Editor’s Note: Each week Maynard Webb, former CEO of LiveOps and the former COO of eBay, will offer candid, practical, and sometimes surprising advice to entrepreneurs and founders. To submit a question, write to Webb at dearfounder@fa…
If you’re like many of my female friends and me, you might also remember when you first realized that you were being paid less than a male colleague at work, were taking less time off than your male coworkers, or were being overlooked for a prom…
Right now, we’re all dealing with uncertainty. As the pandemic continues into its fifth month, it’s hard to know what tomorrow will bring. To better handle the psychological stressors we’re facing, we have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, says Jason Van Camp, author of Deliberate Discomfort: How U.S. Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
As a former Green Beret commander, Van Camp trained soldiers to endure various scenarios under high-pressure situations. “The ultimate team is the military, and as a commander I had to lead forces into combat, which is filled with uncertainty,” he says. “What we taught them is that you have to pivot or you’re going to die.”
And dealing with uncertainty couldn’t be more relevant than it is right now with COVID-19, adds Van Camp. Leaders need to take steps to help their teams adjust.
Get to Know Each Member
The first step for leaders is to show the team that they care, which requires getting to know each individual. “Have intimate conversations, ask tough questions, find out their dreams and values, and their vision for the future,” says Van Camp, who trains corporate leaders on the mindset he learned during his time in the Army through his Mission Six Zero leadership consulting firm. “Employees need to know you care and that you want them to succeed. In the military, you hear the term, ‘We fight for the man to our left and to our right.’ That’s true, but why do we fight for that person? Because we know them.”
Too often in the corporate world, leaders say they’re a team, but their actions don’t always back that up. “If you don’t really know the person, why would you fight for them?” asks Van Camp. “That’s why you see a lot of employee retention issues and huge turnover rates. I tell leaders that now more than ever it’s important to have conversations to get to know the people on your team.”
Take Advantage of Remote Working Arrangements
It can seem like a more significant challenge to get to know your team if they’re working from home, but Van Camp says that’s not necessarily the case.
“It’s harder than ever, but it’s also easier than ever because we don’t have to coordinate a time to go get lunch, drive into a location, spend time away from your family or workplace,” he says. “It’s as simple as scheduling a 30-minute Zoom call or Google Hangout. You can build relationships online easily these days.”
Make It Safe to Share Concerns
Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable requires sharing your concerns. Leaders can help their teams open up by sharing their concerns first, says Van Camp.
“You have to be vulnerable and authentic and expose your heart,” he says. “If you do that first, it makes it safe for others to do the same. The vast majority of people can detect when you’re full of it and not being real, authentic, or truthful. That destroys the relationship, the culture, and your credibility as a leader.”
Then Listen
Once you make it comfortable for people to open up, resist the urge to jump in and help. Instead, show your people you care by listening. “When I was earning my Green Beret, my leader said, ‘Your success here at this unit is going to be determined by your ability to listen,’” says Van Camp. “Instead of solving problems or telling them your thoughts, sit back and just listen. When you do, don’t let your mind wander. Pay attention, and you can feel a relationship building.”
Gauge the Person’s Tolerance for Transparency
While you don’t want to hide information, you also don’t want to incite fear. Right now, leaders may not have all the answers or know what’s going to happen. But as soon as you catch a drift of something concerning, it may not be the best time to tell your team. Instead, wait until you get more information or more explicit guidance, says Van Camp.
“When a lot of things are unknown, transparency about what you do know is key. But how much you share depends on the individual,” he says. “Some people have a greater capacity or a higher bar for fear. They want to hear the truth. They don’t want it wrapped in a bow.”
But some people don’t do well with that, and they may start panicking or jumping to conclusions, which could be detrimental to the team.
“In the special forces, we operate in gray, nebulous, uncomfortable spaces where things aren’t black and white,” he says. “You have to understand who your people are and how they respond to the two main motivating factors: love and fear.”
Growth Is Uncomfortable
Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable can be learned, says Van Camp. “I ask people, ‘What are you afraid of?’” he says. “What it comes down to is being afraid of the unknown—what they don’t see or understand. And I tell them, once you know something, you’re no longer afraid of it. It’s not the obstacle that you fear; it’s the unknown result of overcoming that obstacle. So you have to have the courage to willingly choose to confront that unknown, that fear, whatever it is, and head [it] off.”
Growth is not about living an easy life, Van Camp continues. “A life lived correctly should be lived in difficulty,” he says. “That’s how strong people are made. Unfortunately, society is teaching us the wrong thing right now. Instead of saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ You should be saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, break it and make it better.’ We have to choose hard or they’re going to choose us.”
Zuleyka Strasner is one of those few business owners who saw her startup Zero Grocery grow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strasner, Zero’s founder and CEO, says that the Bay Area-based delivery company grew by 200% week-over-week when stay-at-home orders were issued in California in mid-March. That the company aims to reduce waste from unnecessary packaging was a bonus for shoppers who didn’t want to risk exposure from reusable containers.
But to address the additional demand, Strasner had to hire more people—fast. Standing in the way of tapping a talent pool was the fact that many solid applicants also had criminal records. Fortunately, Strasner knew where to find a solution.
