DEI Anecdotes: The Words We Say

I’ve noticed that when people are first beginning their DEI journeys, they often become particularly frustrated with the idea of monitoring their language, e.g. to avoid microaggressions. An attendee of one of my workshops approached me in a huff, angered by the possibility that she might offend someone simply by saying Good morning! For those of us who feel frustrated by the idea of another item being loaded onto our plates, my advice is this: lean into close examinations of our language rather than pushing against them. What do I mean? I’ll explain with a short personal story.

When I first moved to the U.S. in 1996, Seinfeld was one of the most popular shows on television. Time after time, I heard praise for how hilarious it was. Finally, in November 2022, I was able to watch it myself. Let me tell you—I was shocked by the inappropriate humor. It felt like every other line of dialogue, someone was the butt of the “joke” because of an element of their identity or personhood that they could not control. At the time, perhaps this was considered “funny,” but today we have come to realize that if “jokes” are hurting someone, they really aren’t jokes at all. And there is true harm incurred by this type of “humor”; when we watch people make fun of others for factors out of their control, this “joke” becomes tacit approval for us to do the same. We, too, can make a “joke” about someone’s identity because It’s normal! Everyone does this! without considering the negative impact those words can have.

One show I absolutely adored when I arrived in the U.S. was Friends. I am not kidding when I say that I bought every single one of the DVDs for each season! At the time, I didn’t see the show as offensive, but just because I didn’t see it as such doesn’t mean it was not. Jennifer Aniston recently commented that today’s humor, compared to when Friends was made, is “a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life.” But what she doesn’t highlight here is that Friends, like so many shows of its time, also involved making fun of others, and to make fun of others is not true comedy.

Of course, what do my experiences with Seinfeld and Friends have to do with examining our language? Well, it is only through increasing my own awareness regarding discrimination that I have come to realize how my own humor, my own words have hurt people without me realizing. Instead of being wary about if what we say will potentially offend or hurt someone, we should embrace the curiosity about other people and their journeys. To consider the impact of our words before we speak is to show we care about the people around us! What could be a more admirable goal than that?

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Anecdotes: The Importance of Good Faith

In many of my DEI workshops, I like to ask for audience examples of microaggressions, as it helps make these challenges personal. People we work with and respect have been struggling with these very issues, and we may not have known!

One time, a Black woman raised her hand and shared that her neighbor, a white woman, came to visit her. Upon stepping inside the Black woman’s house, her white neighbor amazedly said, “Wow, your house is so clean and neat!” The Black woman was upset, as this comment seemed to suggest that the white woman expected her house would not be clean or neat. Given the long history of antiBlack stereotypes that lambast Black women’s ability to lead and take care of their households, we likely won’t find it difficult to sympathize with her reaction.

The reason I bring up this anecdote is not to contradict or challenge the Black woman’s experiences, but because I feel that I can offer an addendum that will help us think more broadly about engaging in DEI-related conversations: what if her neighbor meant her words as a genuine compliment? Bear in mind that the motivation behind the neighbor’s words does not negate any offense or harm she caused! However, when we discuss DEI, it’s important to remember that we’re all coming in with different levels of experience and knowledge. We’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to slip up, and we might even be anxious and on edge, affecting everything from our language to our actions. And that’s okay! What’s important is that we offer others and ourselves the grace to make mistakes as we also emphasize the obligation to learn from them. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to give a person the benefit of the doubt and trust they had good intentions.

So, what if the neighbor did mean her words genuinely? How could she learn from the unintentional harm she caused? To give a broader example: what if we’re discussing the wage gap with a friend we trust and they make an offhand comment about how the real reason the wage gap exists is because women deal with more interruptions resulting from family obligations? As those of us on the receiving end process the hurt these words may have caused us, I think it is also worth pausing to ask ourselves, Did this person intend to cause harm here? Again, intent does not negate consequence, but considering the speaker’s intent can help us determine what our response should be. If we suspect the person we are having this conversation with was engaging in good faith, how can we turn these situations into learning opportunities?

