Ep: 57 Pia Flanagan | COO at CEO Action for Racial Equity | Why Representation Matters | Chief of Staff at MassMutual | Adding Value & Career Advice

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I had a wonderful conversation with Pia Flanagan, the Chief Operating Officer at CEO Action for Racial Equity. We discussed several topics such as:

• Starting her career at Deloitte in NYC
• Why Representation Matters 
• 47 Million Black People
• Adding Value and More Career Advice
• Becoming Partner at Baker McKenzie
• Listening to Mentors & Going In-House 
• Why You Should Keep Raising Your Hand 
• Being Chief of Staff
• Leadership that Makes You Better 
• The Work of CEO Action for Racial Equity
• Adopting Before Pandemic Begins
• Reading Recommendations 

Here are some highlights of my interview with Pia Flanagan:

Representation matters. It truly does matter to have people [who look like you] and who have that shared experience working alongside you and in leadership roles at your firm to whom you can look up to and aspire to be. 

 As Chief of Staff, I was really making sure that the CEO was able to focus on the most important things so that he had all of the information that he needed to do his job well.

It's been an amazing opportunity to be a leader at CEO Action, and I am thankful and grateful that each and every day, I get to wake up in the morning, and really focus on how can we make this a better world for people who look like me.

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Adding Value with Strategic Skills

Chris: Pia, you used “adding value” as a phrase. Could you explain to my listeners how you added value?

Pia: First of all, you have to understand the business, and then you have to understand the needs of the client. What are the client's objectives? What is their why? Why do they need to do this? Why do they need to do that? Why are these their objectives and what are they trying to accomplish? When you can connect the why to the what and the how, you're able to add value. You first have to develop an understanding of why this is important to them, understand how it fits into the strategy of the organization, and how it fits into the strategy of that specific team or group. How does it fit into the strategy of the overall organization? How does it support the enterprise and achieve the enterprise’s strategic objectives or goals? 

I cannot stress how important it is to focus on the human element of the work. We call them soft skills. Today, someone mentioned they're actually strategic skills, because you are going to need people to work with you in order to achieve that shared vision. It's about leadership, setting that vision and inspiring your team to work with them and to work with you to achieve that shared vision. An important aspect of doing that is to develop real, authentic relationships with individuals because they are just as important as the work that needs to get done.

CEO Action for Racial Equity

Chris: Pia, I'd love for you to explain what CEO Action for Racial Equity is and what your role looks like. 

Pia: CEO Action for Racial Equity is a spinoff of CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, which was established back in 2017 by Price Waterhouse Coopers.  The focus of CEO Action for D&I was to advance awareness of D&I efforts within corporations and organizations.  It was meant to advance their D&I efforts, and be the catalyst for action in racial equity after the events of 2020, specifically the killings of unarmed black men and women at the hand of police and others, specifically the George Floyd murder. After that point in time, Tim Ryan, the US chairman of PwC, really felt that it was now time for corporations to stand up and do more for society at large, by thoroughly focusing on advancing racial equity and racial justice for society at large. We've been focusing on our own internal company efforts for the last four years through the D&I organization, but we really needed to focus externally because we know that when companies and corporate America come together and use their collective voice and influence, things can and do change. He convened a group of CEOs back in June of 2020. MassMutual was one such company, and I was on that call with about 25 CEOs, initially. At the end of that call, he mentioned they were going to establish the racial equity fellowship to focus on these issues around systemic racism through the lens of public policy. That really is what differentiates us from a lot of other business led organizations who are focusing on racial equity. At this moment in time, we are focused on advancing racial equity and addressing systemic racism through public policy. 

*Click here to read or download the full PDF transcript or Listen to the Podcast Episode*