Student Gail Goochee completed an international internship in the Fall of 2013. During her internship, she spent a lot of time learning and teaching about the importance of micro messages in a corporate setting. Here is an account of her experience this summer as an intern.
People send between 2,000 and 4,000 micro messages each day. These are subtle, often subconscious, messages that cumulatively exercise a sincere influence on an organization’s culture. Micro messages can include looks, gestures, and tone of voice. A hurried handshake, an unintentional eye roll, or a glance at the clock are examples we’ve likely all encountered.
In my most recent internship, I was on the team responsible for promoting Diversity and Inclusion in a global company of 100,000+ employees. These micro messages were key in creating the inclusive corporate culture our team aspired to build. Recognizing that the behavior of leaders are particularly influential, we set out to train every manager, approximately 8,000 people, on the topic of Inclusive Leadership.
Inclusive Leaders are leaders who “enable individuals and groups to contribute to their fullest potential by leveraging their unique experiences, perspectives, insights and abilities for the collective benefit of all stakeholders.“ Simply put, inclusive leaders take conscious responsibility for cultivating an inclusive environment in which everyone feels free to participate fully. Based on my experience, I learned that inclusive leaders accomplish this, in part, by recognizing and adjusting their micro messages.
Leaders are often unaware of the power they wield with even the most minor behaviors. A skeptical Vice President was persuaded in a parking lot. Our Inclusive Leadership instructor asked him to alter one small habit and witness the reaction. One morning, rather than pull in directly, he backed in to his parking spot. By lunch, half the cars surrounding his had switched to reverse. The next morning, every car in the row had imitated his behavior. Whether consciously or unconsciously, his fellow parkers (and direct reports) had picked up on a subtle change in behavior and reacted accordingly.
Now imagine the unseen influence of a leader‘s 2,000 to 4,000 micro messages each day. A leader may not be the one to make an offensive joke, but what are they communicating when they laugh along? What are they communicating when they say nothing at all? The truth is that every minor behavior matters because cumulatively, these behaviors construct a corporate culture and determine whether or not an all-inclusive environment exists.