In short, conversations regarding any and every aspect of DEI can be messy. They can be difficult. Ultimately, however, these conversations are worth having, and it is crucial for all of us to remember that people who choose to have these conversations often want to learn more! I invite us to consider the value of an environment where “mess-up” is simply another word for “learning opportunity.”

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Anecdotes: Call People In not Out

One time I was hired as a DEI consultant for male-dominated, majority-white company. Early on in this partnership, I hosted an optional DEI workshop, and I was delighted to see that many of the organization’s employees chose to attend despite that the training was not mandatory. Many of the men there, despite appearing a bit uncomfortable and nervous about the conversations to follow, proved to me by their very presence that they were willing to listen and learn. For that, I could hardly be more grateful.

During the workshop, one of the women in attendance stood up to share an experience related to the discussion at hand. In her narration, she kept referring to a white man that she interacted with as “the white dude.” The more she shared, the more she repeated this term, and the more I could see discomfort rising in the white men who were in attendance at this workshop. The issue here was not necessarily the women’s passionate reaction to her negative experiences—DEI means cultivating honest spaces, including spaces to be open about injustice—but rather that the ultimate goal of DEI is to call people in, not call them out. We want to bring others on board to support DEI, and the reality is that using callous language can ultimately wind up pushing people away. After all, an environment of inclusion is an environment that is inclusive for everyone, even people in dominant social demographics.

To clarify: monitoring the language we use when speaking of people who have access to greater social advantages is not about appeasing them! Rather, it’s about engaging with them on human terms because that is what we are asking in return. As such, “the white dude” might have been better referred to as simply “a/the white man,” as the latter acknowledges the privilege held by his race and gender without the demeaning edge that her tone and use of “dude” might suggest.

Another time, with a different company, I gave a workshop where one attendee was voicing perspectives all but identical to my own. I could tell we shared similar values and beliefs about DEI and the direction the world needed to turn in for societal progress. There was one key difference between us, however: she spoke as if everyone already agreed with her, not caring to bring in those who might be on the fence. Time after time, she used negatives and insulting terms, and the ultimate effect was that I found myself feeling uncomfortable and resisting her comments despite the fact that the core of our values were aligned! Again, it is crucial to think about how we’re delivering messages. Are we bringing people along with us through inclusive language, or are we leaving them behind through insults? Are we building or burning bridges?

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Anecdotes: Question the Language

Many times we may say things simply because we’ve always heard them used. We all have little phrases that are ingrained in our language! However, because these phrases seem so ubiquitous to us, we may not have considered how offensive some terms may be.

During a meeting I once attended, in the midst of busy discussion, a woman chuckled and said, “There’s too many chiefs in here and not enough Indians!”

Oftentimes we don’t pause and ask ourselves where phrases like these come from and who we might be harming when we invoke them. Today, however, right now, we’re going to pause and reflect on this phrase. From the start, we can see that this phrase contains an offensive misnomer: “Indians” has not and has never been an accurate term for the indigenous peoples of America; “Indigenous” and “Native” are typically more accepted nomenclature. Secondly, this phrase creates an implicit hierarchy, where placing Native people as “lower” than a chief suggests that non-indigenous peoples belong in positions of power and indigenous people belong as subordinates.

So why do I highlight these linguistic details? For starters, it’s certainly not to shame the woman who uttered these words! Many if not all of us have unconsciously used words and phrases that may hurt others. The key here is that we must reflect on the phrases that have been passed down to us through generations, often by figures of authority, and question if they perpetuate exclusion. If they do, a turning point offers itself to us, where we can choose not to use these phrases and instead be more inclusive in our dialogue. By doing so, we become one step closer to creating more inclusive environments for everyone!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Anecdotes: Two Energies - Inclusion vs Exclusion

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that all of us want to be included. What’s more human than the desire to feel loved and wanted? In all my work around the world, I have never met someone who did not seek to feel included. A crucial part of this inclusion, however, is opening ourselves up to including others. Multiple times have I seen people claiming to support inclusive practices before following it with a stipulation: “I support inclusion of everyone except…”

For example, after a DEI keynote I gave, an attendee came up to speak to me. “I am a woman of faith,” she admitted, “but I understand that LGBT individuals are born the way they are. It’s not a choice.”

