Want More Leadership Diversity? Fix Corporate Culture

I have participated in many ‘Women in Management’ trainings and coaching programs that support high-potential women to grow into executive leadership positions. I’ve been taught how to sit, how to stand,  how to adjust my voice, and even how to dress in order to be successful. These activities have an underlying message: Fix yourself if you want a senior role.

Today I know that developing good leaders is not about ‘fixing’ individuals or forcing them to adapt to a standard. Instead, it’s about building a new corporate culture that fosters a variety of leadership styles in which diverse racial, ethnic, and gender identities are considered as professional as the prevailing model.

So how do we do it? Here are my three recommendations to fix corporate culture and not your people.

Push for diversity and foster inclusion

To retain and nurture talent, we must create working environments that promote inclusion and encourage people to be vocal with their perspectives and ideas.

We must be aware of where we’re focusing our attention. Analyze your employee lifecycle. If all your attention is on hiring diverse people, take steps to analyze and improve other stages. For example, do you have regular company-wide jour fixes? If yes, who is invited to speak? Which projects get the most air time?

“Everyone needs to feel secure enough to voice their ideas, contribute to the discussion, and even dissent.”

We have to look through this lens at all aspects of working conditions and if you find places where you fall short, be courageous enough to change it.

Fix your feedback systems

Leaders must be aware of how the status quo in their organization might uphold and reinforce negative stereotypes.

“Unconscious bias that’s built into an organization runs the risk of preventing people from bringing their perspectives  or even worse, excluding them.”

We must create environments where people can emulate leadership that inspires them but also develop their own style and methods of success. For example, managers giving feedback should ask themselves, “Is this woman bossy and loud?” or am I assessing her performance through a biased lens?

Feedback should be individual and based on task requirements rather than stereotypes. Forget about trying to make individuals fit your organisation and focus on helping them flourish.

Encourage dissent and lifelong learning

Change requires reflection; the same applies to business decisions, and it’s not always easy to take the risk of doing something differently.

“When we are challenged on our beliefs, it can cause us to react from a place of fear and erode trust.”

How do we reframe challenges to be a positive learning experience? At DHL Consulting, we all have an obligation to dissent, to provide another perspective. Because this is in our DNA and is something we’re committed to regularly practicing, challenging one another opinions is the norm. Our goal with this isn’t to one-up each other; it’s to listen and learn from one another’s perspectives.

As you work to make this a regular part of your work environment, you can also focus on actively drawing out different perspectives by asking people what they think. In this way, you empower your people to do this instinctively eventually.

Outlook

To reap the benefits of diversity, companies must focus on the systems in their organizations that unlock those benefits. We must create a culture that treats people equally, that makes space for everyone to speak up, be heard, and develop their individual strengths. This requires everyone to be a part of the change, to learn about our biases and how to mitigate them. That’s how we’ll move beyond fixing people to fixing corporate culture instead.

Let me know what you think in the comments. How do you create an inclusive workforce? Do you feel you can develop authentically in your role? You can also read more about leadership topics on my blog: https://sabinext.com/

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