I figured a masculine-looking picture would balance my anti-anti-woke observations. There is no question that the pendulum swung pretty far over the last couple of years. When hosting global townhalls, there were plenty of “try to avoid” topics on which you had to be scripted - or run the risk of having people complain about your views or choice of words. However, at this stage I am worried that the anti-woke rhetorics will lead us straight back to the macho “Wolf of Wall Street” era. Can we please noise-cancel the hype of woke/anti-woke and take a look at what we can hopefully all agree on: 1) Zero tolerance for sexual harassment Let’s start simple. We can hopefully all agree that there is zero tolerance for sexual harassment or reducing people to objects – including comments on vacation pictures on Insta or a person’s outfits. 2) Avoid unconscious bias I was asked “How do you organize child care when you travel for business” exactly zero times in my career. I am sure that most women reading this post have had very different experiences. Let’s agree that we must avoid stereo-typing and use simple checks like “Would I ask a (white) male the same question”. 3) Ensure equal opportunities Let’s start from the premise that IQ is equally distributed across gender, skin color, sexual orientation etc. On that basis, it is clear that you want to recruit, support and mentor as broadly as possible to get the best talents and the broadest perspectives on your team. Again, woke/anti-woke, we can certainly agree that raw talent is equally distributed and that you should make considerable efforts to broaden the horizon to attract the best people. While it is important to listen to (almost) all views, let’s not get too fussed applying false balance - i.e. the debate being dominated by the statements of the extreme 10% on either side. Let’s look at what unites us and what most of us can agree on. In other words: Let's reconquer the debate. The 80% will have a pretty good idea which accomplishments of the last decade we want to keep… and where it makes sense to further adjust. #DiversityOfThoughtWillLeadToSuperiorOutcomes #ConnectingTheDots #LetsLookAtWhatUnitesUS
Henk Oudeman
1mo
Interesting posting. Anticipating the wave that’s coming. Unfortunately we are not even close to getting back to some sort of middleground. If you, like me, like to participate in discussions with people with different opinions on social media, the algorithms start feeding you more postings of not-like-minded people. Commenting with your own opinion on various topics posted becomes then a character-testing excercise of selfcontrol. Any comment or reaction not in line with the posters’ opinion becomes the target of ridicule and mockery. And I am afraid, most of that is coming from the wokist and anti-establishment posters. Although I have no political affiliation, because of my gender, race and age, I am automatically a legitimate target for them. And labelled as such, grouped with the extreme-right (whatever happened to the right? There only seem to be extreme or radical right, all the rest is middle or moderate left). We’ll see how the swing back to common sense works out. Before that, I am not really interested in the “please be gentle” upfront excuses for past behavior.
Stefan I couldn’t agree more. I see the woke trend as profoundly dangerous for society, particularly for the younger generation. These trends not only divert attention from the real challenges we need to address but also pose significant threats to our organizations and communities. Just to name a few: 1. Intolerance for differing views stifles debate and critical thinking. 2. Overprotection undermines people’s ability -especially young people’s- to handle challenges. 3. Excessive focus on collective identity limits individuality. 4. Economic and educational risks. 5. Simplistic narratives distort history and cultural understanding. Ultimately, it all comes down to strong leadership. Of course, critical discourse and an inclusive approach should always be fundamental principles and hygiene factors. But I’m afraid that wokeness is a misleading and dangerous concept that doesn’t promote growth. Adding the anti-woke feminine version with a bit of sunshine ;-) #wokenessisnottakingyoufromstrengthtostrength
Robert Ebert
1mo
Mate, the problem over the years in finance has been that many managers thought that treating people equally meant treating them the same. I think that was the easiest way for them to deal with something that many found painful and difficult to implement. The issue with this approach is that people of different genders, orientations , beliefs, etc absolutely do not want to be treated the same. What they strive for is equitable treatment. They want to be allowed to progress on merit. Most of us treat the people we love in our life differently depending on who they are. We moderate our personas when we interact with our diverse family and friends.That is not being inauthentic. That is reality. We owe that to our staff, even though that increases our managerial burden, but we absolutely must ensure an environment where their ability is the focus and everything else is incidental. Homogenising how we interact with our diverse staff will only exacerbate the issues that have existed for decades. I am not saying it’s simple , but it is also not as difficult as we have conspired to make it . We must celebrate and leverage the differences…..but equal treatment is not the same treatment…We must focus on the creation of a true meriticracy.
Carina Kozole
1mo
Thanks, dear Stefan. You are so right, let's focus on the 80%. Banking and Finance are offering such amazing opportunities for diverse, talented people allowing them to shape the future and have a real impact. Therefore we unitedly need to foster inclusivity and equal opportunities to attract this talent to our industry. And side note: I am literally asked nearly every week “How do you organize child care when you travel for business”, seems still very uncommon having a mom as C-Level of an International Bank...
Jens Bredler
1mo
Do I get a 15min slot to pitch our real estate bonds if I win a bench press battle?
Ashish Jain
1mo
I have been lifting more too. Better for longevity.
Youcef Zeghouani
1mo
Very well said Stefan! I can only second what you have just stated and remember you giving them at the opening speech of dbENRICH Germany opening session. I think today's danger is that by fear of being accused of not being inclusive enough or to get some backlash from "censoring" the 10% extremes, we then give them too much space and room for development. This leaves a distorted view that they represent a vaster majority than what they are. I am with you, let's re-populate the scene and the debate, let's re-conquer via logic-based and fact based rhetoric and move on together, united. Thanks for this statement !
Patrick McArthur
1mo
Revenge of the tipping point in a lot of ways. You state nothing but "common sence", before the term was hijacked by a insufferable right wing tools. Really about 20% of the population had hijacked the discourse..on most topics really and left 80% of the rest gaslight into wondering if we the main character in a Taylor Swift song. Look it's not that the woke faction did not need a voice...and some radicalism is expected and needed when groups have been silenced. Sometimes you need to kick the door in. True but let's acknowledge that as that and the just idiotic backlash as embarrassing. Let's find as Aristotle described the golden mean between the extreams of virtue. We need to before we kill each other...I do mean that literally I am sad to say. Oh written in the gym before Fencing. Just an old style leftie.
Senior Partnerin Financial Services, Aufsichtsrätin (auch Deutsche Börse zertifiziert), Vorständin Deloitte Stiftung, international (US,UK, Frankreich - Grande Ecole)
1moThank you dear Stefan Hoops ! Love your wording – very explicit! We tend to focus on issues (especially in Germany) and search for perfection (also true for Germany) and then we talk for hours & years with a perfect choice of words instead of getting things done. When my daughter was born (14 years ago) I did not dare to put a picture of her on my desk – knowing that everybody would ask me these questions. Lot’s of stories at the airport with my daughter (oh this poor girl with her business mother). My husband had other stories (oh what a wonderful father – he is traveling with his daughter!). I can write a book! After a decade in the wonderful FS industry: It is not only a gender topic, but a mindset issue. We tend to do more of the same with the same type of people (and wonder why the output is always the same….). There is correlation between innovation and diversity (e.g. why not looking at other successful industries how the solve issues? Why not installing a GenZ board to see how they would resolve issues in your companies …) Happy to invite you to our next #InspireWIN networking event for female leaders in the FS Industry on Jan 27th in Frankfurt. Would love to see you !