Making Corporate Leadership Human with Ginny Clarke

We invite our friend, Ginny Clarke, to Hacker Valley this week to talk about conscious leadership and self-awareness as a way to take our organizations to the next level. Using her prior experience at tech giants like Google and her five dimensions of leadership, Ginny explains how we can better hold the leaders in our lives accountable, what will benefit our civilization the most for future generations in the workplace, and where we should focus our efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 

Timecoded Guide:

[05:34] Losing her parents at a young age, connecting to a spiritual guide to cope with grief and stress, and getting back in touch with ourselves in order to connect with others

[12:03] Seeing and validating the past experiences of our fellow humans, healing ourselves in order to heal organizations, and acknowledging the role of mental health in the health of our companies

[16:34] Understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond just hiring, and stopping yourself from waiting for an organization to step up to an opportunity that belongs to underrepresented communities

[22:38] Shifting the metrics of how we value organizations and leadership, and seeing where the accountability issues of CEOs for what they really are

[27:48] Leaving a legacy through creativity and inspiring others to recognize how they have the power to change the world

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and Uptycs for bringing this episode to life!

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How do we move current leadership statistics to something much healthier?

With a depth of experience in recruiting executive leaders in a variety of organizations, Ginny shares a striking and horrifying statistic with us: 18% of leaders are considered good. Only 18% feels incredibly low, especially when a large portion of companies claims to hire the best leaders based on pedigree-level qualifications. In Ginny’s opinion, leaders are not held to a high enough standard in the workplace, and aren’t measured on their performance beyond basic financials. With so much more at stake, Ginny warns that companies are only as strong as their leaders, and are even weaker when they never hold those leaders accountable.

“That’s why we have organizations that are, I dare say, quite fragile. It’s because of the lack of leadership. They might have a lot of money, they might have really intelligent, well-educated people, but to the extent, those organizations don't have actual leaders for whom they are holding accountable for their leadership competencies.”

 

How do we show up better for others and really see the whole human?

We cannot improve our society as long as we continue to see ourselves as completely separate from it. This, among other world-changing views, guides Ginny towards seeing people beyond just their outward appearance, viewing them as a whole human, composed of all of their experiences. There is so much fear, anxiety, and bias, especially in the world of hiring and recruiting, and Ginny hopes to show up better for others through better accountability for our leaders and a stronger connection to ourselves.

“We, as a civilization, can't fix it as long as we're seeing it as separate from ourselves. So, that's where the self-love comes from, and the support and the sharing and the non-dualistic orientation, which defies everything about tech, right? Tech is all about the binary, the ones and zeros, and here, I'm talking about something that is far more inclusive than that.”

 

What have you learned from this big effort that we have going on with diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Ginny, much like many of us in tech, cares about efforts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, but believes that many companies talk the talk without ever walking the walk. When working with recruiters in large companies, Ginny discovered that many don’t understand how to implement diversity in an impactful way in their organizations, beyond appearances and statistics. Encouraging colleagues to be true to their authentic selves in the workplace, she believes that now is the time to embrace diversity at work beyond the limitations of waiting for company leaders to embrace them.

“I think there's been organizational malpractice as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think you got a lot of people who actually don't want to understand it, they're not going to the root cause. They're throwing money at it, they're hiring a chief diversity officer and saying, ‘Okay, you fix it.’”

 

What do you think people can do today to start to make an impact and move the world in a positive direction?

The secret to changing the world? Ginny believes that it’s acknowledging that you have the power to change it at all. On her own spiritual journey, Ginny has discovered there’s so much more to our impact on our surroundings beyond our everyday actions at work. Using examples of heightened vibrations, inspired creativity, and personal accountability, Ginny explains that your ability to change the world has never been as powerful as it is right now, as our society and civilization continue to shift towards new forms of leadership and new developments in organizations are the world. 

“I want to activate and stimulate people's imagination. You know, young kids have imagination and that creativity, that spawns, that manifests, that takes hold, that becomes real, and that's how we change the world, so that it's good for all and that becomes the objective. That's my legacy. It's creating good for all.”

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Links:

Stay in touch with Ginny Clarke on her website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

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