Belonging, Retention, & Human-Centered Leadership with Lucius DiPhillips #73
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Belonging and business results are not opposing priorities! Lucius DiPhillips (CIO @ AirBnB) shares how every team member's sense of belonging is the first principle that paves the way for all other business goals. You’ll hear how Airbnb designed programs & policies to enhance belonging, support critical employee challenges, and create industry-leading retention during the height of the covid-19 pandemic & ‘great resignation’

ABOUT LUCIUS DIPHILLIPS)

Lucius DiPhillips is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Airbnb, where he shares the company mission to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. He has over 20 years of experience that spans Product Development, Information Technology, Customer Service, Financial Services, Payments, eCommerce, and Trust & Safety.

Prior to joining Airbnb, Lucius held multiple Technology & Operations leadership roles at eBay, PayPal, Bank of America, and General Electric. He is originally from upstate New York where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Information Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and serves as the executive sponsor for several diversity and belonging groups and initiatives across the company. Through his sponsorship, Lucius has been instrumental in helping to improve the ways in which Airbnb attracts and retains diverse technical talent.

Lucius has 2 children, a lovely wife, and a new puppy in the family! He is based in Silicon Valley, but also enjoys spending as much time as he can in the Tahoe area.

"And that's what the survey told us... People are missing that sense of community, people are missing flexibility, people are missing warmth and acknowledgment... That was really it!

Ask people, 'what do they need?' And then deliver what they need.

And it's really about being in tune and listening and learning and then delivering on what those things are gonna look like for the people."

• Lucius DiPhillips

The ELC Virtual Summit) is BACK on April 20th-22nd!

We’re bringing together engineering leaders from around the world to surface fresh industry insights & help you build peer support. Don’t miss out on expert conversations, peer-led roundtables & workshops to help you accelerate your leadership growth.

**Learn more and register HERE): **sfelc.com/summit2022)

SHOW NOTES:

• Why engineering leaders need to create a sense of belonging (2:34)
• How (and why) Airbnb measures belonging (4:16)
• Re-inventing the coffee-chat, coordinated no-meeting-days, and other wellness practices that work (7:31)
• Creating a culture of idea sharing and support for employee-led initiatives (11:17)
• The impact of implementing the Native Genius framework for all 500 of Airbnb’s team members (12:43)
• Using a framework for career conversations as a belonging and engagement strategy (15:45)
• Lucius’ template for career conversations (17:29)
• Achieving some of the lowest turnover rates, in a company with some of the lowest turnover rates in the industry… during the great resignation! (25:04)
• Lucius’ mentoring story on the impact of career conversations on burnout & retention (25:45)
• You CAN balance career development conversations with business goals (28:54)
• How to be a “multiplier” and facilitate the best work from your team members (33:09)
• Effective retention strategies during the “Great Resignation”(37:21)
• How leaders can use an Airbnb “host” mindset to tune into their people's needs (44:50)
• Investing in the tools for the future of work (48:51)
• Rapid-fire questions (56:44)
• Takeaways (1:03:08)

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• (tool) Topia.io) - AR/VR virtual meetup & community tool Lucius experimented with his team
• (book) “Multipliers)” by Liz Wiseman
• (coaching/workshop) "Native Genius)" - workshop & consulting to activate innate intelligence with Kristen Wheeler )
• (resource) Native Genius) - workbook from Liz Wiseman to understand your team’s Native Genius