How Your Senior Leadership Team Influences The Diversity of Your Organisation

Everyone thinks change comes from the top of the organisation.

Not everyone knows how it happens.?

Let’s?take the guess work out of your efforts.?

Here’s what the research says:?

The characteristics of the?upper echelon of an?organisation will directly influence the outcomes of the organisation.?

This why?people say things like?"You need to create change at the top”

This means if you want Diversity in your organisation, you need Diversity at the top of your organisation.?

This principle is at the heart of?Upper Echelon Theory.

This is an?old school management?theory from the 80’s that still influences how we talk about the workplace today.?

It’s not just a theory. There’s evidence to back it up:

In this week’s episode of the podcast I discuss a?paper called:?

Upper echelon theory revisited: The relationship between upper echelon diversity, the adoption of diversity practices, and organizational performance

The?clue really is in the title.?

The authors took data from over 260 U.S. organisations to learn if the demographic Diversity of Senior?Management had an influence on:

• Diversity of the employee population?
• Adoption of diversity practices
• Profitability and innovation

They even investigated the "power and prestige" of the Chief Diversity Officer ??

Here’s what they found:?

• More women and racial?minorities?in?Senior Management?meant more women and racial?minorities?throughout the employee population.?
• More women?and people with disabilities?in?Senior Management?meant greater adoption of Diversity practices.?
• More women and racial?minorities?in Senior Management meant greater power and prestige for?the?Chief Diversity Officer.?

This may not be what you expected.?

Here’s what the results mean to you

Focus on a Bespoke Approach?

One of the?7 Common mistakes organisations make on their?Inclusion Journey is using a one size fits all approach.?

An example is if you applied your Anti Racism?approach to dealing with issues of Gender?inequality.?

The results support our own evidence that shows that this is a mistake.?

Upper Echelon?theory doesn’t apply consistently for different forms of demographic diversity?

Focus on Results not Prestige?

The paper was concerned with ‘power and prestige” but I’m not sure how helpful this is for you.?

People were asked?“to what extent does this person have power and clout within the organization?”

They weren’t asked about if the organisation was more Inclusive or embracing Diversity.?

Focus on getting results not getting?prestige?

Focus on the right?People?

One of the 3 Biggest Problems organisations experience on their Inclusion Journey is People. Organisations struggle to engage the People they want to include.

In this paper?Diversity meant increasing the representation of under represented groups.?

If Diversity means something different to you, you should adopt a different?approach.?

Check out the show for more details, I link the results to the famous McKinsey Report and provide additional resources so you can make your own mind up?

PS.?

I’ve taken your?advice and I’m?appearing on more?podcasts?

Last week was Diversity Secrets Podcast with?Louise Moulié

We were?speaking?about the Business Case for Diversity.?

Let me know what you think of the show?

Whenever you're ready, there are a few?ways I can support your Inclusion Journey:

1.?????Work with me 1:1?

2.?????Get Practical Book Insights?

3.?????Get our Free Email Course?

For everything else check this?

https://linktr.ee/elementofinclusion