Your cheat sheet as a leader to enable diversity.

As an HR leader, it's almost impossible that you have not witnessed the need to make the workplace more diverse. In spirit, the intention is to make it more representative of the customers we serve, the society we live in and stakeholders we engage with- but in essence, start with gender, has been the mantra for all geographies, industries, functions and levels.

Truth be told, I struggled with this thought initially in my career, because I was born to a mother who worked, I am youngest of three siblings and my sisters were always career focused and continue to work even till today.

I always saw aunts, cousins, even my maternal grandmother working- so the concept of why we need to 'enable' diversity was alien to me. I quickly realized my naivete.

I was perhaps born into a geography and into a family where working women were a regular feature in societal norms, but it was far from truth in many locations within India and globally. Thus, there was need for folks to champion the cause.

Being a diversity champion came naturally to me, I continued to work over past many years to make regular changes in the workplace which will allow us to expand our talent base, continue to tap into a limited pool but yet show progress. The real realization happened although after achieving certain life stages, after getting married and seeing my spouse face challenges and thereafter our dilemmas that we faced while growing as parents. The world at large is not kind to mothers was a quick learning for me, as I witnessed biases, comments, perceptions on women at different life and career stages.

My belief became stronger that you do need leaders sculpted from a different cask to be able to create an impact on making workplace more representative.

Drawn from my own experiences, being witness to best of best behaviors and also challenging some worst behaviors, I have put together a list of what does good look like. This is not an exhaustive list but yet if you are truly focused on making workplace diverse, do mull over these pointers listed below.

This in no way is representative of companies I have worked in but rather a view on people experiences: -

1. If your team's gender representation is below the company average and has not moved much in past few quarters- you are doing something terribly wrong. In DEI world, you are the nightmare for diversity evangelists. Get your act together and figure out where are you going wrong and act on it, like now!
2. The age of business case for diversity is passe, so if your bosses or you or your team members ask for this- clearly shake them up and ask them to come out from under the rock. You may not even notice that your lack of diversity is perhaps making you ask this question.
3. No, you don't deserve a civilian or gallantry award if you 'allow' flexibility to women associates- please wake up and make it flexible for everyone in your team to become productive.
4. No, it's not ok, any more to ask about people's marriage plans or plan to have children or to even offer them advice from your personal experience. It's their life, let them make that decision.
5. Do not decide on behalf of your women employees- don't decide if they can work in any territory, or if they will relocate or would they prefer going on a dinner late in the evening, or if they can manage their family commitments. Please DONT. Women and men both are mature, and they know what they are doing- you, dear leader (and reader), kindly treat them equally.
6. Watch out for those microaggressions ( Recognizing and Responding to Microaggressions at Work ( hbr.org ) ). You don't have to modify your behavior for women alone, if you are using abusive language or being aggressive or behaving in a manner which is unbecoming for a professional workplace- please note it's not ok for women or men.
7. Be more self-aware of your own biases, you don't want to be caught unaware if someone brings these to your notice. Know what are you dealing with and then build counter measures around you.
8. Do not make workplace unsafe for women- look for those who make unwanted gestures, advances or comments on women. Don't laugh on women jokes or POSH jokes or make stupid comments if women are not in the room- you may be encouraging behavior that its ok to laugh when women are not present- it's not ok. As a leader please do not allow bad behavior to continue in your presence.
9. Its ok for men and women to focus on life priorities- don't hold it against them, if you are a male leader and take pride on not knowing which classes your kids attend, when is their parents teachers meeting, who are their friends and what is their birthday calendar( yes kids have a birthday calendar to follow!!)- and you rely on your working/non-working spouse to take care of these- it's about time your grow up and share the load. And most importantly for those of your colleagues and team members who are active care givers or are attending to their families- respect them don't hold it against them.
10. Do not believe in metrics that don't count. If you genuinely believe in creating an impact, show that in results and not in effort. Effort is subjective, results are objective. So don't go chest thumping, if you have balanced slates and you 'genuinely' made an effort but there weren't good candidates- it doesn't count, it just doesn't!
11. This last one is so basic, but it still needs to be said- please do not schedule meetings at odd hours, do not schedule work travel on weekend without checking people's comfort, do not assume that if you are workaholic so would be everyone else. Create environment where people would like to work with you.

The list above is so basic that anyone in any organization and environment can make it happen. Its the responsibility of the leader to make their work place psychologically safe for talented and passionate employees to come and perform.

I have deliberately stayed away for suggesting changing in workplace policies because that may not be in your control. Also, in no way succumb to poor performance, ask for people's best performance. Productivity, high performance has positive correlation if you do things mentioned above.

And finally, do not solve your diversity problem through HR. If you aren't filling your business roles through gender diverse talent, you are just pushing the problem to your HR leader or HR position. It won't make you look good even if you have gender diverse HR leader!

So, this Holi, the festival of colors, please bring some more color to your workplace and let it become even more diverse!