This Black History Month, I’m sharing my “DEI Don’ts”

Welcome to Lead With Inclusion! This weekly newsletter is a resource for EVERY professional. Whether you’re a manager ready to be a more inclusive leader, or an employee ready to be a DEI champion in your workplace, inclusive actions lead to inclusive outcomes. Leading with inclusion simply means starting with inclusive actions in everything you do. It means identifying the areas where bias is at work, and shifting mindsets to make change.?

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Black History Month starts tomorrow, and I keep finding myself wondering: what’s going to be different this time around?

Every year, I watch companies make pledges to change their organizational culture, their recruitment strategy, the list goes on. And you know what? Every year, I watch those same companies continue to make the same mistakes, over and over and over again (I’m talking to you National Football League (NFL) and if you’re not sure why, this opinion piece explains another perspective). If I’m being honest, I’m exhausted. Those of us in the DEI space spend a lot of time telling folks what they should do if they want to promote inclusion in their workplaces and what they should do if they want to be a DEI champion. And clearly, it’s not working.

So this year, I’m doing things a bit differently. Rather than starting with what you should do, I think it’s time we start with what not to do. This year for Black History Month, I’m offering you my first ever “DEI DON'TS.” Each week, I’ll be bringing you a different “DEI Don’t” - something that organizations and individuals need to STOP doing if they actually want to lead with inclusion. It’s still a new year, and it’s not too late to leave old habits behind.

In honor of Black History Month, here’s your first “DEI Don’t”:

When you see a Black person get hired for a role, DON’T assume they’re not qualified to be there. In other words, stop assuming that Black people are only in their roles because they’re Black, and some kind of “quota” needed to be filled.

I’m sure you’ve seen this happen before. Just recently, I saw a post on social media about the city of St. Paul, who recently elected an all-women city council. My first thought? How incredible. An entire city council full of women of all identities - with multiple races, ethnicities and faiths being represented. It was beautiful to see. But when I saw the reactions to the post, I noticed that rather than celebrating this exciting moment for representation, commenters were tearing it down - many of them men. I’m sure you can already imagine what these comments were saying. Oh, great. They're going to run the city into the ground. That's diversity at work for you. They're just hiring unqualified women so they can fill a quota.

And when it comes to recruiting and hiring Black folks, we hear the same kinds of ignorant mindsets all the time. I’m sick of it.?

First of all, these imaginary quotas don’t exist. That’s illegal. To even use that kind of language is willfully ignorant. And second of all, why is it so hard to believe that Black folks are qualified to do excellent work? It’s time to let go of the ignorance. If we really want to shift these narratives, we’ve got to normalize seeing Black folks in roles of all different kinds. This means that for professionals in the recruitment space - it’s time to stop letting your own blindspots and biases block you from seeing great candidates.?

So, now that we’ve talked about what not to do, let’s talk about what you actually can do if you want to reduce these harmful patterns in your workplace.

Be an Inclusive Leader

Recruitment leaders, we talk a lot about the need to think differently if you want to create an inclusive hiring strategy. But it’s about more than just thinking differently. We also have to do differently. You can start by changing the way you’re recruiting. It's easy to keep doing things the way you've always done it, but at some point, you've got to really look at your process with a critical lens, and ask yourself where people are falling out of your pipeline. It’s not going to be the same answer for everybody; the holes in the pipeline will be different for each company. But once you’ve figured out where those gaps are, you can then figure out who are the people who touch that point of the process. Then finally, it’s time for a conversation with all of those people at the table. What do we need to do differently? If we can't continue to do it exactly the way we're doing it right now, what else could we do? Even just starting to have the conversation is a huge step in the right direction, and shows that you’re willing to make that change. But before any change can be made, you’ve first got to ground yourself in the data.

Lead With Inclusion

The same idea works on the individual level. It starts with data, but then, it’s all about what you do with it. For any recruitment professional, once you have the data in hand, you actually have to resolve to want to do something about it. Just having the data isn’t enough. The question is, what are you going to do about it? And for some people, it's nothing. Some folks will choose not to make a change. Are you going to be that person? Or are you going to be the person that’s going to decide not to continue the status quo, and actually try something different??

And I know what you’re thinking. Stacey, I’ve tried to do something different but I got shut down by my organizational leaders. And you know what I say to that? Try again. So often, we try something once and when it doesn’t work, we immediately give up. But that strategy isn’t effective. You have to try again. If we all just gave up after trying something once, we’d never actually succeed at changing anything.

One thing that can help is sharing what works and learning from each other. Recruiters, If you’re looking for a place where you can connect with and learn from other recruitment professionals across multiple industries, then head on over to our recruiter discussion board. It’s the place to be if you’re a talent acquisition professional looking to network in your field, engage in collective learning, and share best practices with other professionals in the recruitment space. Learn more and start chatting here.

About Stacey Gordon:

Stacey Gordon is Executive Advisor and Founder of Rework Work where she and her team coach and counsel executive leaders on DEI strategies for the business, while offering a no-nonsense approach to unconscious bias education for the broader employee population. As a global keynote speaker, Stacey is a Top Voice on LinkedIn and a popular LinkedIn Learning [IN]structor with nearly two million unique learners enjoying her courses.?

Want to hear Stacey live? Consider booking her for your next keynote or workshop.