Opening the door: how we can inspire inclusion

When I think back to my childhood, there were sometimes feelings of exclusion.

When I was growing up, we moved around the world, and I was always the kid who came from another country and spoke another language. When I went to a new school, I would look for people like my British and American parents, but I still wouldn’t feel like one of them. As I would just start to get things right in France, suddenly we would move to Norway. I would just get it right in Norway, and we would move to Spain. When we left Spain, I went to boarding school in Scotland and had to start all over again.

I was not American, nor British; not Brazilian, nor French, nor Norwegian; not Spanish, nor Scottish. Most kids had no understanding of who I was, where I came from, why I had the perspectives that I had. It can be extremely isolating when you feel like you don’t belong.

Now that I’m older, I don’t look back upon this as a woe-is-me story. I understand the “third culture”, the lessons it taught me, the opportunities it afforded me. But even so, I will always fondly remember the kids who reached out to me to try to be a friend during this time.

Allyship, advocacy, and action

I’ve written before about my personal framework for enacting diversity, equity and inclusion: allyship, advocacy, and action.

Early on during my time at Lenovo, I met a young woman who asked if I could mentor her. It was clear to me that she very much wanted to grow at Lenovo. I became a part of her journey in understanding the organization and taking advantage of the programs that Lenovo offered, in the kinds of professional development she wanted access to, in harnessing creativity and inspiration. It was a joy for me to lean in and work with her, especially when she was offered a full-time role at Lenovo. In terms of reverse mentorship, I learned a great deal from her opinions and perspectives from where she sat within Lenovo, including as a woman of color in the US.

By employing allyship, advocacy, and action, we are able to open doors for each other. These doors might be closed, or hard to find, or hard to unlock, or they might not look very welcoming or safe.

To me, inclusion means reaching out to show people on the other side of the door how to get in and what to do once you’re in.

A barrier to inclusion: the cost and accessibility of childcare

There are a multitude of barriers that prevent the workplace being a safer and more welcoming space for all, such as the cost and accessibility of childcare. We can make a huge difference by modeling what it looks like when both adults in a family share domestic responsibility — a job that the US indexes at around a $150,000–$160,000 contribution to a family per year.

This comes particularly to the top of mind for me because my husband is a stay-at-home father. There are still few men who do this. Many people don’t understand it. When people see him with our daughters, they say how nice it is that he’s babysitting today. At many turns through our life together, whether he with our family, or me with my career, we weathered isolation, disrespect, or exclusion.

This reversal of traditional social roles sometimes led us both to feel like outsiders on our particular path. Working together, we found ways to overcome the difficult moments. We learned to bend and flex, to re-examine and revisit, and to open doors for each other. There’s always a path forward, but you have to find it together, not leave one person to figure it all out by themselves.

Showing up and working together — at every level

The first thing we all can do is to show up. Everybody has to be on board with inclusion; it shouldn’t be only half the population invested in pursuing this, because it isn’t only half the population affected.

Men need to be a part of the conversation — to act, to be allies, to curate and find incredible and talented women, promote them, and invest in them. My first professional coach was absolutely the model of what it looks like for men to be allies, and I was very fortunate to work with him so early in my career. But this reaches into many arenas. For example, I spoke on a panel at CES alongside both male and female guests on how men can help women be heard in the workplace. We must work together.

Women up and down the line also have to model what inclusion for women looks like: promotion, leadership, openness, showing vulnerability, accepting mistakes. I truly believe women uniting, understanding, and assisting in each others’ challenges is incredibly important across every stage of our careers.

As leaders, we all must think about fostering an inclusive environment for those entering the workforce. The reason for this is simple: so newcomers can learn safely and productively, and in turn also add more value to your organization. Do you make your best decisions or do your best work when you’re scared or anxious? No way! The damage that can be done by a leader who isn’t an ally or advocate can have adverse knock-on effects, just as much as the benefits of working for a great leader can be felt, and hopefully paid forward, throughout our teams for years — and generations — to come.

Organizations also have an important part to play in inclusivity — and Lenovo’s up for the challenge. Women comprise 37% of our global workforce, and an industry-leading 29% on technical teams. We offer a fantastic six months of parental leave. We also work hard on our commitments to including women in the workforce. We pursue this commitment through diverse, early-pipeline recruitment, as well as career development programs like the Women’s Leadership Development Program (WLDP), which offers training and networking to women at the Director level to prime them for executive leadership. Investments in our employee resource groups are also a big part of our dedication. WILL (Women in Lenovo Leadership) is one example that gives women a forum to speak candidly about issues and come together as a team to advocate for support. In various countries, WILL also has further sub-interest groups for women in innovation, technology, logistics, and women who are new/expectant mothers or going through menopause. We know that an inclusive culture and a sense of belonging are important factors in the retention of female talent, and so these efforts are seen as necessities, not luxuries.

Being excluded taught me to demand that people be included

My experiences in my childhood and beyond taught me so much that I’ve taken with me through the course of the rest of my life. I aim to drive inclusion on every front, from the workplace at Lenovo to my home. I try to make sure everybody understands how important it is to include others — to pay it forward. I aim to model inclusion, openness, being welcoming, active listening, and looking out for people on the sidelines.

These principles apply to how we operate in every single one of the interactions that we have. It’s how we truly inspire inclusion, at work, at home, in our communities and our lives: by continually learning about what’s important to others, incorporating that into our lives and workplaces, modeling it ourselves every day, opening doors, and showing each other the vast benefits that ensue.