Truth be told, I was stunned by her reaction. Although perhaps her language wasn’t perfect, what a breath of fresh air to hear some inner peace between faith and the existence of the LGBTQ+ community!

Then she continued: “But I don’t think they should have sex. They should all be asexual*.”

And just like that, my heart shattered. Why should she, I wondered, try to police someone else’s life? Why should any of us try to tell other people how to live their lives?

The short and sweet answer, of course, is that we don’t have such authority. It’s easy to think that everyone needs to live “like us,” but insisting that all people need to orient their lives a certain way ultimately creates exclusion, as it suppresses cultural variation, political variation, varieties of sexual orientation, and much, much more. All we can control in life is ourselves. We can only make our own choices. How can we judge others for living differently than us when the truth is that everyone lives differently from everyone else? Those differences are part of the innate beauty of the world!

In a similar experience, I was once working with a company to implement new DEI initiatives. At this organization, there was a man of color who was incredibly supportive of DEI. He actually became chair of the organization’s DEI Council! I found myself greatly admiring his drive and dedication to his DEI work. He was passionate about equity, wanted to increase awareness about struggles faced by diverse communities, and simply sought to create an environment inclusive for all.

Except the LGBTQ+ community. Any and all DEI discussions were encouraged, except for those related to the LGBTQ+ community.

What is more saddening than seeing someone so passionate about creating inclusion and yet simultaneously still perpetuates exclusionary principles? Inclusion does not truly exist when there are certain “exceptions”; the definition itself prevents it. To be included, we must be inclusive. We cannot judge others and expect that others won’t do the same for us! It’s the golden rule, through and through: treat others the way you want to be treated. If we seek to achieve inclusion for all, we must mean all, not “all” with an asterisk. Acceptance has no exceptions!

*Although this woman meant that she believed members of the LGBTQ+ community should permanently abstain from sex when she said “asexual,” I would like to offer a link to a brief article from the Trevor Project on asexuality, which is a distinct sexual orientation part of the LGBTQ+ community.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Anecdotes: Have Fun with It!

If there is anything I have learned in all my work with DEI, it is that all of us take DEI so seriously. This observation is not to say that DEI isn’t a serious topic—it is, because it affects the life and well-being of people everywhere—but simply to offer that instead of getting angry or offended when we have our biases challenged, we should have fun with it! Personally, I have come to love catching my biases. It gives me a chance to laugh at myself, learn from my assumptions, and do better next time I encounter a similar situation. Allow me to share a silly anecdote:

After being a vegetarian for years, I recently started eating meat again. Lo and behold, a butcher opened up shop near my home—“ecstatic” doesn’t do justice to my excitement! I was practically drooling at the thought of being able to buy and prepare a meal with fresh local meat. So, I decided to go check the shop out. As I was driving over, I found myself painting a picture of the butcher in my mind based on cartoons I saw growing up, shows like Tom and Jerry: a big white guy in his 50s, probably balding but wearing a hat, enclothed in an apron spattered with smears and bloodstains. Pretty traditional depiction of a butcher, right?

When I got to the shop, I had to do a double take: where I expected to see a large man with a big belly, before me stood a petite young Asian woman wearing a crisp and clean apron! And you know what? My biases jumped out. I found myself wondering, Can I really trust her with decisions about the meat I want to buy? all because my unconscious biases constructed a specific image of a butcher that this woman’s lived experience did not conform to. Instead of feeling bad or guilty about my assumptions, though, I could laugh at myself! I was able to catch how social programming has taught me to expect butchers to look a certain way. And guess what? I bought an amazing piece of meat, and the butcher even gave me recommendations for how to cook it. Challenged my biases, met someone new, had a wonderful meal—all in a day’s work for those of us dedicated to DEI!

