White Male Execs are Investing in D&I. Or We’re Not.
This moment has to be about your own up-close-and-personal growth because we simply cannot bring dramatic improvements to our organizations unless we ourselves transform.
White men in C-Level roles in large organizations are investing in diversity and inclusion. Or they’re not. There’s no middle ground anymore.
It’s been ten weeks since George Floyd was murdered, ten weeks of companies engaged in vital learning around race. Ten weeks from now, there will only be two kinds of large company white male CEOs: those who are closer to their Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO), and those who are not.
If you are a white male executive (like me), you are either stepping up or stepping back from diversity, equity, and inclusion. You’re either accepting the challenge and struggle to deepen your inclusive point of view, or you want your company to look progressive without doing the work. This moment has to be about your own up-close-and-personal growth because we simply cannot bring dramatic improvements to our organization unless we ourselves transform.
What to do? Three things, for now.
First, make it a weekly habit to check in personally with your CDIO. Involve any direct report (like a CHRO) in this conversation, if talking with the CDIO is a skip-level conversation. Inclusion doesn’t skip over people.
First, invest real time in this, and ask them questions:
How are you doing? Truly care about their answer and listen to build trust.
How am I doing with inclusion? Not the royal ‘we’, as in ‘how are we doing?’ That’s a dodge. Ask your CDIO about their view of you: your behavior, your tone, your leadership. Come to them every week for feedback, so they get used to helping you. Also, make sure that you are humble enough to demonstrate that you also have ideas about what you could be doing better.
What am I doing that’s working well? Think together about how to sustain and scale success.
How can I improve the way I lead inclusively? Ask for specifics, show courage, and trust their input. Then act on it, so they will keep providing feedback.
Second, relentlessly focus on removing bias from your talent systems and from the customer experience. Expect senior leaders in the HR and Sales/Marketing value chains to take responsibility for the learning, change, and measurement that is the only way to deconstruct systemic racism. Here’s how one white male CEO led the work of racial equity in his organization.
Third, make promises in public that obligate you and your leadership team to keep doing the work. Some of the options for such out-loud accountability include: the Business for Racial Equity Pledge, The CEO in Action Pledge, Paradigm for Parity, and HeForShe, to name a few.
Invest in your relationship with your CDIO. Obsess about removing bias from company systems. Pressurize your sustainable commitment to D&I by declaring it out loud.
Ten weeks from now, how many members of your Executive Team will be focused on D&I because Black Lives Still Matter?