4 Reasons Diversity and Inclusion Start with Great Leadership
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace isn’t a box to tick on a corporate goals checklist. Rather, leaders must understand and embrace the tangible benefits that come with meeting diversity goals. When treated as a corporate philosophy, diversity and inclusion translates to powerful differentiators that are key to an organization’s long-term success.
The unique bird’s eye view of leadership allows them to see the effects of a diverse workforce in motion. That’s why creating an inclusive company culture must start at the top.
Let’s look at how leaders can foster diversity in the workplace and turn DE&I goals into values shared across the company.
1. Like Great Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Starts with Purpose
When I think about the role of diversity in a company, I like to start by defining our goals as a company and asking why we exist. At Prime 8, we exist to solve our clients’ problems and help them achieve their business aspirations. Our clients expect us to bring innovation, creativity, problem-solving, and a winning attitude to drive results.
When I look at these things, I recognize them as attributes of diversity. They’re not exclusive to just one group of people or one specific place in the world. In order for us to deliver on our promise to our clients, it behooves us as a company to seek out great people who come from a wide range of backgrounds.
This purpose also has a human element. To solve our clients' challenges requires empathy and an understanding of the context of the project and the client — knowing the problems the client needs to solve, their experiences, and the nature of their business.
At Prime 8, we don’t focus on just one “type” of diversity. It isn’t just about gender, ethnicity, age, or socioeconomics. Diversity culture is all of these things and more. One of our global clients provides support to customers around the world. It’s hard to relate a customer who’s living in London to a client in war-torn Ukraine. They have very unique needs and challenges. From a diversity standpoint, our approach is to hire experts who are not only qualified for the role, but also understand the cultural factors in those parts of the world and can bring empathy and understanding to the partnership.
You can substantially increase empathy and understanding when you have people of different backgrounds who can relate to customers in different ways. Each brings something unique to a project compared to someone who hasn’t been in that situational context.
2. Leaders Enable a Forward-Thinking, Always-On Approach
It’s in a leader’s nature to treat company culture, goals, and objectives as living, breathing organisms. The goals we set today aren’t necessarily endpoints; they’re signposts that tell us whether we’re making progress toward something bigger (like an inclusive workplace).
There’s so much we have to learn about inclusion and belonging. Like every other aspect of our business, I think about diversity as a continuous journey. The milestones we set today for diversity are based on the information we have today. Diversity is a sensitive topic and we accept that we’ll make mistakes along the way. We’re not always going to get it right, but we will keep asking questions, learning from others, and adjusting our path accordingly.
Just as leaders are forward-thinking about changes in the market, we have to apply the same mindset to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The nature of diversity is constantly changing, both in society and in industry. When growing diversity in the workplace, we must continue to learn, adjust, and seek out new ways to harness the power of diversity to enrich everything we do.
3. Leaders Set the Tone for Others to Follow
There’s no question that leadership can make or break a company’s culture. Employees within the organization are always looking toward leadership when it comes to decision-making and how to handle certain situations or opportunities. Company culture itself is built top-down — if leaders embrace workplace diversity, so will the rest of the organization.
This idea also applies to external stakeholders. The culture that leaders build attracts clients, prospective employees, and other stakeholders whose values align. For example, diversity is a core value at Prime 8, and it applies to all areas of our business, including recruiting. We promote diversity in our job postings, our website, community outreach, and recruiting conversations to welcome a full range of talents and backgrounds. We want to encourage skilled individuals to consider consulting as a career, including those who have never consulted before.
It’s this alignment in our values and our approach to diversity that brought us together with a major global athletic brand. Like Prime 8, this brand understands the impact that diversity has on communities. They’re not defined by gender or ethnicity. As a company, they cultivate people from all walks of life. In order to do that, they needed suppliers and partners who understand this multidimensional aspect of diversity. That’s a big part of why they selected us as their consulting firm.
4. Great Leadership Makes Diversity Everyone’s Responsibility
The immediate goal of an inclusive workplace is to have gender equality, ethnic mix, and other inclusive vectors. These things don’t equal a diverse workplace per se, but they do help organizations move in the right direction. They provide a foundation where diverse individuals can bring their best talents.
Leadership’s role is to create the business strategies that make diversity a priority for every department. For example, our recruiters embody our DEI goals by using multiple and varied channels for hiring to make sure we’re sourcing diverse candidates. Each member of my team has specific responsibilities to align their business activities with our diversity values.
We’re also advocates of sharing resources, stories, and problem-solving approaches internally. Our client case studies provide insights into employees’ projects and how they’re helping our clients to achieve desired outcomes. These resources allow our employees to play a role in their own growth and development.
By its very nature, a diverse team means people learn and execute in different ways. As a leader (or leadership team), we must use different channels and forums so others can find their best way to participate in the business and harness the resources they need to be effective in their role.
Establishing Strong Leadership for Diversity in the Workplace
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace shouldn’t be delegated to just one role or position. When leadership sets the tone, DEI becomes everyone’s responsibility.
People learn and execute in different ways, so as a leadership team we use multiple channels and forums so people can find the best fit way to participate in the business and harness the resources they need to be effective in their roles.
Join me for part 2 of this series on diversity and inclusion, coming soon. In the meantime, I invite you to share your thoughts and best practices on how leaders can support diversity and inclusion in the workplace. If you need help in this area, contact us to discuss the role that Prime 8 can play in helping your company meet your own diversity goals.
