Is Your Leadership Equipped for Diverse Talent?
For several years now, diversity and inclusion has become an increasingly important attribute for the best-performing organizations. In fact, diversity has, in many ways, come to be associated with high-flying companies of all sizes around the world.
However, while diversity has been growing in significance, there remains a lot to do in many organizations to take diversity policies beyond mere verbal affirmation and entrench them as part of the organizational fabric. Since diversity has multiple dimensions, it can often be used solely as a cosmetic measure to gain legitimacy with clients and the public.
But, for agencies that are truly committed to becoming more inclusive, the question should not be – how can we use diversity to increase our hiring prospects or meet our compliance regulations? It should be – how can we implement diversity to increase the cultural competence of our workforce? As a result, diversity should not be seen as an end to a goal; it should be seen, and treated, as an end in itself.
One of the primary steps towards doing this is to hire and nurture a diverse workgroup. But another important step is to create a leadership team that is not only diverse but also equipped to understand and cater to the unique needs of diverse talent.
Why is diversity in agencies important?
In discussions about diversity, the focus is often on getting organizations to ensure a more diverse outlook in their hiring and how they organize the workplace. But one question that most fail to consider, or answer, is how prepared their leadership is to handle diverse talent.
We have long known that there is a strong correlation between diversity in leadership team development and business success. According to a recent McKinsey report, companies in the top quartile for gender-diverse leadership were 15% more likely to perform above industry average. In like manner, companies that scored high for racially-inclusive leadership were 35% more likely to bring in financial returns above the industry average.
Subsequent studies from a battery of global organizations, including the International Monetary Fund have returned the same results – diversity in leadership is linked to better financial performance in organizations. But the fact that diversity is thought to have this effect on financial performance is not nearly as important as why it does.
Diverse teams tend to operate more as a team, with people of different backgrounds bringing their unique experiences and talents to bear on the pursuit of a common goal. The unique viewpoints they bring, together with their shared work experience, creates multiple perspectives that allows them not only solve complex problems in unique ways, but also solve them better.
And having diverse leadership is important to unlocking this globally-relevant perspective that diverse teams bring. As the Harvard Business Review reports, teams that have inclusive leaders are 29% more likely to report that they work collaboratively, and 17% more likely to say they are high-performing. In addition to these advantages, diversity in the workplace helps agencies:
Access a wider pool of talent. They can more readily hire from various hiring pools, which exponentially increases their hiring quality and reach.
Reduce workplace churn. Diversity in leadership helps retain, not just diverse staff, but other workers who value a fair, inclusive workspace.
Attract more clients. Diversity has become a marker for organizations that are interested in pursuing organic growth. This is attractive to globally-minded clients.
Increase employee satisfaction. Workers are more fulfilled in a safe, fair and inclusive workplace. It creates confidence and improves job satisfaction.
Diversity in leadership
Although teams that have inclusive leaders perform better on average, they do not have these high-performance results merely because their leaders come from different backgrounds. In the Harvard study referenced above, the researchers wanted to find out what made inclusive leaders, and their teams, stand out from others. They discovered that effective inclusive leaders have six traits that distinguish them:
Visible commitment to diversity. They challenge the status quo and make diversity and inclusion a personal priority.
Humility about their abilities. They admit when they are wrong and create the space for others to contribute.
Awareness of bias. They understand their personal blind spots as well as the flaws in the system, and work hard to ensure a meritocracy.
Curiosity about others. They have an open mindset, are able to listen without judgment and genuinely seek to understand those around them.
Cultural intelligence. They are attentive to other people’s cultures and are adaptable in their acceptance and respect.
Effective collaboration. They empower their team members and pay close attention to diversity of thinking and psychological safety.
These traits show that it is not enough for leaders to only have diverse backgrounds. They should also have the maturity, skills and attitude to gel closely with the teams they lead and encourage the brilliant diversity that these teams are capable of. The goal is not, and should never, be to achieve a one-for-one match. This only fragments the workspace unnecessarily and defeats the fundamental premise of brilliance in diversity.
Rather, each leader should be able to keenly understand and accept the different ideological and cultural nuances of a diverse team and be able to nurture the team to become confident in their unique differences. It also goes without saying that this should be reflected across the leadership team, from the C-suite down to frontline managers, depending on the size of your agency.
The Boston Consulting Group has highlighted the danger of only equating diverse leadership with the C-suite. Frontline managers are the ones that directly supervise employees, and as a result, can have a huge impact on the success of any diversity and inclusion policies. When individuals at this level believe in and actively pursue these policies, the organization can better achieve a workplace that is diverse and inclusive in all respects.
Creating a diverse leadership
Diversity and inclusion training should be a part of the fabric of organizations that are willing to achieve a more diverse workplace. This training cannot be one-off either. As organizations grow and develop, so do the people and cultures that make up the organization.
Training is particularly important for people who may have a tendency to entertain unconscious bias towards others due to their cultural upbringing or circumstances. As we work to encourage others to accept people of different cultures, it is also important that those being accepted are prepared to learn more about and accept their colleagues at work.
There are several ways organizations can work to create more diverse and inclusive leadership team development, including the following:
Understand that diversity is not only about “Black lives matter” or hiring more women. It includes being committed to accepting and celebrating all every aspect of what makes us different.
Work with diversity implementation experts who can help devise a clear strategy to implement diversity policies throughout the organization. They can also help create training programs and provide tools that encourage diverse decisions.
Invest in continuing education and lead awareness about cultural differences and how to encourage a confident, and diverse workforce. Investing in sensitivity training and education about diversity laws can help the leadership team understand how to relate with a diverse workforce.
Provide diversity support resources and ensure HR is well-equipped to provide ongoing support and education about diversity policies.
Remember, the goal is not to look more diverse as an organization. Instead, the goal is to create a more diverse organization that revels in its cultural differences and brings a globally minded approach to how it does business.