Synchrony’s Michael Matthews on Vulnerability in Leadership

“It’s expected for us as leaders to be able to deal with and support and engage with our employees and our teams being vulnerable, because the culture that we work in now—that's more accepted.”

Michael Matthews, chief diversity and corporate responsibility officer at Synchrony, talks about the power of vulnerability among leaders, and how vulnerability helps build trust and creates a more inclusive workplace culture.

He shared how leadership is evolving at Synchrony, what it means to be seen at work, and the importance for leaders to create a safe space where team members feel comfortable asking questions, and sharing their ideas and opinions.

He also offers helpful advice on how those charged with diversity efforts can build a strong partnership with their CEO and CHRO based on his own experience.

On how leadership is changing:

Our approach to leadership has evolved and continues to evolve because the workforce has evolved. How our workforce came to us, and how we interact now is 100% different than it was a couple of years ago due to COVID.

We started this initiative in large part due to our work with Great Place To Work and specifically The Great Transformation. We started what we call Impact Sessions, and they're specifically for leadership within Synchrony where we go in very deep on how our leaders become inclusive leaders.

How we lean into things like, how do you now lead in more of a virtual environment? How do you have difficult conversations? How do you give true and rich and impactful feedback? And how do you do it within this environment that's a lot more virtual versus when you were able to walk the floor and see non-verbals?

It’s a totally different experience. In many cases, it takes a different skillset. Through this work, we are continuing to evolve.

On the power of vulnerability among leaders:

It’s okay to be vulnerable. It's expected for us as leaders to be able to support and engage with our employees and our teams being vulnerable because it’s more accepted in the culture that we work in now.

We talk about how to have those difficult conversations, how to lean in, what to do when you don't know the answer or you're uncomfortable. How do you still support your employee, get information, and come back and continue to support? That's not easy.

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We've taken it for granted that our leaders will just know how to do this. What we found is our leaders — whether they know the answer or don't, or know the right approach or not — there's a genuine desire to want to get it right and not make a mistake.

We have to get in front of that and make sure that they're equipped to handle the situation even if they don't know the answer.

Leaders are human beings, so they're not always going to know the answer. Or they may have to put their personal feelings aside to deal with an issue, or meet their teammate or employee where they are. That's a different skillset.

It’s been a journey, but it's really important and our leaders are so appreciative that we are addressing these types of things.

On how diversity and inclusion officers can build strong partnerships with their CEO and CHRO:

You have to do the work early on to establish credibility and be able to clearly articulate the why. The why it's important, the impact that it has made, and will make.

I think that doing that work and establishing credibility and saying, "Hey, here's where we think we are, and here's where we actually are, and here's where you said you want to be. So let's have that conversation."

By doing that type of work and having that transparency and that honesty with the data and what it is and what it isn't — that gets your CHRO and your CEO to lean in, and understand and value what you're doing even more.

And then understanding that once you gain credibility or establish that relationship, it's not just a given. You continue to earn that credibility and keep building that relationship.

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