Prioritizing People
Q&A with Nancy Geenen, CEO of Flexability
In celebration of Pride month this June, we sat down with Nancy Geenen, President and CEO of Flexability: a consulting company that helps businesses of all kinds become more inclusive. Following her passion for social equity, Nancy writes and speaks about topics related to inclusion in the workspace.
Early in her career, Nancy was a Senior Legal Officer for the United Nations in Geneva, focused on adjudicating damages arising from Iraq’s unlawful invasion of Kuwait. Returning to the U.S., she joined the global law firm Foley & Lardner, where she rose to the level of Office Managing Partner.
Read on to find out why Nancy believes that, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, the barriers she has personally faced in her life help her to understand those faced by people with disabilities—as well as how all of us, no matter what communities we may or may not belong to, can empathize with the core feeling of being out of place or othered and show support accordingly—this Pride month and every month!
Q: Could you tell us a little more about your career trajectory to date?
A: My career trajectory is mostly due to two factors: one, I'm curious about everything, and two, I love learning new things.
I'm focused on working with people with whom I share the same core values. Work experiences that are focused on building teams and having fun. When I stop having fun because I’m not surrounded by those who share my core values, I’m looking for the next opportunity! Sometimes, I'm pulled in; sometimes, I just run to the next thing.
Q: What is Flexability? What services do you provide?
A: Flexability focuses on helping leaders build an inclusive working environment. We focus on leadership skills, communication skills, and management skills. We help the individual, the team, and the organization work towards high performance with an equity lens.
For example, we train DEI committees when they're first formed and then work with the DEI Committee to effect change in their organization. When we work with middle managers, we work on good, clear communication and how to be a leader of team members who want to be on that team.
In the C-suite, we help leaders develop the vision and the strategy to get the entire organization 100% aligned with where the organization is going and how it will get there.
Q: And what was the inspiration behind starting out?
A: Flexability started in 2019. Our leadership team came from an organization that was a temporary staffing company for individuals with disabilities. That's where we came up with the name Flex-ability rather than “Flexibility.”
We wanted to take those same principles to a workforce of people with disabilities into all organizations and really focus on creating inclusion. Creating a place where people love what they do, love coming to work, and love working with people in a high-trust environment.
Q: Your ethos at Flexability is that people should always be the priority. But what does that mean for you?
A: When I’m building a team, I’m trying to create a working environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. So, it starts with the individual. As a manager, I want managers and leaders to be curious, ask questions, and focus on removing barriers and obstacles in the way of success. Great leaders understand the WHY and provide opportunities and tools for each individual to thrive uniquely.
We take the golden rule of “treat people as you would like to be treated,” and take it up a notch: We want to treat our team members as they want to be treated. And we only know that by asking them. At Flexability, we focus on helping leaders, helping managers, helping individuals be curious, and tell their stories that help the individual and team discover they are more alike than different. We don't want anyone in that workplace to suffer. We want everyone on the team to love what they do and understand the value they bring to the entire organization.
Q: And connected to that, one of your signature offerings at Flexability is your “Listen, Align, Deliver” approach. Could you tell us more about that?
A: “Listen” is focused on asking questions—not listening to figure out what you're going to say next, but listening to figure out the next question: How can I learn more about the person sitting across from me? About my team member that I eat lunch with every day? In an organizational context, it's listening at all levels: individual, team, and organization. We interview, assess, and conduct focus groups to get an understanding of the entire ecosystem.
Align is bringing all of the collected information to the leadership to understand the culture of the organization and how that culture drives results. Every entity within that ecosystem—including client customers and suppliers—has different needs. What's the purpose of the organization? What problem are they trying to solve? What are the milestones? So that we're all moving in the same direction and moving as a team.
Deliver is about creating trust and accountability. We hold interactive workshops that align those various interests with the organization's core values and mission. We measure the results through a data-driven assessment that includes both analytics and interviews.
Using the “Listen, Align, Deliver” approach, we teach team members to learn about each other so they can trust each other. Every great team—whether it's a sports team, theater group, choral group, orchestra—they all have to be on the same page. And they're only great when they all hit that one moment where it's just perfect. And just afterwards, there's that moment of silence.
Q: Do you have any standout experiences from that where you've really been able to see that change?
A: Yes, I think in some respects, when we work with the larger C-suite, it's that kind of aha moment, of like—oh, you mean all I have to do is ask? I don't have to know the answers. And we respond —yep, that's the whole point.
