The Pressure on Executives to Lead on Social Issues is Here to Stay

A C-level leader in a Fortune 500 company said to me recently: “In all the years of my career, no one has ever held me to account for speaking about racial reconciliation, or how gender includes men too, or about voting rights in Georgia.” He wasn’t complaining, but he was wondering how this degree of expectation from employees and customers grew so powerful so fast.

Don’t make the mistakes of deflection around this accountability: it’s not going away, younger employees don’t care if you don’t think the issues are not related to business priorities, and the pressure to get informed and fluent and show you care will only rise until you lead the ways that people want to follow.

In fact, the rising tide of expectations that executives will lead on social issues is likely to trend in the same direction for decades to come. Consider your colleagues of the future, zoomers, or Gen Z, those born from 1997-2012. Global research from HeforShe is eye-opening. Among the findings:

• 96% of zoomers said businesses should be involved in solving social problems, with 60% arguing they should be extremely or very involved.  
• Two-thirds believe it is very valuable for the CEO to be committed to a social cause or issue.

If you are an executive embracing this new level of accountability, keep going. Build your brand as an inclusive leader, and embed in your culture the commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

If you are hoping that you can escape it, you are flirting with irrelevance, and your career and your people will not thank you.

#DEI #accountability #heforshe