To sum it up: let’s take a deep breath, trust our good intentions, and enjoy the DEI journey.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI > HR

DEI = Human Resources. Such is an equation many of us have grown accustomed to, and perhaps for an understandable reason! DEI is, after all, a key component of HR, from diverse hiring to the retention of diverse employees. However, DEI does not have to be limited to only HR departments! What about diverse advertising in Marketing, or pay equity audits in Finance? With that capacious perspective toward DEI in mind, let’s go through a quick list of some general DEI best practices that apply to all departments, regardless of their organizational concentration:

1. Include closed captions/subtitles for virtual meetings and videos.

2. Demonstrate how to use pronoun options for virtual meetings, e.g. Zoom.

3. Through IT, offer name pronunciation audio features for virtual meetings and e-signature software.

4. For written content, offer audio versions; ensure there is high contrast between the text and background colors; use easy-to-read fonts (such as dyslexic-friendly typefaces); and avoid regional turns of phrases that may not be understandable to all employees.

5. Remember RASCI: Who is responsible (responsibility for particular tasks); accountable (accountability for particular tasks, such as having the final say); supportive (the support network, e.g. providing resources to complete a particular task); consulted (offers advice with regard to decisions); and informed (maintains communication). When it comes to DEI, RASCI helps ensure that a) diverse people have not been overlooked for projects and b) diverse people are not primarily or only placed in supportive roles (rather than having the authority of “R” and “A”). When in doubt, apply RASCI!

And there we have it—multiple ways departments beyond HR can implement DEI into their daily workings. As we can see, there’s no shortage of opportunities! No matter what department one works in, DEI will inevitably help the entire organization flourish.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Implementing DEI in the Legal Department

DEI goes hand in hand with Human Resources. A statement of fact, no? Well, I think we push the envelope a little further. After all, people run every department, meaning diversity, equity, and inclusion are always relevant. Let’s consider… Legal!

Implementing DEI into legal departments may seem glaringly obvious—just have a diverse team of lawyers at hand, right? Well, while diversity on the level of one’s team is certainly crucial, the incorporation of DEI into legal affairs can expand much further!

That sounds well and good, you may be thinking, but where do I begin?

A great question! Wolkters Kluwer offers the following starting point for Chief Legal Officers: “Start by interviewing the stakeholders. Ask your attorneys how they are making their assignments. Ask law firms whether they have diversity data and are willing to report it. If not, ask why and find out how you can help them change that policy.” Completing these steps helps ground an organization’s legal department in DEI from the get-go and moreover asserts to the law firms they may potentially work with that DEI is a make-or-break factor. Beyond this start, here are a few more tips for implementing DEI into the legal aspects of one’s organization:

1. When outsourcing legal matters, consider the diversity of law firms and legal service providers.

2. Develop measurable DEI goals. When doing so, create accountability metrics for providers, such as “the implementation of a certification system for hiring and promotion.” Deloitte explains that “[o]ne example of a certification in the legal field ‘measures whether an organization has affirmatively considered at least 30% women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+, and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, such as equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions.’” Such certification helps ensure organizational commitment to DEI beyond HR. (Even though this type of certification is specific to the legal side of business, wouldn’t it be amazing to include such accountability for all fields?)

3. Gather and maintain diversity data within one’s own department as well as any law firms the organization works with. Specifically, create a dedicated staff to “continuously check on diversity information gathered and call firms to follow up where data is missing.”

As with Human Resources, implementing DEI strategies into Legal departments is only as challenging as we let it be. With regular monitoring of DEI metrics and an emphasis on diverse certification, maintaining an environment of diversity and inclusion is easier than ever!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Implementing DEI in Procurement

A Chief Procurement Officer sits at their desk, examining a lengthy list of potential suppliers to create ties with. The term “DEI” often comes with an implicit connection to Human Resources, but the truth is that DEI initiatives are beneficial to any department. Numerous studies suggest that supplier diversity in Procurement, for example, enhances innovation, expands access to new demographics, and improves flexibility. But where to begin?

Fortunately, implementing DEI into Procurement is not as intimidating a task as it sounds, hand over my heart! Here are a few tips for incorporating DEI strategies to improve supplier diversity:

1. First and foremost, identify what groups of diverse suppliers to work with on particular projects (e.g. women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, etc.). A good rule of thumb to classify a supplier as diverse is if they are “at least 51% diverse owned” and/or if they “have a certification attesting to their diversity.”

