Promoting Diverse Leadership

Promoting diversity is something that all companies and industries need to be more aware of. Many organizations have already made great strides toward becoming more inclusive and diverse companies. Yet there is always room for improvement.

For example, now is the time to focus on diverse leadership. A company that lacks diversity in its leadership roles is not truly diverse. Furthermore, these companies are missing out on the many benefits of a more diverse working environment.

With that in mind, here are some tips for promoting diverse leadership within a company.

Understanding Diversity

Before beginning to progress toward diversity, you must understand the whole landscape. Diversity is a broad concept and includes age, disability status, religion, sexual orientation, race, socioeconomic background, veteran status, and more.

As a first step, a company or organization should first define its diversity goals. This should include an explanation of its idea of diversity and what can be done to promote this goal.

Commit to Action

Once a plan has been implemented, it’s time to commit to it. Embrace these changes, speak candidly about concerns, goals, and achievements, and most importantly - be open to feedback.

Uplift Voices and Perspectives

Managers and leaders need to get in the habit of uplifting voices and different perspectives. People from different backgrounds will have different ideas, leading to creative solutions and a better business.

To start uplifting these voices, companies must ensure that everyone is heard. But it has to be more than that. Companies can do more by ensuring that some of those providing these perspectives are raised alongside their voices. In other worse, they need to provide promotions accordingly. This will enable them to speak freely, promote others, and showcase their talents and differences.

Improve Diversity Training

It has become common these days for companies to have diversity training as part of employee training. However, this training is usually only a generalized training opportunity and is not specific for leaders.

In other words, companies that want to promote diverse leadership should consider creating diversity training specifically designed for leaders and managers. Having a tier of diversity training available for executives would also be beneficial.

Sponsor Continuing Education

Some companies offer sponsorship programs so that their employees may continue their education. This is a great idea, as it provides unique opportunities to employees who would otherwise not have been able to follow these paths.

This practice can be utilized to promote diverse leadership. This is especially true when a company requires a degree for its leadership roles. By empowering employees to obtain these degrees, they are helping to level the playing field.

Promote Internal Talent

Generally, a company has two options when it comes to finding management. They can hire an outside source or promote talent from within the company. The latter will have a more significant impact on diverse leadership.

However, companies must address biases to ensure diverse thinking and promotion. Failure to do so will likely not have the desired results, as the cycle will continue with little change.

The best way to encourage and develop internal talent is by ensuring everyone gets the same opportunities and mentoring. This will allow each employee the same chance to shine.

Create a Company Built on Transparency

Diversity and inclusion often go hand-in-hand with transparency. Why? The ability and willingness to have open and frank conversations enable employees to spot and tackle disparities.

For example, a company that disallows conversations about wages will likely be less aware of any bias (intentional or unintentional) regarding pay. This can encourage the gender pay gap to continue. By allowing employees to talk about their salary, a company can ensure that everyone is treated equally.

Transparency goes beyond allowing employees to discuss their wages. It should be a practice used at every level of the organization. This will have the added benefit of increasing company morale and trust.