Finding your Zone of Excellence for Leading Race Work

FINDING YOUR ZONE OF EXCELLENCE FOR LEADING RACE WORK

Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D.

written June 2020 / published October 2020

These are unprecedented times for Leading Race Work in organizations today. The 20th century Civil Rights Movement catalyzed widespread racial integration in schools (K-12 and college) and workplaces! During that time, people were not engaging in explicit conversations about race, led by senior leaders, managers or coworkers at work or school as we are now, because segregation didn’t allow for such multiracial exchanges. Over fifty years later, we are called to confront ongoing racial inequity and injustice, and we are grappling with the question of how to Lead Race Work in organizations. The demand is great, abruptly reversing the tide of DEI scale-backs and mission creep in recent years. Social media feeds are filled with research articles, Op-Eds and blog posts, and webinars abound. 

This is our opportunity to educate people about how to engage experts who can advance this work. If we get this right, we can gain major traction before the collective attention span shifts to another major crisis facing our planet. But if we get this wrong, we could undermine past, present and future efforts in this field. So, before we engage the wider community in this work, we need to be crystal clear on how to do so with the excellence that Leading Race Work rightfully deserves.

As you field or seek requests for help, please walk through these questions that can set you up to Lead Race Work with high integrity and impact.

1.    Enthusiasm. It’s exciting to hear from people who are ready to lead race work in their organizations. But before you agree to lead this initiative as an insider or an external consultant, ask yourself, are you truly enthusiastic about this engagement? If your attitude is lackluster or ambivalent – as consultant or as client – everything else that unfolds will be subpar. If you aren’t enthusiastic about delivering with excellence, it's ok to step back and allow someone who is enthusiastic to lead this race work.

2.    Expertise. Is this work in your wheelhouse? How long have you been leading race work? Have you conducted your own research on the topic? Knowledge of race is rather limited among the general public, so introductory-level sessions on popular topics are often in demand. But once the dialogue becomes more complex, nuanced and heated, you will need to be equipped with a solid base of expertise to truly do this race-work justice. Commit to a learning pathway, and humbly seek to partner with subject matter experts when you are being stretched beyond your base of expertise. Stay grounded in the platform of what you do know, and acknowledge what you still need to learn.

3.    Experience. How much experience do you have translating theory to practice? This moment calls for a unique blend of empirically-grounded insights that can be applied to Leading Race Work, and requires researchers who are able to explain how their findings can inform organizational change initiatives. It also involves strategic planning with consultants who have the wisdom, capability and bandwidth to take a long-term view of cultural and structural transformation, which also accounts for resistance and twists and turns they present. Your lasting impact will depend on the depth of your knowledge and your experience. Seek mentorship graciously from people who have practical wisdom – letters behind your name or a title on your business card won’t suffice in Leading Race Work.

4.    Exposure. The spotlight may be calling, but weigh the kind of exposure you are providing and gaining from the engagement. Are you going to impact change, or do you sense you will check a box to accompany a leadership team’s professed statement that Black Lives Matter? Are you being paid according to your value? Many times, large corporations will promise exposure in exchange for your voluntary engagement. You may be led to do so at this time as well for certain clients (see #1 – Enthusiasm). But, that should be the exception to the rule for people who are truly serious about transforming racist systems into anti-racist systems. I’ve personally considered many of these pro-bono engagements as part of my corporate activism over the years; there’s no guarantee they will lead to repeat engagements or referrals, and if they do, it may take a while to cultivate. While in many domains, you get what you pay for, Black excellence has been exploited for centuries. This is a time to claim the value of Black excellence = {experience + expertise + enthusiasm} in leading race work. When we do not, the entire enterprise is undermined. So, know your worth, and amplify the worth of other excellent Black people and those who support them.

5.    Effort. Gather the necessary information to estimate how much effort will be required to deliver this engagement with excellence. Is it canned or customized? Do you have the bandwidth to fully prepare and to be centered, assured and open to learning throughout the engagement? (See #4: know your worth and be sure you are compensated accordingly for the amount of effort this work will require.)

6.    Expectations. Most (ok, maybe all!) organizations who reach out will need system-wide changes. Most leaders do not have widespread buy-in or skills to effect these kinds of changes, because they require sacrifices by many stakeholders over a sustained period of time. It took centuries to build systems entrenched in anti-Black racism. These same systems will not be transformed overnight. There must be an upfront investment to accrue a return, and this return (ROI) on anti-racism will be a NET gain… but there will also be costs along the way. So, be sure to set expectations accordingly. For instance, don’t overpromise what your firm-wide trainings will offer. There is no magic potion for healing systemic malfunctions of liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness and other espoused ideals. You are a change catalyst, planting seeds and teaching people how to water those seeds so that, over time, they can grow. You may reach some key influencers through your work, who will carry it forward internally. This is how race work has always grown and sustained our planet.

A FINAL WORD TO THE WELL-INTENTIONED…

7.    Enlightenment. Have you recently had a change of heart? A new awakening that feeds your race consciousness? A newfound commitment to lead race work? If so, we say “Welcome!” I am marveling at the number of people who genuinely had not tuned into race until now, or weren’t courageous enough to speak about it, or feared making it part of their brand identity… who are now taking center stage because of their elevated platforms.

If this space is new for you, please consider what a true commitment to anti-racist and equity work requires: an honest assessment of how to use your platform and privilege responsibly. People will come to you in these moments because your lack of prior exposure with doing this work has prevented you from being marginalized and has rewarded you with higher status. Now that you take on the less popular and palatable work, there will be pushback.

So, now comes the difficult work of exercising your conscience. Will the work will be better served by putting someone with the expertise and experience in front of the initiative, the camera, the microphone, and/or all of the above? If you have declined countless opportunities to speak on race, write about race, lead race initiatives in your own organizations – even in high status roles - this is a time for you to shift into learning mode, and to advocate for other BIPOC leaders who have been marginalized by doing this work, but who deserve to be amplified and rewarded for their expertise and experience.

If you choose to Lead Race Work in this critical juncture, be mindful to attribute and amplify the multitude of BIPOC leaders who have taken up this work and built the foundation for DEI initiatives that are in place right now. They’ve done great work, and you might be attempted to “borrow” (misappropriate) their words and frameworks, without even knowing what you’ve done. This is the exploitation of BIPOC excellence that is endemic to racism and white supremacy, and people of all racial backgrounds collude in this practice.

So, if you choose to be WOKE, do so on behalf of the collective…

Keep eyes focused on race and the Black experience in this rare moment in global history…

Don’t offer up palatable excuses and extensions to jump into DEI initiatives that shift the gaze back to comfort, belonging, innovation – at the expense of Equity.

It’s OK to be opportunistic in this moment. Seize the day!! We’ve surely waited long enough.

But know your worth.

The world needs people to Lead Race Work right now. Avoid the scarcity mindset that can contribute to the structural inequality we are attempting to combat.

Though the harvest is plentiful, the LABORERS are few!

Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts is an innovative global scholar and consultant on the science of maximizing human potential in diverse organizations and communities. She is the co-editor of Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Publishing) and is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and the Academy of Management Review.