Reject Equity. Embrace Your Strong Suits

March 2023

While putting the finishing touches on my latest book, Strong Suit: Leadership Success Secrets from Women on Top, my publicist and I discussed publishing a “Leadership Tips” article based on insights from the book, in advance of the book launch. “Perhaps we should time this article to coincide with International Women’s Day—March 8—a day which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women,” I suggested.  

My publicist immediately agreed and shared that the theme of the 2023 IWD campaign is #EmbraceEquity.  This campaign theme stunned me.

Now, I’m all for diversity, equality, and inclusion—based on merit. But equity is antithetical to everything I believe in and espouse. The mission of my leadership development company, Business World Rising, has always been to accelerate the advancement of high potential women (and men) to the top of Best Place to Work organizations. Equity is not something I would ever urge anyone to embrace in the workplace, and here’s why:

Equality means treating everyone equally under the law and in accordance with a business code of ethics, regardless of race, gender, social stature, ancestral heritage, or national origin. Every individual shall have the freedom of choice in their career path and the opportunity to become the best they can be while leveraging their unique passions and talents in pursuit of their personal vision of success.    

Equity means providing special opportunities, support, and assistance to segments of society, typically based on race, gender, social stature, ancestral heritage, and/or national origin.  Theoretically in accordance with social justice principles of “fairness”, resources and opportunities are allocated unequally, potentially to the detriment of others, in pursuit of equal outcomes for all.

On March 6, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 10925 which included a provision that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated [fairly] during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” The objective was to promote actions that achieved non-discrimination. Virtually sixty-two years to the day later, we seem to be throwing out the baby with the bath water. To me, equity is the essence of discrimination.

I can’t think of anything more demotivating for a high performer or aspiring leader than for resources and opportunities to be deliberately allocated unequally to ensure equal outcomes for all. Not everyone has the same desire or God-given talents to lead a Best Place to Work organization, even if everyone could magically be granted the equal outcome of becoming the CEO.

Our Creator gave each of us unique talents and passions for a reason. Think how boringly uniform—and frustrating—life would be if we each experienced equal outcomes regardless of our brilliance, efforts, attitude, or abilities. Exceptionalism would cease to exist.

Best Place to Work organizations stand head and shoulders above the rest because they are the kind of places where enthusiastic employees and inspiring leaders WOW their customers day-in and day-out. Best Places to Work are where best-of-the-best job candidates—with critical skillsets and can-do attitudes—line up to get in. Best Places to Work are where team members are motivated to achieve their own visions of success and are proud of their accomplishments. Best Places to Work are ones that employees never want to leave. Do you think that embracing equity—discrimination to ensure an equal outcome for everyone—would result in the kind of workplace just described?

I don’t know about you, but I experience true joy and fulfillment from inspiring team members to be the best they can be by leveraging their strong suits—which are often quite different from my own. Not everyone is driven or fulfilled by doing what I do, and vice versa. Yet it’s the artful coordination of many different strong suits that allows a Best Place to Work to get things done in a unique and exemplary manner.     

Extraordinary synergy is rarely achieved unless an organization can capitalize on its magical blend of unique superpowers. In a world that embraces equity you’d likely end up with a cadre of unmotivated robots. Is that really the kind of workplace you want to be part of? 

My newest book, Strong Suit, will give you the guidance you need to become the very best leader you can possibly be, wherever you are and regardless of who you are. It will help you become more aware of what captivates you, what excites you, and what engages you, both in and away from work.  It will help you identify your callings, your strengths, and your passions—your strong suits—so you can start living your best life right now and eventually achieve your own version of the American Dream.  

As with my last book, Women on Top: What’s Keeping You From Executive Leadership?, I candidly share the ups and downs of my own life and career, and I highlight the real-world experiences and insights of seven amazing executive women who made it to the top of the corporate world, the not-for-profit world, the military, the government, and beyond—and remained true to themselves in the process. These role model women were specifically selected for inclusion because they also met the very narrow qualifications I required of each executive featured in my first two books, The WOW Factor Workplace and Heartfelt Leadership. Just like the “best-ever bosses” highlighted in my first two books, these women on top exemplify heartfelt leadership and are lauded by many for the Best Place to Work cultures they created along the way.

One of these women on top is Dr. Kerry Healey, Inaugural President of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD). MCAAD celebrates stories of people who confronted barriers to opportunity. It is supported by people who believe that anyone with a dream, and the drive to achieve it, should have the opportunity to make it come true.  That’s the very definition of equality.

Another woman on top is Linda Rutherford, Executive VP and Chief Communications Officer at Southwest Airlines. As Linda says in Strong Suit, “I believe you must show the world, every day, that you deserve whatever it is you want because you are willing to contribute.”

The good news is that—based on my interviews with a myriad of successful executives—I have found little, if any, correlation between ancestral heritage and one’s success in life. What matters are the values and lessons learned (both good and bad) from those who raised us, and whether we choose to embrace our strong suits in pursuit of our personal visions of success.   

Consider the words of our Declaration of Independence: “that all men [i.e., humanity] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Our founding fathers clearly believed in the natural hierarchy of God-given talents. Thanks to the clarifications instituted by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution, the phrase “that all men are created equal” means inclusive of gender, color, and past servitude.

On International Women’s Day—and every day—I urge you to embrace your strong suits and equality. I wish you all the best as you passionately pursue the kind of life, liberty, and happiness you want—and show the world you deserve—because you are willing to contribute.