How do I show my commitment to EDI as a Leader?

You’ve connected to why equality, diversity and inclusion matters to you personally and what diversity can bring to your team and culture but so what? How do you now transform the vision, the purpose, into reality. How do you become the inclusive leader…

Firstly, you openly talk about it. You explain to others your reasons why it’s important to you and to the organisation. You discuss it in every appropriate context. You notice and celebrate where diversity is good. You are clear where it needs to be better. You use your power as a leader and be proactive.

You support and champion people who are different to you. You educate yourself about people whose experiences are different to yours and notice how others are affected in different situations. You also amplify the voices of those not being heard.

You create a business rationale for Diversity and Inclusion. You hold yourself and others accountable to this and to positive behaviours including using the right language and communication around inclusion. If you don’t know, just ask. Refer to people as what they are rather than what they are not.

You set criteria for equality benchmarks and have a clear plan for progress – what are you actually trying to achieve? How will you know you’ve got there? What are the advantages/gains you will notice? 

You are able to acknowledge when you get it wrong and accepting your vulnerability as a strength you wish to role model. You are open to challenge and getting it right.

In short, lead by example, be open to change, show commitment and act!

“Inclusive leadership is not a destination. It’s a journey that requires humility, curiosity and courage.” Thais Compoint

Once individuals have connected to ‘why EDI matters to them personally’, it’s then important to understand the organisation’s bigger purpose moving away from the individual, to answering these questions from the organisation’s point of view.

Why would any organisation want to be inclusive?

What will it look like for your organisation to be inclusive? 

How will you know you’re getting there and then, achieved it? 

But a more fundamental question is this one….

What can Diversity bring to your Team?

In other words, what’s the purpose, what’s the why behind becoming a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce?

“In diversity there is beauty and there is strength” Maya Angelou

Answering this together, as a team can help pick apart the questions about what Diversity would look like, also by beginning to look at their current state in the representation of diversity. What areas of diversity does the company feel they have good representation, where do they feel vulnerable, what’s the desired state? This is where I aim to really help them scrutinise the 100% truth in their discussions. In the work I have done to date with teams, I have experienced organisational blind spots where being well represented in one area of diversity, can often lead to them struggling to see where they lack in others. It’s vital here I am really explicit about protected characteristics and specifically those which are not always visibly evident.

I ask them to consider, what’s the organisational culture? How do they believe difference is experienced? Is it missed, judged, de-emphasised. Or is it deeply understood and bridged? 

How do they know?

“Inclusion is not what you think; it is how people feel.”  John Berger

Next time, Inclusive Leadership….

It’s great to hear how so many organisations desire to put Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the core of what they do and how they want to show up in the world. Some even aiming for Diversity Accreditation schemes, using this to ensure their vision for EDI is supported by action plans and is an umbrella for all they do.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the leadership teams of organisations over the last six months who are trying to achieve this. They look inwards at themselves to really reflect on whether they are an inclusive company. I’m always curious to know their answers to the following: 

Why would any organisation want to be inclusive?

What will it look like for your organisation to be inclusive?

How will you know you’re getting there and then, achieved it? 

But my actual starting point is the title question:

Why does EDI matter to you personally? 

“When we are advantaged, it is difficult to spot. When we are disadvantaged, we spot it instantly”.

The responses to this often get to the heart why individual team members FEEL the importance of being inclusive and diverse. Everyone has a story where they have witnessed or been victim of some form of bias or prejudice. Giving space for individuals to share these stories and to describe their emotions at the time or now, brings those feelings to the surface. My purpose for doing this is to truly understand whether the organisation wants to simply respond to the law or to adapt its’ culture from a place of integrity. Then the work begins…

The next part…..where to go from here…..