Originally posted on my LinkedIn profile.

I’ll be honest. If I were adding someone to my team, I wouldn’t choose someone solely because they’re White, Black, American Indian, Asian, or any other race. I also wouldn’t choose them because of their gender, sexual preference, or who they voted for. I would choose them for who they are and what they bring to the team. I would choose them because I highly value, deeply desire, and desperately need their perspective.

Here’s some wisdom learned over the years about the value of diversity. Off the top of my head, I can name (at least) three reasons why diverse perspectives from people with different backgrounds are invaluable to me.

#1 – Lack of context creates sh*tty decisions.

This is true professionally and personally. Context is critical in my role as a leader, CISO/vCISO, friend, father, and husband. How many times have I uttered the words “if only I had known” in the aftermath of one of my sh*tty decisions? I’ll tell you. Too many times!

Different perspectives create context, and context creates better decisions.

#2 – The best solutions are approached from many different angles.

In my role, some people call me a “visionary”. Besides feeling uncomfortable with titles/labels, I can tell you that visionaries are nothing more than delusional dreamers when there’s nobody around to validate their vision. A vision without validation and someone to navigate the treacherous path towards reality is little more than hallucination.

The worst person to validate me is me. The next worst person to validate me is someone like me.

If I had a dime for every wild idea I’ve had, you could add me to the G7 and make it eight again. Not only do other people’s perspectives save me from myself, they also create elegant and realistic solutions to difficult problems.

#3 – Life enrichment.

Living life through a single lens (mine) is tragically void of creativity and love. Sure, there’s comfort when I’m with people like me, we can be like “pack animals”. That word comfort. There’s a time and a place for comfort in my life, but it certainly isn’t all the time and everywhere. If I’m not paying attention, I could imagine comfort becoming an idol that breeds complacency.

Different perspectives bring fulfillment and a deeper sense of love for life. I’m absolutely convinced there’s a correlation between the number of different perspectives and the quality of outcomes. There’s tremendous value to discover in discussions with people who are NOT like me. I’m grateful for the diversity brought by different people in my life.

So, in closing.

I like making better decisions. I like solving difficult problems. I like living a life full of awesome sh*t! Relationships with people who aren’t like me, don’t look like me, grew up in different neighborhoods, had different childhoods, etc. is critical to mutual success, not to mention my own success.

Someone I would choose for my team is someone who’s not like me. This is what I think about diversity.