Equity in the Workplace Requires Intentional Advocacy, Allyship, and Mentoring

Colleagues, leaders, and companies that are truly committed to actively supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and diversifying their leadership - there are future leaders inside of every organization from a wide array of backgrounds who will flourish if you are intentional about advocacy, allyship, and mentoring. In organizations where senior leaders are truly intentional about DEIB, they are relentlessly seeking out and mentoring others. Instead of gravitating toward people with shared life experiences or waiting for people to ask for help, those who are committed to DEIB deliberately seek out people who do not look or love like them, who do not have the same abilities, credentials, or who come from different background or socio-economic status.

Countless studies prove that when leaders and companies embrace these differences, they naturally increase innovation which in turn increases productivity and market share. But can one leader truly make a difference when it comes to DEIB? In this article, I offer three examples from my personal experience of leaders who cared enough to support my early career success and inspired and empowered me to pay it forward for others over my career.

"Just a Kid From the USAF..."

I was born and raised an Air Force brat. I always thought I would serve in the military - my dream was to become a military lawyer. After participating in ROTC throughout high school, I enlisted in the Air Force during my first year of college. Then, my path was altered. Less than one year after enlisting, I took an honorable discharge from the military and focused on finishing up my degree.?

Upon graduating from college at 22, I was still unclear about my career path. I was the first in my immediate family to graduate college and I simply wasn’t aware of how corporate life worked. I finished my degree before my husband. My in-laws both worked for the post office over their careers so neither my parents nor anyone in my immediate network could mentor or coach me on what to expect or how to handle my career outside of the structure of the military or postal service.?As I began a new path with no roadmap and no tour guide, I was scared yet determined.

The Benefit of Advocacy, Allyship, and Mentoring

Within two months of graduating college, I began an entry-level job at Ohio Savings Bank in Cleveland, OH (ironically directly across the street from my current employer).?After successfully completing a six-week training program, my manager continued to support my onboarding through regular one-on-ones and performance coaching. Anthony Gummo was my first corporate advocate. After watching me work hard to learn the role and build relationships, he took a vested interest in my success by encouraging me to apply for the manager training program and endorsing my application with the selection committee.?

With less than a year at the company, I started an 18-month development program through which I learned foundational managerial tasks and transformational leadership skills. I also was assigned a mentor. Art Neumann, my mentor and a senior executive in the company, would take me to meetings, providing me exposure to executive leaders and strategic discussions. He’d also attend my meetings and share feedback on what I did well and offered suggestions about my opportunity areas. ?Several years after that program ended, I discovered that Art selected me to mentor because his division included very few women and even fewer people of color. He wanted to change that, so he became intentional about mentoring people who could increase the diversity of his team's demographics and expand his team's potential for success.

During the program, I was promoted twice leading me to directly report to Todd Obourn. Todd was a phenomenal leader, setting clear expectations, providing direction and feedback, and fostering trust by delegating challenging projects and tasks to me. As a servant leader, Todd once said to me, “If you have an idea of how we should do something, I want you to present it to executive leadership. If it is adopted, you will get the credit. If it fails, I will take the blame.” Todd explained that because his career was further advanced than mine, he could afford to make an occasional mistake. He said that because I was developing my reputation as a leader, he wanted to bolster and support my success. Knowing that both of our reputations were on the line, I worked hard to make sure I fully vetted ideas to ensure as many successful outcomes as possible.?

I can (and probably will one day) share countless stories of other leaders who supported my development throughout my career. But today I’m deliberately sharing these three stories as examples of intentionally inclusive and equitable leadership through advocacy, allyship, and mentoring.?

Sankofa?

“Sankofa” is a symbol credited to the Akan people of Ghana. Generally depicted as a bird with its head turned backward taking an egg from its back, Sankofa expresses the importance of reaching back to the past to bring knowledge gained into the present in order to make positive progress.

In reflecting on the impact of my encounters with leaders such as Anthony, Art, and Todd in the early stages of my career, I realize what a blessing it was that they each recognized my potential and took a vested interest in helping me develop. They intentionally chose to mentor me, someone who didn’t not share the privileges of their gender or racial identity, their experiences, their networks, or their overall familiarity with the world we worked in. They simply saw a need and were intentional about meeting it through inclusive leadership. What I lacked in exposure and experience I made up for with resourcefulness, resilience and resolve. They helped bridge the gap by investing in me and providing experiences to support my early career success. They were willing to teach and mentor and I was grateful, eager to learn, and determined to succeed.

Moving from the past to the present in my career, one of the many reasons I am committed to supporting DEIB is because intentionally inclusive leaders were so impactful to my career. It disappoints me to know that not everyone receives that level of support. As a matter of fact, most of the people I speak to who look like me are astounded when I share my early career experiences. As a leader, I’ve encountered plenty of managers that display behaviors that are antithetical to the guidance and support that was extended to me. Instead of focusing on those negative examples, I continue to pay it forward by extending the spirit of advocacy, allyship, and mentorship that was demonstrated by Anthony, Art, and Todd - and challenging others to do the same.?

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFuturesMonth #advocacy #allyship #mentoring #inclusiveleadership #equity #Sankofa