What is leadership’s role in creating diversity and inclusion?
Leadership has a very important role in any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) effort. The question assumes that leadership has decided that diversity and inclusion is desired. So once the decision is made to pursue diversity and an inclusion, whether by choice or by mandate, leadership subsequently inherits a few vital responsibilities as they pertain to the DEI effort.
Define your purpose
The first thing leadership should do is be clear about WHY diversity and inclusion is desired. Working on DEI for its own sake is insufficient for sustaining momentum and traction over time. Leadership should define specifically how DEI will benefit the organization.
Examples include being better able to relate to a wider range of customers, increasing recruitment and retention by making all employees feel more welcome, or reflecting the community you serve. There are countless reasons that diversity can benefit an organization, but being specific helps keep people stay engaged and minimize skepticism generally.
Define your vision
Now that you know why you want diversity and inclusion, you must define your specific desired end state. To what end are you driving. If you don’t clearly define what success looks like from the onset, you won’t be certain you have ever achieved it. Different members of leadership will have varying ideas about how and when success has been achieved and will fizzle out in turn. Your DEI vision is critical to your success.
My company helps clients define their specific DEI vision, and we prefer an inclusive process that engages employees in defining success. If your employees have a hand in defining the goal, they are more easily bought into the hard work of getting to to goal. Because the truth is, you never want to just add diversity to a workplace without preparing the existing staff for inclusive behavior. You will likely end up hiring and recruiting talented, diverse people who just end up quitting because their colleagues haven’t learned to accept diversity and behave inclusively. That requires setting expectations, defining the desired culture, and providing staff with tools and skills for success — often through training and education.
Measure and recalibrate
Leadership needs to measure progress along the way. This is one of the places organizations tend to fall short. The industry standard for diversity has been devoid of measurement and accountability. My diversity strategy consulting firm is one of the few that starts by measuring the DEI within an organization, then continues to measure progress over time. We believe that leaders can make better decisions about how to proceed when they know how interventions are affecting the organization.
There a many ways to measure success, but this is one of the reasons those clear goals are imperative. Companies can use 360 evaluations, focus groups, engagement surveys, DEI surveys, HR data, etc. Once you have clear, objective data, you can recalibrate your DEI efforts as needed. Just be sure to give each intervention sufficient time to take hold. Try not to be unrealistic about the pace of change.
Tone from the top
Finally, leadership must set the tone from the top. Leadership cannot delegate all of the associates activities and remain detached. The number one reason DEI efforts fail is insufficient leadership buy-in. Someone has to do the hard work of making sure everyone in leadership understands what DEI is, why it’s important and beneficial, and clearly define leadership roles and expectations. That’s the work my company does every day.
Sometimes leadership needs DEI executive coaching to get everyone onboard. Sometimes it’s DEI strategic planning. Sometimes they need training to level set everyone’s understanding of what lies ahead. We like to lead with data because it reduces reliance on subjective opinions and makes the case through quantitative and qualitative assessments.
Develop diversity champions
It is important that leadership be provided the tools to successfully champion DEI. Even one staunch doubter within the leadership ranks can derail a diversity and inclusion effort and cost the organization millions. The higher the rank of the doubter, the more likely your diversity efforts will fail. Working in opposition to a leader who hasn’t been bought in greatly reduces your return on investment and decreases the likelihood of achieving your DEI goals. It also increases the chances that your diversity team or consultants will quit you.
DEI cannot succeed with leaders who work against their diversity support team or who simply do not trust them. If you are unsuccessful in converting doubters to champions, someone must decide whether they should remain in leadership, part of the DEI leadership team, or at the organization at all. Even if the leader is great at their “real job”, do you really want a leader who refuses to accept and model inclusive behavior that makes all employees feel welcomed?
Create accountability at all levels
Leaders who fail to support inclusive programming are failing at an important part of their job. Making exceptions that allow leaders to be diversity detractors is counterproductive and culturally detrimental. It’s a legal and HR liability that exposes companies to unnecessary and avoidable risk. It’s the kind of thinking that allowed workplace sexual harassment to become a commonly accepted behavior.
Inclusion is a core leadership value. There will be many doubters within the employee ranks. That is to be expected. The difference is that leadership can mandate employee behavior. Even if you can’t tell people what to believe in the workplace — you CAN tell them how to act toward one another. It’s also easier to let individual contributors go if they refuse to get onboard with the new behavioral expectations.
If you fail to hold leadership to the same standards, you’ve failed before you’ve even started. Leadership that refuses to accept their responsibility to authentically lead the DEI effort, or isn’t adequately prepared, protracts the amount of time and money required to get the job done.
Here’s a link to five of my books and other fun things I’m up to.
Dr. Tiffany Jana (they/them) is the author of four books published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships across Differences is available everywhere books are sold. You can also earn 3 SHRM CEU credits for reading it.
Erasing Institutional Bias: How to Create Systemic Change for Organizational Inclusion is available everywhere books are sold. You can also earn 3 SHRM CEU credits for reading it.
The IPPY Award winning second edition of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good is available everywhere books are sold. Read it only if you want your company to be part of the solution.
2020 Terry McAdam Book Award and getAbstract Reader’s Choice International Book of the Year Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions is available everywhere books are sold. You can also earn 3 SHRM CEU credits for reading it.
