Diversity and inclusion (D&I) leaders face a disheartening predicament. Often minorities themselves, they are proud and excited to help their companies become more diverse and inclusive spaces for everyone. To them, their work feels like a calling, not merely a job. Yet, far too soon after the welcome party and congratulatory press release, they often find their jobs reduced to running employee resource groups and their schedules full of events that are great for Instagram but don’t move the needle on real business or culture metrics.
Eventually, the D&I leader is frustrated and your C-suite looks around to realize there are still serious issues with diversity and inclusion. Why weren’t they able to make a difference? you wonder.
Any failure is a reflection of the C-suite, not the D&I leader. Like Lizzo says, truth hurts.
Without your active support and leadership, no D&I leader will succeed. But with an intentional approach from the executive team, you can create the conditions that allow everyone to thrive, starting with the D&I leader.
DIY It — Don’t Outsource
Fostering a diverse and inclusive environment is like tending a garden. If you “outsource” this function and create it anywhere but the C-suite, the D&I leader (a people horticulturist) operates like an expensive groundskeeper. They tidy the garden, add vanity lighting and cute garden gnomes, and occasionally make cautious recommendations on which plants to add, pull or prune. Mostly, they just hope for the best. What this means in the real world is the D&I head, reporting from several layers down in the organization, has neither the access nor the positional power to ensure that the underlying conditions for growth are favorable or even viable.
In short, executives are the only gardeners who can truly affect the soil. Any D&I effort not driven directly by the CEO is, ultimately, doomed to fail.
Know What’s In Your Soil
If all you’ve grown for years is grass, your soil may not support a plumeria. In fact, it might be harmful for new plants to be added without forethought and preparation.
Starting with the soil means you can quantify its health. You have an informed and strong conviction about your soil’s health factors, and you know exactly how to measure and strengthen it. Moreover, you are willing to make tough calls to ensure the health of the whole garden. This is where your D&I leader can aid your thinking and focus your efforts — but they must be enabled to do it.
Operationalize Your Values To Act As Nutrients
Rich, inclusive soil is cultivated through clear behavioral and values-based norms that the C-suite models, a shared accountability on business and culture KPIs with people managers, and psychologically safe interpersonal relationships and feedback mechanisms.
Every interaction between employees builds or destroys your soil — and the HR team won’t be present for every one of those moments. Your D&I head can lead efforts, in partnership with the C-suite, to operationalize your company’s values and make them a part of everyday people processes and business decisions.
Starting at onboarding, employees need ongoing training and modeling on how to recognize and talk about D&I-related matters like unconscious bias in real time. Train the interpersonal skills that produce belonging and inclusion: emotional quotient (EQ), giving and taking constructive feedback and repeatable, everyday behaviors that reinforce courage, curiosity and compassion.
Training is only the beginning. To codify those nutrient-rich behavioral norms, measure and evaluate employees — especially executives and managers — on identified health factors as part of your talent management processes. This means manager effectiveness metrics and talent reviews to assess bench, promotion readiness or bonus payouts.
Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
To succeed at D&I, openness and candor must be a part of the culture. This will involve uncomfortable, sweaty conversations and the big V-word: vulnerability.
For a startup with a small executive team, a third-party coach can call out that you’re limiting recruitment to your alma mater or using gendered pronouns in your headcount planning process. For a larger company, a strong head of people committed to D&I can play the role of agitator — the “groundhog in the garden” digging up your soil. Perhaps this male VP candidate looked great on paper, but during interviews only addressed the men and remarked specifically that the HR director, a woman of color, was “well spoken” (cringe). That’s something you need to talk about. Or perhaps it’s time to prune or remove some plants that are toxic to your soil. Your D&I lead can help you navigate with intentionality and care.
You Are The Ultimate D&I Change Agent
As a CEO or executive, assuming the responsibility for creating and maintaining a culture of inclusion is a huge investment of time and energy — but it is inseparably part of building a successful business. Avoiding it or, worse, offloading it onto a powerless D&I leader is a capitulation of your duty as an entrepreneur, businessperson and human being. D&I is not a program, a line item or an initiative; it is an outcome of intentional high-integrity work, strong metrics and shared accountability.
D&I leaders truly want to make a difference. It’s up to the C-suite to step up and give them the power, access and tools to help the people and the business thrive.
