06/11/2020
How do we promote racial justice and supporting black employees in the leadership pipeline?
We need to move away from focusing on only the business case for diversity and realize that it’s a moral issue, have senior leaders encourage conversations about race, expand diversity and inclusion initiatives beyond anti-bias training to invest in leadership development programs, and creating opportunities for informal mentorship.
Other ways to promote diversity and inclusion:
* Give D&I sustained C-suite support and recognize and reward the people who contribute to its initiatives — for example, by having your chief diversity officer report directly to the CEO and tracking inclusion initiative participation in performance reviews and promotion and pay raise discussions.
* Equip and invite white men to take up the mantle — say, by bringing them into D&I programs and assigning some of them to leadership roles. White men are the only group that do not incur career penalties (promotion, etc) for speaking up about race.
* Challenge those running D&I efforts to set clear goals for how representation, organizational networks, and access to resources should change across functions and levels over time and how black employees’ perceptions, engagement, and well-being should improve, and then measure the efforts’ effectiveness with data analysis and qualitative surveys.
* Shift from preventative measures, such as antibias training, to proactive ones, such as upping the number of black candidates considered for open positions and stretch roles.
* Abandon one-size-fits-all and color-blind leadership-development practices in favor of courses and coaching tailored to specific groups — or better yet, adopt personalized plans that recognize the multifaceted nature of each individual.
* Help black employees and rising leaders throughout their careers, including teaching managers the skills they need to support D&I efforts.
* A significant portion of D&I programs try to “manage blackness” — that is, impose “desirable” and “professional” (read: white) norms and expectations on rising African-American stars, thus preserving rather than shifting the status quo. They train black executives to fit into the existing organizational culture rather than encourage them to broaden it by bringing their true and most productive selves to work. Stop asking black employees to blend in; instead, emphasize the value of a workplace that embraces all styles and behaviors.
* Candid feedback early on is also critical. It should focus on identifying and enhancing their unique strengths, overcoming skill or knowledge weaknesses, and positioning them to realize their full potential.
* Sponsorship — that is, recommending black employees for promotions and stretch assignments — is even more important. Other key factors that have propelled black Harvard MBAs into senior executive roles are line or general management experience and global assignments.
Any other effective measures you’ve seen at work? Share below in the comments.
Diversity efforts are failing black employees. Here’s a better approach.
