Dr Patricia Anderson: 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society
Start at home/walk the talk — influence your family and community in how inclusive you are in conversation and practice. Children are truth sayers, ask your children to evaluate you on inclusive criteria/ask them what to do to improve.
As part of our series about ‘5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society’ I had the pleasure to interview Dr Patricia Anderson.
Dr. Anderson is a professor at the Forbes School of Business and Technology with more than 20 years of experience in executive leadership and business. She has combined years of extensive behavioral research with her proven abilities to manage complexity, volatility, and ambiguity in the realm of leadership, to become a leading expert in Authentic Transformational Leadership (ATL). Dr. Anderson’s mission with ATL is to position leaders and businesses to create people-powered, future-proof solutions and sustainable success through authenticity, transparency, and mutual real-time accountability.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up mostly with my grandparents who were entrepreneurs, where I learned at a young age about business operations and customer service. As an avid reader, I was exposed to different cultures, languages, and possibilities. Later, my parents also became entrepreneurs, strengthening my desire to do the same.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Love is a Verb! Loving on Purpose. The approach of operationalizing love and reorienting us to what real love is, resonated with me. The author discusses the ineffectiveness of conditional, transactional, and perception-based love and explores the key barrier to authentic love — fear. Disruptions like 911 and COVID-19 serve to bring out our authentic selves (loving on purpose), and the author explores how to purposely extend that agency. The core messaging about loving yourself first and exploring your purpose was life-changing, as was the principle of “sowing what you say.” Monitoring how I sow word seeds has influenced both my inner and outer conversations.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
People do what they want to do.” Either accept that or find ways to get them to want to want to.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
A leader is someone who influences positive and sustaining behavior in others. An authentic transformational leader inspires and motivates others to galvanize the vision. Another aspect of ATL is the ability to function as a role model to future leaders. This type of leader possesses high EQ and is an innovative and creative disruptor who solicits the same from their followers, stakeholders, etc.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
I prepare my mind by prioritizing that moment, hour or day. This reduces the stress. I also engage in self-talk, seeing myself on the other side of the event. Further, I take walks, meditate, and pray. Finally, I take time out for self-care regularly (vacation, spa, staycation, rewarding myself, etc.)
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. The United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This is of course a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on how this crisis inexorably evolved to the boiling point that it’s at now?
It has evolved to this point because organizations claiming DEI compliance have viewed the initiative as merely checking a box, and not much more. The intricate mechanism of systematic exclusion remains pervasive because those with the power to alter it do not. We repeatedly witness groundswells aimed at addressing and ameliorating it, rise and then fall. The marginalization of certain groups has always been present, however, the perfect storm occurred in 2020 when global disruptions forced us to face ourselves and the many faces of who we are at the core. When we did, we did not like what we saw, we were enraged but later devolved to business as usual. Interventions such as money, power, and consequences should be placed in every aspect of human interactions to promote inclusivity.
Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?
In one of the case studies I performed, surveys were administered to the employees to determine if their employers were practicing DEI. Questions targeted promotion opportunities, mentoring, and career guidance. Respondents noted the lack of inclusion of women in leadership, which was most notably prominent from the optics of the organizational chart which is viewed both internally and externally. Remediation efforts were put forth to the organization who then used the evidence-based data to promote a number of qualified women to leadership.
I recently published an article that offered guidance on designing inclusive workspaces, including shifting from office-centric to human-centric design which transcends cultural, physical, and social dimensions. Inclusive design is established on the principle that a “design” (of a product, service, workspace, etc.) considers all of the possible human experiences. Inclusive design reorients interactions between people and their workplace to find a correlation where everyone can express their creativity, skills, and capabilities. Benefits of inclusive design include deterring social, physical, gender, and cultural exclusion. An increase in mental wellness is represented when the static workplace begins to morph into a more dynamic space. Socially responsible organizations that practice inclusive design are more desirable to diverse, prospective talent. The inclusive design also creates spaces for workers to rethink other unconscious biases.
Another dimension about Diversity and inclusion is addressed in the article, entitled: Women in Transformational Leadership: Why Now? I explore the dynamics of women in the workplace and the influence of gender-based roles as well as recruitment efforts. Additionally, empirical evidence of women-inclusive executive boards yielding higher ROI is presented.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?
Organizations wanting to be effective and efficient must use everything in their arsenal to bring innovation to the market. Leaders have to ask themselves “do I have everything in my arsenal?” Not exploiting the full spectrum of human availability and capability leaves “money on the table.” Having executive alignment is not just about agreement on strategic initiatives, it is also about engaging those who think, act, and present differently along with their varied experiences, insights, and contributions. Unless the organization wants to continue to do more of the same, it must continue to do less of the same.
Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. You are an influential business leader. Can you please share your “5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society”. Kindly share a story or example for each.
- Start at home/walk the talk — influence your family and community in how inclusive you are in conversation and practice. Children are truth sayers, ask your children to evaluate you on inclusive criteria/ask them what to do to improve.
- Institute regular culture mapping exercises to educate stakeholders on barriers to inclusion (economic, class, religion, language, etc.)
- Ensure your leadership team reflects your internal and external customer base. Look at your organizational chart, what are the optics communicating to stakeholders? Would your internal customers (employees) rate your leadership as inclusive? Allow for stakeholders’ 360-degree evaluation of sustained DEIA performance. Activate executive gatekeepers to ensure DEIA. Conduct regular pulse checks to ensure you are on task.
- Cancel permissible stereotypes. Inclusivity begins with comfort, safety, respect, and support.
- Activate DEIA (as of 2021 the Accessibility aspect of diversity, inclusion and equity was regulated.) Model strategic leadership by providing resources, training, and other opportunities to reinforce DEIA. Show up where it counts.
We are going through a rough period now. Are you optimistic that this issue can eventually be resolved? Can you explain?
I am extremely optimistic about the capacity of the human spirit especially in times of crisis and disruption. We rise to levels of compassion and inclusion that outpaces any exclusion. We have to ask ourselves the question: do we want to resolve this issue? If we do, we become aware of our role in perpetuating the issue and are intentional about resolving it. If we don’t want to, we have to determine what it takes to spur us to want to want to.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would like to meet with a sitting President. I am interested in the person behind the ultimate seat of responsibility.
How can our readers follow you online?
DrPatriciaAnderson.com
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
It’s been a pleasure, thank you!
