It is a CEO’s worst nightmare: an act of violence that results in loss, injury or, in the case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, death. In the wake of Thompson’s murder on the streets of New York, companies are closing ranks around their senior executives, including closing headquarters, taking senior executives’ photographs off their websites, and beefing up armed security for executives.
Fear is an understandable response; it is what we do as humans when we face a threat, real or perceived. That fear became personified in an unlikely suspect for Thompson’s murder: young, wealthy, privileged — not to mention white and male. According to reports, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, son of a wealthy Baltimore family, had a history of health issues including a spinal condition that’s seen as a probable motive for allegedly killing Thompson. Evidence linked to Mangione reportedly included a document that, according to NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny, expressed some “ill will toward corporate America.”
No doubt CEOs, particularly those who are higher profile, are doubling down on efforts to protect themselves from others who bear such “ill will.” But closing themselves off even further will only widen the gap between CEOs and reality. When working in South Africa with Absa, I asked why they wanted to explore nonviolent organizing? Their answer was chilling, “We can’t build fences high enough to protect us.” Security is not a sustainable answer.
The answer to fear is not more guns (armed security details will shoot to kill). It’s love.
Being more visible, more accessible to workers, more in touch with the customers and communities makes a difference to the lives and legacies of corporate leaders. Otherwise, every single group of people CEOs are supposed to care about — colleagues, clients, and community leaders — will become the bogeyman.
The murder of Brian Thompson — father, Midwesterner, human being — is tragic. This devastating loss is felt deeply by his family, friends and close associates.
At the same time, and as callous as it may sound, there’s no denying that Thompson quickly became a symbol on social media for all that’s wrong with health care in America — the soaring costs, the burdensome red tape. As USA Today observed, “People can hold several thoughts at once in situations of this nature. It can be sad that a human was killed, and sad that health care in this country is a burden for so many.”
Add to that the well-publicized pay gap between workers and CEOs of large companies. CEOs of S&P 500 companies made an average of $17.7 million in total annual compensation in 2023, for an astounding 268-to-1 ratio over what the average worker brought home. According to the AFL-CIO, to reach parity, workers would need more than five career lifetimes to earn what CEOs make in one year.
Across the corporate landscape, and particularly in industries associated with wealth such as financial services and real estate, it’s time for senior leaders to build bridges of understanding with the people and communities they serve. Instead of walling themselves off (sometimes literally), CEOs need to feel and reflect a sense of shared humanity.
Getting out in the field
Leadership cannot exist in a vacuum. The best ideas, the most important innovations, the solutions to seemingly intractable problems are sparked by getting out into the world or, more specifically, into the field.
This is the experience I hope to deliver with my Intention to Impact experiential field course created for MIT Sloan Executive Education. The purpose is to help business leaders gain a new understanding of how diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) can improve their businesses by providing them with access to the mix of valued talent that will help companies become more profitable and more likely to enter new markets successfully.
Companies that focus their sights solely on the technology of the future, for example, risk overlooking the diverse talent that companies need to recruit, hire, retain and develop to gain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing global economy.
Intention to Impact makes a case for the inclusion economy, particularly as businesses look to future-proof themselves within a highly competitive landscape. This course covers how DEIB intersects and enhances talent and operational strategies and provides a better understanding of how implicit bias plays out in teams, organizations and multi-stakeholder ecosystems.
As a combination of interactive case study analysis, personal skills practice and real-world learning experiences, the course is meant to mirror what everyone in leadership should be doing more of these days. The way forward is not achieved by closing ourselves off in echo chambers of our own thoughts. It is found by engaging with people in the community who have real-world, on-the-ground perspectives and stories worth listening to with respectful curiosity.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt eloquently stated in his first inaugural address, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” His words reflect a specific historic context, of the Great Depression and geopolitics heading toward another world war. And yet, we can easily apply this to our own lives and times. Fear is the biggest threat if we allow it to make us retreat.
In 2025, let us make ourselves more available and more accessible. In this way, the answer to our fear will be love.
Malia C. Lazu is an award-winning, tenured strategist in diversity and inclusion and a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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