good friend of mine, mentor, and his name is Grant Willard. He's the founder of a company called June Jewelbug. Jewelbug a sustainability app. Right. So it allows you to have fun while you're saving the planet. But Grant is a product visionary. He built this application in this company 7 years ago before sustainability was cool. It's on the map now with ESG, but he was able to see into the future of things that we would need to make a new transformational idea fun to adopt. And I think Grant Willard would be somebody amazing that I'm a big fan of that I think would be great for you to talk with.

Oh, he sounds like a great person. I appreciate the referral. I look forward to talking to him. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

Oh man, so the job I'll tell you about is I was a fry cook, excuse me, at a company called Monk's. And it was basically a hamburger and steak joint in Greenville, North Carolina. And so I would be running the grill, making the cheesesteaks and different things. And that's how I paid bills, right, in high school and coming into college. And we got so good at our jobs, those of us that were working the grill line, that we could carry on a multitude of conversations, right, while we were doing the work. And it was a lot of fun, but it also let me know I didn't want to be in the restaurant business long term. Great. I think about how hard we've worked for how little money. Uh, it was a good, uh, environment for me to learn and grow and make some extra cash, uh, but it wasn't something when I was having to clean that grill at the end of every shift that I wanted to do as a long-term part of my future.

Oh, I totally can relate to that because I was a busboy, one of my first jobs. And not only was I in charge of having to clean that grill because the cooks were the higher paid people, but also because I had to clean those rubber, you know, mats that they had underneath, you know, where the grill was. Oh, it was so gross. Like, no, thank you.

I remember.

So Donald, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

So DonaldThompson.com is my personal website. You can also go to TheDiversityMovement.com, and that's where you can really understand how we're bringing products and technology into the DEI space.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.