This Is Not DEI. This Is ROI.

I want to talk about a number that does not show up on your P&L but is absolutely affecting it.

It is the number of decisions you made this quarter with incomplete information. Not because your team did not have the full picture. Because they did not feel safe enough to give it to you.

That is not a culture problem. That is a revenue problem.

In our last episode of Not Like Me, we talked about what it costs when leaders stay silent in the moments that matter. What came back to me most in the comments and replies was not outrage. It was one honest question showing up in different forms: why does this actually matter to my results?

That is what this week is about. And I promise I will keep it practical, because ya’ll know we have had enough leadership conversations that end with a vague call to action and a LinkedIn quote. Dive back into the conversation with me here:

The Data Most Leaders Have Not Seen

Racially diverse teams are 35% more likely to outperform their counterparts. For every 10% increase in diversity on the senior executive team, earnings before interest and taxes rise 0.8%. Diverse teams make better decisions in 87% of cases.

That is not a social stat. That is a performance stat.

On the other side: only 30% of employees were engaged at work in 2024. More than four million Americans were quitting their jobs every month as recently as 2022. And at the core of almost all of it was not compensation or burnout.

It was leadership.

People do not leave bad jobs. They leave bad leaders.

Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Your brain is wired to prefer the familiar. A Stanford study confirmed it…exposure to the familiar reduces uncertainty and allows your brain to process information faster. In practice that means you instinctively trust the voices you already understand, reach for the people who communicate the way you do, and move faster with the team members who require the least translation.

None of that feels like a bias. It feels like just another Tuesday.

But when familiarity drives your decisions, it quietly shapes who gets access, who gets developed, and who gets seen as ready for more. And the perspectives that could sharpen your strategy or surface a risk early stay with someone who stopped bringing them to you months ago.

You cannot fix a pattern you cannot see. Trying harder does not fix it. Caring more does not fix it. What fixes it is a system.

The Framework And What It Returns

A.L.L.Y. is not a set of values. It is a leadership operating system. Four steps that give you a practical structure for leading across differences with more trust, more clarity, and more intentional action…instead of relying on instinct, assumption, and good intentions alone.

Ask: Stop assuming. Ask better questions of yourself first. Who am I instinctively trusting, and why? What am I missing because this feels unfamiliar?

Listen: When people do not feel safe telling you the truth, they tell you the version they think you want to hear. You are making strategy on edited data. That is not a people problem. That is a listening environment problem.

Learn: Your most underutilized competitive advantage is already in the room. The perspectives you have been overlooking are your edge, if you know how to access them. Most leaders walk past this every single day.

You Take Action: Awareness without action is just expensive self-reflection. I say this a lot because people keep needing to hear it. This is where insight becomes behavior your team can actually count on.

What The Gallup Data Actually Means

Most leaders read the 30% engagement number and think about their team. I want you to think about yourself.

Because here is what that number is actually measuring: 70% of employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged. They are doing the work. Showing up. Answering the emails. But there is something underneath the surface that is not quite right. And the research is clear that the primary variable driving that number is not compensation, not work-life balance, not the economy.

It is the quality of the relationship between an employee and their direct leader.

Which means that number is, in large part, a leadership report card.

And if you are reading this, there is a reasonable chance you manage people who are not entirely like you. Different generations, different backgrounds, different relationships to authority and feedback and trust. Which means the way you build the kind of relationship that moves that number…for your people, on your team, on your watch…is directly connected to what we have been talking about in this episode.

You cannot lead today’s workforce with yesterday’s playbook and expect today’s results.

Where To Start

If this is landing, The Modern Leader’s Toolkit is the practical next step to learn the five disciplines built around A.L.L.Y.

Download The Modern Leader’s Toolkit →

The rest of this article is for paid subscribers, it included the most expensive A.L.L.Y. failure I have ever witnessed up close, and what it cost. Spoiler: it involved a lot of red.

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