Back in December, she’d heard about R3 Score, a Baltimore-based tech startup founded by a Black mother-daughter team Teresa Hodge and Laurin Leonard. Hodge says Strasner “mentioned that roughly 50% of all applicants had some [sort of a record] and if she had greater context she could move forward.”
Currently, more than 73 million Americans have some sort of a criminal history, and that is expected to increase to more than 100 million over the next decade. “The FBI considers anyone who has been arrested on a felony charge to have a criminal record, even if the arrest did not lead to a conviction,” says Hodge. That averages out to be one out of every three citizens, according to Politifact.
Despite this, Hodge notes that most employers still run a background check on job candidates. “Roughly nine out of 10 employers run some version of a criminal report,” she says. However, when a report is returned to the employer and criminal history is present, employers don’t know what to do with this new information. “A candidate that was once in the selection process can suddenly find themselves disqualified based on something as minor as a booking several years prior,” says Hodge, who herself served a 70-month federal prison sentence for a nonviolent crime.
Background checks are a static snapshot of the past and do not take into consideration who a person is in the present.”
Teresa Hodge
Hodge says that even if you were convicted of a crime, it doesn’t automatically disqualify you from being able to be a great employee. In a paper she and Leonard wrote for the Harvard Kennedy School on mass incarceration, they state: “The phrase ‘if you do the crime, you do the time’ speaks to the core value that your time removed from society is the punishment, and upon release, you are to be restored into good standing.” But imagine your career still hanging in the balance of a checked box on an application that asks: Have you ever been convicted of a crime? “Background checks are a static snapshot of the past and do not take into consideration who a person is in the present, let alone how legitimate or justified their ‘criminal record’ may be.”
The goal for building R3 Score, as Hodge sees it, was to provide detail and context for employers to make a more informed decision. Otherwise criminal records can shut a talented person out of a job (or from getting a checking account or a lease) for even the slightest offense. You could see how this would cut the chances that a formerly incarcerated individual could make their life stable and become self-sufficient. And without that stability, recidivism is more likely. Currently, two out of three people are arrested again within three years of getting out of prison and more than half are incarcerated again. Longitudinal studies suggest that steady employment is related to a significant reduction in criminal behavior and lowers recidivism rates.
R3 Score works like a financial analysis tool to provide more accurate assessments of an individual’s background. A proprietary algorithm taps numerous data sources including open civic data, criminal background databases, and other sources and methodology that Hodge says “are a part of our or ‘black box.’” R3 Score then spits out a more nuanced, comprehensive picture of a candidate’s background along with a number that looks like a credit score (ranging from 300-850), so the employer can assess the risk of hiring that person.
Hodge says there are up to 11 factors that go into that black box. The risk model is strengths-based, and she says that while traditional variables like work and education can impact a score, R3 Score looks at other indicators that show a person has been consistently committed to their own future and the well-being of their community.
The cost varies per employer. Hodge didn’t disclose how many companies are using R3 Score, instead focusing on the value of offering a product that served to make the workforce more equitable. “We can’t just look at offense types to understand who should or should not get access to an opportunity today,” Hodge says. “Black, brown, and Native people are often overcharged with crimes. . . . But even something as seemingly innocuous as your zip code can result in disproportionate attention from prosecutors and judges when it comes to charges and sentencing.”
She points back to the disproportionate number of Black and brown people impacted by the U.S. criminal justice system. As a result, she says, these candidates are more likely to be harmed by a traditional background check. R3 Score can give BIPOC candidates “a leg up being assessed with us versus traditional tools,” she says.
Like any background check, the applicant needs to opt-in. “When our business customers order a new score and report they release the name and contact information of the candidate to be assessed,” explains Hodge, noting that R3 Score begins with a standard background check, so they are legally required to get candidate’s permission.
That said, it’s important to remember that criminal reports can be very subjective based on what a prosecutor or judge allows. “There is so much inconsistency with charges that employers can’t rely on that as an additional metric for vetting candidates,” says Hodge noting that 10 people with the same criminal circumstances could all be charged and sentenced differently.
She says that while individuals who are convicted more serious offenses generally have a more challenging time getting back on their feet, the data shows that they are generally less likely to reoffend. “Some decision-makers will not want to source from this talent pool,” Hodge admits, no matter how well it works. Yet she says that many employers tell her privately that the people they hire with criminal records are some of their best employees.
Strasner, who is still adding to Zero Grocery’s gig workforce, agrees. “This is a highly capable, untapped labor force who is ready to work and is actively looking for opportunities,” she says. She believes R3 Score will be useful long after the pandemic. “This is not merely a COVID stopgap measure for us; it’s something we’re incorporating into our business for the long-term.”
“Hi Will, not sure you will remember me, but you were the first to teach me about white privilege in a way that made me understand it didn’t matter how disadvantaged my background, the color of my skin opened doors that were closed to BIP…
‘The intent is to create a platform for innovation on top of which fintechs and paytechs can innovate’: Nanopay founder Laurence Cooke
Regret is painful and common, and sometimes debilitating. Fortunately, psychology offers some healthy ways to better manage your regrets.
It takes time for society to catch up to a hero’s new way of thinking.
A conversation with Kellogg professor Leigh Thompson on how to avoid the pitfalls of virtual negotiations.
Billionaires pledging half of their net worth to charity was a good start.
