A Manager’s Toolkit for Building Inclusive Teams
In tech we hear a lot about diversity, inclusion and belonging. We’ve even made an acronym for it, DI&B. At HubSpot we work hard to hold DI&B practices high, constantly refocus or recenter conversations, and still, we have so much work to do.
I’m a white, cisgendered woman. Those are my visible attributes. Of course, I have invisible attributes — like being bisexual, having depression and anxiety, taking medication daily — that also make up a diverse workforce. But all too often, we (the tech industry) are just scratching the surface with DI&B. We know that a diverse workforce in tech can often mean just “hiring white women.”
I’ll confess that when I got promoted to a management role at HubSpot, my first thought was not “Wow, I so deserve this.” It was “Did I get this because I am a member of a lucky demographic?” Upon further reflection, I realized that of course I’d worked hard and pushed myself to succeed, but I also know that I live in an inequitable world, so probably, yeah, some things I get will be at least partly unearned. That’s not really the interesting question, though. A better question for me as a leader and manager is What am I going to do about it? How can I, and anyone with power in the tech industry, push back, question, and do more to ensure true equity?
I saw a tweet while writing this post that said, “Sometimes allyship means speaking up & fighting on behalf of someone else, especially if they don’t have access to the space you’re in. But it also (more frequently) means conceding space to others and putting them in the spotlight instead.” This post will cover both of these options, specifically through the lens of being a manager on a product team, to uncover ways we can do more to speak up and amplify other voices.
Be the dissenting voice
We know from research that women experience greater consequences than men for confronting sexism. We might assume that this extends to all oppressed groups, that calling out your own oppression can have greater consequences for you than for someone from the majority, or oppressing group. So, if you’re a manager, and you represent the majority, you have to raise the point. A simple example is interviewing. Managers spend a ton of time growing their team, and are often the voice that matters most in the room. If you’re on an interview panel and either all the candidates or all the interviewers are white (or in any other way not representative of the candidate pool), you can pull your recruiter, the hiring manager, someone aside and say “Hey, this doesn’t seem right. How can we fix it?”
Consume and share content by new voices
Earlier this week, someone in my network asked me for content and resources that might help them get into UX. I wrote down some of my favorite “classic” books on the topic and sent it over to them. Of the six books I recommended, with 12 authors, every single voice I shared was white, and a third of them were women. When you share content with newcomers, or interesting articles about the industry to your team, you’re choosing to amplify some voices over others. Push yourself to consume and share content by new voices, those representing different backgrounds and points of view. It’s too easy to follow the established norms, to lean on the same expert voices over and over.
Grow your bench
As a manager, you’re the representative of your team to the layers above you. Sometimes you share this visibility with those on your team. So you tap someone to share the team’s work at a quarterly meeting with your executive team. Or you ask someone to document learnings from the last month for your peer leaders. If you lean on the same person every time, you’ll miss opportunities to grow your team’s bench. A new person’s voice taking this message forward, up or out of your organization, can provide a fresh perspective while giving that person a chance to take the spotlight. Give people more opportunities to stretch their limits. Don’t just keep asking the same person to tackle this work because they “crushed it last time.”
Be ready for it to feel weird
Challenging systemic power dynamics is weird — that’s why they’re systemic. If no one ever felt awkward pointing out how your hiring process is inequitable, it would already be more equitable. Sometimes just identifying an imbalance can make people feel attacked. For groups that have historically been in positions of power, being made equals can sometimes feel unequal. Explain to your team, your peers, your leadership, how and why you’re making these changes.
As a leader on my team, I’m aware of the privilege I wield, both as a person with (albeit middle-management) power, and as a person who visually conforms to expected norms. I’m also aware of the opportunities and responsibility I have to share it with others, like when exciting opportunities come up for my team to tackle. Learning how to get better at speaking up creating space for the voices of those around me is something that any leader can, and should, do.
Drop me a line on twitter @chebathurst to continue the conversation.