2. Beyond working with diverse suppliers, it is crucial that the consideration and requirements section of an organization’s procurement policy explicitly include “guidelines for engaging diverse suppliers.” Not only does this inclusion create intra-organizational accountability for working with diverse suppliers, but it demonstrates to other corporations how this organization prioritizes DEI.

3. Track the following key performance indicators: “How many diverse/local/small businesses were contacted; How many of those businesses submitted an RFP; How many of those businesses won their RFP; [and] What the contracts won were worth.” Monitoring these KPIs helps ensure an organization is working equitably with all of their suppliers and not unwittingly prioritizing some over others.

4. Lastly, work with suppliers that similarly prioritize DEI. Just because a potential supplier is not themself diverse doesn’t mean they don’t work with diverse organizations! Create a supplier chain that emphasizes the importance of DEI.

Still unsure where to start? SupplyShift recommends that “[t]ools like supplier.io and Tealbook provide databases of suppliers (including diverse suppliers) for businesses to build new relationships with. Companies can also attend diverse supplier events or join organizations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council for resources and peer learning opportunities.” Diverse, equitable, and inclusive procurement is therefore easily attainable, so long as one is willing to put in the effort for it!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Implementing DEI in Finance and Accounting

The wage gap remains as present today as it did in the 1950s, albeit to lesser severity. Women working full time are still paid on average “just 83 cents to every dollar earned by men,” and the numbers are even lower for Black and Latina women. As such, the importance of DEI within Finance and Accounting departments cannot be overstated. Let’s walk through a few ways to implement DEI through various financial operations:

1. Conduct a pay audit to improve pay equity, just like in the example. After all, you can’t fix a problem you aren’t aware of! Are people of particular demographics being paid less overall? If so, why? Is there an imbalance in promotion opportunities for people of majority versus minority groups? In the vein of the above example, are some people getting paid significantly less for doing effectively the same job as another person?

2. When compiling the annual financial report for shareholders, include a section about demographics, DEI statistics related to pay, and so forth. To do so is not only to ensure financial information regarding DEI is being monitored, but also to demonstrate to shareholders the significance of DEI to the organization as a whole.

3. Post pay ranges/pay rates in job postings and internally for prospective candidates and current employees to see. Not only will this help maintain pay equity through informational transparency, but to not be open about this information may give the wrong impression, as candidates may wonder if the choice not to be open about pay rates is because an organization has inequity they seek to hide.

4. Although most organizations no longer pay monthly, it is nonetheless important to emphasize that “[w]eekly or biweekly payroll frequency is the most equitable pay frequency.” Many people work paycheck to paycheck, therefore minimizing the time between each paycheck offers greater financial stability for employees.

Eliminating the wage gap, is not about docking a man’s pay to put him on the same level as a woman. It’s about recognizing when two people are doing similar amounts of labor to near-identical ends and compensating them fairly for that work!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Implementing DEI in Marketing & Sales

With practiced ease, Penelope slides from her wheelchair onto the couch, her friend Margot sitting beside her. She turns the TV on, catching the end of a commercial for their local grocery store. Penelope sighs.

“What’s wrong?” Margot asks, concerned.

“I don’t know. It’s just…” Penelope gestures to the TV, where the people in the ad walk around the store with bright smiles. She then motions to her wheelchair resting beside her. “That’s not how I would experience the store, you know?”

Although we often associate DEI with Human Resources, Marketing and Sales is one of the most important departments to incorporate DEI practices into. As this example illustrates, when people don’t see themselves represented by an organization, they often become disconnected from whatever is being marketed. In contrast, “90% of ads that featured a diversity strategy experienced [a] higher recall [remembrance] rate”—simply put, when people see themselves represented in marketing, they remember. As such, here are a few tips to implement DEI in Marketing and Sales’ departments:

1. Images on an organization’s website(s), social media, and other visual advertisements should reflect demographic diversity, including but not limited to people of color, women, people of different generations, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community.