Because in the C-suite, most executive leaders assume they know what team members want or need to achieve better results. There's always a little bit of fear about bad news. We believe that bad news is great because we have a good starting point: a place to upgrade.
Q: June is Pride Month: What barriers have you faced in connection to being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community?
A: Well, I’ll tell a story that's in my book, The Advantage of Other. Early on in my legal career, I was on this really spectacular trial team. I had a great mentor—a Naval Aviator—and we were on a pretty high-profile case for a client. Well, the client came to him and said, I don't want her (meaning me) on my team.
And my mentor said, well, what do you mean? Well, he was trying to get around it without saying, “I don't want somebody who's queer on my team,” and the client focused on my gender, “..well, she's a woman, and she's brash and aggressive,” and my mentor said, “you mean because she's gay?”
Without missing a beat, my mentor and ally responded—“Look, this is the best attorney we have on this team. She is absolutely the right person. She's one of our top performers and she comes with me—so you can decide what you want to do, but she's going to be on this team.”
And I think two things happened there. One: this was a client, and people say a client's always right—especially when you're an attorney and it's a big case. And, two: I had a mentor who was an extraordinary ally. So it's a great story because we have a lot of people saying, not her, not they, not the transgender person. Great allies get together with that person. They say: “I got your back. We're doing this together. I'm not going to let the discomfort of an individual affect how we work together. Because you know what, we'll tell them your story. That person will want you on this team because you bring value and results.”
The cure for judgment is curiosity. When I feel like I'm being judgy, I have to figure out—why do I feel this discomfort? What is it about this person that makes me feel a little bit unsure? I have to ask questions, be curious, and find out who they are. Where did you go to high school? What did you do? What's your favorite movie? What book are you reading? All those questions help us connect with each other on that person-to-person level.
Q: How have experiences like that and the barriers that you faced informed and inspired the work that you're doing today?
A: I know what it feels like to be othered. I may not understand your personal experience, but I understand the experience of being picked last or being excluded. On a human level, regardless of our personal experiences—the biases or the microaggressions we encounter daily—it feels the same. It's still human emotion.
I also know great success. I've known great allyship. I've had people tell me, “no, you can't do this,” and I've said, “yeah? watch me.” I know that it takes discipline and rigor. I am always people first—because our most common connection is being human, our willingness to be curious, and our understanding and empathy. We've all been sad, we've all been hurt. I can't pretend to understand anyone's individual experience, but I certainly can understand the feelings.
Q: Speaking of inspiring younger generations, if you could sit down with young Nancy now knowing all that you know, what would you tell yourself?
A: Well, with young Nancy, I would say tell the truth sooner and own your identity sooner. I spent many years running away and hiding while looking very successful and working very hard. I had that outer success, but the inner self was really pretty small. I would encourage the younger Nancy—and all the Gen Z and Alphas coming up into the workplace today—to be your true self sooner. Get comfortable in your own skin.
Also: you're not alone. I would have loved to have found any community of people who would say—“Hey, Nancy, you're okay. I’ve got your back.”
Finally: “Give yourself a hug. You're good.” And I think that's something for all individuals who are moving into and through that workplace now. Be your true self, and if you’re not in the right place, don't suffer too long. Move on. There is a right place for you.
Q: If you could get a megaphone and speak to all employers this Pride Month, what is one thing that you'd want them to institute to support the LGBTQIA+ community better?
A: One thing for all communities: Ask questions. Ask the right questions:
What are the barriers to opportunities for everyone in your workplace? Examine the systemic policies and how they affect the LGBTQ+ team members. Ask Questions! Ask the right question to the right person at the right time. Just ask, and be, and take it in. Be willing to sit in the midst of your discomfort and look at the complaints—disappointments and failures as opportunities to improve. If you don't know, you can't do what's best for your team members.
Q: Mentorship, diversity, and inclusion are pillars within the WBEC NY-DMV community. What value do you take from the collaboration and togetherness of WBEs?
A: The opportunity is that there are women in our network who will use you as a newly certified WBE and help you grow in that experience. The leadership of WBEC has made an absolute commitment to bringing out the voices of women of color and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: Looking to the future, we still have to show up, speak up, and be counted. If all of us continue to do this, and DEI survives all of the crazy things on social media (that are not fact-based but hurtful and uncivil), then I think we can do it.
I love Michelle Obama's quote: “When they go low, we go high.” WBEC goes high!