Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Where Do You Stand as a Leader?

I will start with a question.

Who among you reading this article has been denied employment because of your race?

Did any of you raise your hand?

Well, my hand is raised because I can say with certainty that I have. How can I be so certain, you ask??I will tell you. Several years ago, while interviewing for the President role of a manufacturing-based company, the senior leader conducting my interview said to me, “Michael, I have no doubt you can do this job. However, I don’t think that I can recommend moving you forward in our process because I question if the guy working on the manufacturing line in the plant will accept a black President.” Not surprisingly, I did not move forward in their selection process.

As you may imagine, the interview I describe above had a profound effect on me. It was a painful reminder that as a Black leader, performance alone is not always good enough. Through that point in time I had successfully led, grown, or turned around several global organizations. I had a stellar track record of leading organizations to success, yet I was denied the opportunity to compete for employment solely because I am black.

Fast forward to today. I am President of a nine figure manufacturing business where engineering and innovation are keys to success. Moreover, I am proud to say I lead a diverse leadership team that fosters an inclusive culture in our company.?Including myself, my leadership team consists of 8 individuals. Three team members are ethnic minorities. Two team members are women. One team member is a foreign-born, naturalized citizen. Three team members are not engineers. Two of us are PhD engineers. Four team members have MBAs. Two of my leaders come from private equity-backed companies. One of my leaders is a military veteran. One is a former tech company owner. Finally, we have a two decade age spread among leaders on my team. We are all very, very different.

This level of diversity did not happen by accident. I have placed five of my seven team members in their roles. In my case, creating a diverse leadership team was deliberate. Similar to a coach fielding a sports team with players who fill specific roles, in building my leadership team, I sought individuals who brought different, yet specific skills, experiences, and backgrounds and made sure I had a diverse slate of candidates who exhibited different characteristics from which to choose. Why am I telling you this story? Because I want to emphasize a bold, yet simple point – creating a diverse team is not hard to do. You only need to be committed to having a diverse team to create a diverse team.

As a leadership team, we celebrate our differences and benefit greatly from being as diverse as we are. Our diversity expands our relatability to our employees because they, too, are a diverse population with unique and different life journeys. Our diversity increases our ability to attract and recruit the best talent because our candidate pool includes diverse talent who can easily see themselves in our leaders. We all bring different histories, experiences, and talents to our team which allows for diversity of thought, approach, and behaviors. I am convinced this diversity has contributed meaningfully to the outstanding financial, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction results we have posted as a team since I joined this organization. My leadership team comes from all walks of life and our company is a better organization because of it; hands down. No question!

Where is the proof you may ask? Studies have shown that companies with more diverse management teams generate higher innovation-based revenue[1] and produce better financial returns[2] compared to companies with less diverse management teams. There is research that suggests teams that are highly diverse focus more on facts, remain more objective when considering facts, process facts more carefully, and may be more likely to scrutinize each other's actions[3].

All that said, diverse teams are not guaranteed to outperform non-diverse teams. Teams consisting of members with vastly different personalities, styles, experiences, and capabilities can introduce insurmountable conflict and frustration and paralyze the team. This is where leadership comes in. The leader who understands and embraces equity and inclusion will have the skills needed to manage different personalities, minimize conflict and create a learning, progressive and productive environment where all ideas are welcomed, considered, and appropriately debated. What is the result of a more diverse, inclusive environment and team? Better decisions. More innovation. Increased performance. But only if it is managed well.

“Diversity has to be managed well to get a consistent positive return – what I call the Return on Inclusion (ROI). That’s when the magic happens.” - Randall S Peterson

Once non-existent in the business environment, then progressing to a “nice-to-have”, diversity, equity and inclusion is rapidly becoming the operating standard in the corporate environment. Today and into the future, leaders who recognize the value of DEI will thrive in leading their organizations to success.?Leaders who do not value diversity, equity, and inclusion will eventually become obsolete with their organizations outpaced by companies who do.??Which one of these two leaders are you?

References

1. Lorenzo, R. et. al. (2017).?How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation (bcg.com).
2. Hunt,V. et al (2015). Why diversity matters | McKinsey.
3. Rock, D and Grant, H. (2016) Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter (hbr.org).

Thank you for reading my article.?Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Where Do You Stand as a Leader??is the 30th?article from Dr. Michael Edwards. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to my Newsletter,?Leadership Explained,?to get notified when I publish a new article. Please 'share' this article with your network, click 'like', and/or leave a comment.?Click 'Follow' if you wish to follow me on LinkedIn. Have a look at my other Leadership Explained articles by clicking here.