Wield curiosity, learn, take action

When was the last time your perspective on something truly shifted?

I shifted from skeptic to advocate when a seed was planted in 2012.

It was then that I read the Iowa Women’s Leadership Project’s “Status of Women and Girls in Iowa” report and learned that women made 77 percent of what men made in our state, putting us pretty low in the ranking of states and equity.

Ugly truth time. I remember being stunned. However, while I had a new perspective, it wasn’t impacting me directly, so it was easy to let it drift away and not materially change anything.

Even as recently as 10 years ago, I would have rolled my eyes and said something like “women are no different, why on earth do we have a separate month to celebrate them?”

Fast-forward to last week when I participated in an online event where a group of professionals came together on two different social media platforms, responding to questions posed by a moderator, talking about women and our professional impacts.

Let me be clear, my opinion years ago was based on the sum of my experiences to date.

As a cisgendered white woman who grew up in California with affirming experiences, I didn’t “get” the challenge. Women’s liberation was in the past and had solved all of the things their predecessors hadn’t. It felt like history book stuff despite the evidence all around me.

I was suffering from the bias that if I hadn’t experienced it, it must not be real.

In the first class for my doctor of executive leadership program, my biases came crashing down around me as I read about the very current inequities — beyond pay inequities — within leadership systems.

I burned what had previously crashed down as I followed my curiosity and shifted my perspective.

These questions ultimately led me to study women entrepreneurs in the Eastern Iowa entrepreneurial ecosystem in my doctoral dissertation.

The results were unsurprising.

In short, the women entrepreneurs I spoke with didn’t feel like the entrepreneurial structure was intended for them. A structure I had been part of for more than 10 years at this point and was involved with, but also feeling a bit separate from.

I was starting to really understand how important it is to recognize the power of the past as it influences the present.

As leaders, it is critical we remember that our experience is not the only experience. And our perspective may not have the primacy we wish it did.

In its place, wield curiosity. And wield it with impunity!

If we want to create workplaces where people can show up and offer their very best, it is our challenge as leaders to create those environments.

In the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world we lead in, it can feel like there is no simple way to create those environments.

Don’t assume you need to know everything as a leader.

Get curious, learn from every experience, and take action even when you don’t completely understand. You may be surprised at how you can transform from skeptic to advocate.

Jennifer Smith is a Cedar Rapids-based personal and executive coach, host of The Dangerous Leader Podcast, and unapologetic optimist; jennifer@dangerousleader.com, @drjennsmith