Being Your Authentic, Multi-dimensional Self

There’s an old saying, “If you can see it, you can be it.” Growing up, this is something that didn’t really resonate with me. The role models of my time were from TV culture—Carol Brady of The Brady Brunch, the stay at home mom raising six kids (even though I did relate to Jan as the middle child of eight!). During that era, women and men alike were limited to one dimensional stereotypes. In hindsight, Mary Tyler Moore was the exception—she challenged the norm by playing the role of a single, working woman.

But as I grew older, I realized it was easy in those days to get defined by only one dimension. This evolved exponentially over time. There have been many game changers—musicians, athletes, technologists, and entrepreneurs—multi-dimensional icons who came from all walks of life inspiring both women and men. Michael Jordan as a basketball legend who pivoted to baseball while building a global brand. Steve Jobs, a college dropout who introduced the first Apple home computer, completely revolutionizing technology. And TV hosts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres whose successes extended beyond daytime television, to incredibly successful entrepreneurs.

So what does all of this mean? Today, people look up to role models for many different reasons. It extends beyond gender, sexual orientation, status, and race to their passion, success, and inspiration which stems from multiple variations of their identity.

For me, I can be a mom, a corporate citizen, a woman leader, an athlete, and a CEO. The culmination of each dimension is what makes me my unique authentic self. And at Deloitte, we empower our people to bring their best selves through our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Every generation brings new and different expectations to the workplace—to the social world of work—and it’s really time for organizations to look again at workplace diversity. This is something we’re continuously doing in a serious way at Deloitte.

By making bold moves and significant investments, we’ve been a leader when it comes to inclusion, and we are committed to continuing that leadership. We launched both our Women’s Initiative and Diversity Initiative over two decades ago—way before many of our professionals were even in the workforce! But we know that what worked then may not be enough today. We led the profession with the first minority CEO, first minority chairman, and first woman chairman. I was honored to be named the first woman CEO of a major professional services firm in the US. We have always strived to be a firm of firsts, and raise the bar.

There isn’t a CEO I speak to who is completely satisfied with their diversity and inclusion efforts. Leaders across all industries are challenged to answer age old questions about inclusion: How do we create an organization where everyone feels they belong? How do we harness the power of our differences to advance our culture and our business? Could new and improved approaches of advancing inclusion in the workplace help facilitate diverse connections and understandings across broader society as well?

These are big questions. Answering them adequately is going to mean challenging the status quo. We started on this journey by asking our people what they need in both their professional and personal lives to grow and thrive—what will most contribute to their development and well-being.

One of the things they told us is that we needed to Reimagine Inclusion, to take the next evolution of our strategy focused on inclusive behaviors and a number of key inclusion challenges where we know we have work to do. Take affinity groups, also known as Business or Employee Resource Groups (BRGs or ERGs), for instance. Since their benefits first became apparent, many organizations, including Deloitte, sought to respect and support diversity by creating these groups—places where individuals of similar backgrounds could come together and engage with one another.

These affinity groups will remain strong, vibrant, and essential components of our approach to diversity and inclusion. But we are also focused on engaging our people on issues and interests that matter most to them across multiple diverse, inclusive, varied demographic, and geographic boundaries. It involves building on the success of the BRGs and expanding our inclusion initiatives in response to the demands of the workforce of today and tomorrow. It’s the “NextGen” of Diversity & Inclusion, and it aligns with how leaders of the future expect to make inclusion real—based on experiences and feelings.

So, in addition to the support and connectivity our people receive from BRGs, we are also moving beyond the confinements of a single defining characteristic by creating Inclusion Councils that reflect a diverse group of people with different experiences, talents, and perspectives. These councils complement our BRGs by focusing on solving some of the greatest needs of our people. According to research by Deloitte and the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, when defining diversity, millennials are 35 percent more likely to focus on unique experiences vs. representation. Many of our professionals don’t want to be just a part of one specific cohort group.

Everything we do depends on our people, because as a professional services organization, our people are in a sense our product. That is why we choose to invest in our people with the same vigor other companies would invest in product development and R&D. For example, we have begun piloting additional Integrated Leadership Development courses that leverage the best of our existing women’s and next generational leadership development programs.

We will continue to address key inclusion issues through our ongoing investment in marketplace sponsorships and relationships like Catalyst, Working Mothers, Girls Who Code, Out & Equal, the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, MLT (Management Leadership for Tomorrow), ALPFA, ASCEND, and NABA.

We’re already seeing the results. Involvement in major inclusion events has more than tripled in some offices because of our new Inclusion Council approach. Stop and think about that—tripled. For instance, one pilot Inclusion Council invited all Chicago professionals, friends, and family to participate in Chicago’s Pride Parade—tripling our attendance figures by reaching so many who might otherwise not have been aware of our participation and helps those in the BRGs feel much more supported broadly in the organization. Similar events celebrating Black History month and International Women’s Day also drew a more diverse group of professionals.

The level of participation with these events is a sign of where we’re going: everyone has a role in inclusion. When everyone has a seat at the table, it is clear that engagement overall rises. Everyone contributes because inclusion doesn’t happen only with big initiatives like our profession leading Paid Family Leave Program.

It happens in small, everyday acts, those one-on-one moments when our inclusive culture inspires someone to new success. It happens when leaders cultivate a courageous environment where people can speak openly—bringing the diverse perspectives and unique experiences to the table. It happens when people are empowered to be their unique and authentic selves. And, it happens because diversity and inclusion is not one-dimensional, but based on different values, interests, and experiences.

This is why it’s important to foster a culture where all people feel they are supported, belong, and can be their authentic multi-dimensional selves. And I bet you have your own list of what makes you uniquely you. Just be yourself, and more importantly, you do you.

That’s Reimagining Inclusion—that’s where we’re going at Deloitte. That’s where the next generation of leaders can find us.