Kirk Snyder
UCSF will host USC business school faculty member Kirk Snyder, author of a provocative new book on workplace leadership,
The G Quotient: Why Gay Executives Are Excelling As Leaders…And What Every Manager Needs to Know.
The campus community is invited to hear Snyder talk about his book at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 19, in the Clinical Sciences Building, room 701, 521 Parnassus Ave.
Openly gay himself, Snyder contends that "organizations and working units under the management of gay male executives are more harmonious, more interconnected and more successful," thanks to seven leadership principles he calls "the G Quotient."
UCSF LGBTI Resources Director Shane Snowdon talked with Snyder about his groundbreaking research, which has been acclaimed by the
Harvard Business Review and featured in
Time and Fast Company.
Q: How did you get into this area of research?
A: I began to see evidence suggesting that employees reporting to gay executives experience a positive difference in job engagement, satisfaction and workplace morale. I realized there were valuable insights to be gained from this for all managers and employees.
Q: Why do you believe gay men are better leaders?
A: Gay male leaders have a unique worldview. We live in the world differently because, from an early age, we recognize that there are a lot of people who hate us. Thanks to the survival skills we develop and the process of coming out, we are more likely to demonstrate an open style of management communication, to focus on the process of work versus the end product, and to be more inclusive, adaptable and personally intuitive. These qualities make employees more productive and companies more profitable.
Q: What about lesbian, bisexual and transgender managers - or, for that matter, female managers and managers of color?
A: My decision to study gay men had nothing to do with lessening the value of any other demographic group. I simply followed a pattern I saw in workplaces led by gay men.
Q: Do you think university workplaces differ from corporate ones?
A: Wherever there is education, there is going to be less bigotry and prejudice, and therefore a greater degree of inclusion - the first principle of G Quotient leadership. In that sense, higher education is more likely, in my opinion, to have a higher percentage of G Quotient leaders, gay and not. That said, each setting has a different mindset. In the corporate world, the pursuit is productivity and profits, which yields less processing of information prior to making decisions. In academia, it's all about processing - to the point that it's often difficult to get things done because everyone wants to talk about talking and refuses to move forward without complete consensus.
Q: You've been invited to speak and consult in a variety of prestigious settings. Were you surprised by the success of the book?
A: I thought it would be well-received by the gay community, but I was surprised at how well it was received by the business media. The greatest interest has been at companies that were once considered bastions of conservatism. Companies recognize the leadership crisis in the US and want to turn it around.
Q: So you haven't encountered resentment from straight managers?
A: I was pleasantly surprised that straight men, at least in metropolitan areas, seem more interested in learning how to get the most from their employees than in taking the book as an indictment of their management style. Once people realize that it's the seven principles of G Quotient leadership that are responsible for the higher engagement, morale, and job satisfaction of employees with gay managers, rather than the managers' sexual orientation, straight men seem to be okay with everything that follows.
Q: What are the biggest challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the workplace?
A: The primary challenge is internal - meaning that for every out-of-the-closet person in the workplace, there are many more still in hiding, even in affirming and inclusive companies. In these cases, it isn't the company preventing them from being free, but their own self-hate. Until our entire community recognizes that we deserve to live our professional and personal lives in our own skin, we will never get to the place where sexual orientation [and gender identity] is a non-issue in the workplace.
Related Links:
UCSF LGBTI Resources
