As a leader, you need to create the conditions for workers of all identities to flourish. This requires cultivating these four essential freedoms—and ensuring everyone has equal access to them:
- Freedom to be authentic. Set and uphold nondiscrimination policies and establish programs to overcome biases in hiring, promotion, work opportunities, and day-to-day interactions. Foster a culture of allyship through education and relationship building, both within and across identity groups.
- Freedom to become our best selves. Overcome the praise deficits often faced by marginalized groups by offering equal access to development programs that recognize and focus on people’s strengths. And build a culture that encourages positive, objective, constructive feedback.
- Freedom to step back. Increase diversity on your team to take the spotlight off of members of traditionally underrepresented groups. And offer flexibility benefits, such as the ability to choose one’s own schedule, and encourage managers to trust employees to calibrate or pull back on the days they need to.
- Freedom to fail. Establish a culture of psychological safety in which failure is destigmatized and smart risks are rewarded—and apply antidiscrimination and antibias efforts to the idea of failure to ensure that no one gets unfairly punished for falling short.
This tip is adapted from “Where Does DEI Go from Here?,” by Laura Morgan Roberts
