Embrace Difference: Interview with Author Minal Bopaiah

I recently went one on one with Minal Bopaiah, author of Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Minal: Well, there may be too many to name. But briefly, I was always a bit of a fish out of water. I was a clever, sensitive, Indian American girl growing up on Staten Island (picture all of the aggression of New York with none of the arts and culture), and I just sensed pretty early on that the world was not rooting for me. It took many years to develop the language for describing the system around me and how it kept trying to push me and those I love to the margins. But those experiences, while heartbreaking, were coupled with a strong sense of self, a sense that I had worth, and that I was not going to participate in my own gaslighting. So, while I’ve also learned you can’t change everything in life, I now know I wouldn’t be happy if every day I wasn’t trying to change the things I can, which include these huge oppressive systems of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and all the other isms and phobias that dehumanizes the majority of humans. And through this work, I have found a number of remarkable humans who are rooting for me -- and I for them. 

Adam: What do you hope readers take away from your new book?

Minal: That designing a more fair and just system is pragmatic, not idealistic.

Adam: What are your best tips for leaders on the topics of inclusion, diversity and equity? 

Minal: Embrace difference, develop system sight, understand how power works in your organization, and operationalize DEI by asking for concrete, observable behaviors. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

Minal: I actually encourage leaders to question the value of scale in my book. Unending growth is a pure fantasy; we’ve clearly run out of planet. And scale has often been predicated on systems of exploitation, like slavery, colonialism, and abusive labor practices. Instead, leaders should be asking how they can make their business sustainable and beneficial for both their employees and customers.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Minal: Leadership is others-focused. Leaders face the headwinds so that everyone behind them has an easier time. If you’re not interested in making life easier for other people, you’re not interested in leadership, you’re interested in power. 

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Minal: Now is the time for equitable leadership. Equitable leaders embrace difference. Many of us have been socialized to fear difference, but in a globalized world, the smartest leader is the one who leverages difference for innovation and creativity. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Minal: The same for leaders: Embrace difference, develop system sight, understand how power works.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

Minal: You cannot mandate thought, you can only ask for observable behaviors. So be thoughtful in what type of culture you want to create and operationalize it by ascribing observable behaviors, because people operationalize values in different ways. For example, perhaps you want a culture of accountability. One person may interpret that by arriving on time for meetings, while another might be 5 minutes late but was sure to do all the pre-reading. Both are right, but their different interpretations can create unnecessary conflict. Managing differences requires becoming competent in managing conflict, both big and small. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Minal: When it comes to work and leadership, I like Maya Angelou’s words: Success is liking who you are, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Minal: Life is undoubtedly unfair and unjust -- people die tragically, or get incurable diseases, or, less tragically, those we love don’t love us back. But the ability to create more fairness and justice in the face of this is what makes humanity unique. So don’t delay. Every single thing in this world - from words to organizations to technology - are simply the manifestations of someone else’s ideas. As a member of the human race, creativity is your birthright. So use it to create more justice and fairness, and you will never regret how you spent your time on earth.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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