2. Digital content should be optimized for people with disabilities. For example, websites and social media should be functional for screen readers and voice search. (Although we may think of this technological era as everyone having information at their fingertips, such is not always true for people with disabilities, because online content is often not accessible!)

3. Use inclusive language, such as gender-neutral pronouns (e.g. the singular “they” rather than the “universal” masculine). Avoid generalizations related to experience and avoid stereotypical language, as these implicit assumptions often exclude people unwittingly.

4. Have diverse sales representatives, particularly when reaching out to a local community. A good rule of thumb is that an organization’s representatives should reflect the community’s demographics! To see oneself in others is to feel seen oneself.

5. Highlight real stories from diverse communities. After all, “[s]torytelling is a powerful tool in marketing,” as “[e]ach customer is a unique individual with a unique story and motivation to consume a product or service.” Directly engaging and displaying the narratives of one’s customers is to better connect with the diversity inherent to every consumerbase.

Imagine if Penelope turned on the TV and saw other people in wheelchairs moving through the aisles of her local grocery store. Wouldn’t that world, a world of access for everyone, be one we’d all like to live in?

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Tips For Implementing DEI Beyond HR Initiatives

When I hear someone say “DEI,” my mind jumps to HR departments, from countering bias in the hiring process to increasing retention of diverse employees. However, the focus on DEI should go beyond HR—after all, humans constitute every department in the workplace. From Procurement to Marketing, there are always people behind decisions, and for that reason, DEI is crucial across the board in organizations. Today, then, I will be exploring a variety of tips and tricks for departments beyond HR to implement DEI in their daily practices. Although this list is not comprehensive in covering all DEI possibilities for every non-HR department, I hope it offers us a strong place to start when considering the value of DEI beyond Human Resources. What are we waiting for? Let’s dive in!

Marketing & Sales

With practiced ease, Penelope slides from her wheelchair onto the couch, her friend Margot sitting beside her. She turns the TV on, catching the end of a commercial for their local grocery store. Penelope sighs.

“What’s wrong?” Margot asks, concerned.

“I don’t know. It’s just…” Penelope gestures to the TV, where the people in the ad walk around the store with bright smiles. She then motions to her wheelchair resting beside her. “That’s not how I would experience the store, you know?”

Marketing and Sales is one of the most important departments to consider the role of DEI in. As this example illustrates, when people don’t see themselves represented by an organization, they often become disconnected from whatever is being marketed. In contrast, “90% of ads that featured a diversity strategy experienced [a] higher recall [remembrance] rate”—simply put, when people see themselves represented in marketing, they remember. As such, here are tips to implement DEI in Marketing and Sales’ departments:

1. Images on an organization’s website(s), social media, and other visual advertisements should reflect demographic diversity, including but not limited to people of color, women, people of different generations, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community.

2. Digital content should be optimized for people with disabilities. For example, websites and social media should be functional for screen readers and voice search. (Although we may think of this technological era as everyone having information at their fingertips, such is not always true for people with disabilities, because online content is often not accessible!)

3. Use inclusive language, such as gender-neutral pronouns (e.g. the singular “they” rather than the “universal” masculine). Avoid generalizations related to experience and avoid stereotypical language, as these implicit assumptions often exclude people unwittingly.

4. Have diverse sales representatives, particularly when reaching out to a local community. A good rule of thumb is that an organization’s representatives should reflect the community’s demographics! To see oneself in others is to feel seen oneself.

5. Highlight real stories from diverse communities. After all, “[s]torytelling is a powerful tool in marketing,” as “[e]ach customer is a unique individual with a unique story and motivation to consume a product or service.” Directly engaging and displaying the narratives of one’s customers is to better connect with the diversity inherent to every consumerbase.

Imagine if Penelope turned on the TV and saw other people in wheelchairs moving through the aisles of her local grocery store. Wouldn’t that world, a world of access for everyone, be one we’d all like to live in?

Finance & Accounting

The wage gap remains as present today as it did in the 1950s, albeit to lesser severity. Women working full time are still paid on average “just 83 cents to every dollar earned by men,” and the numbers are even lower for Black and Latina women. As such, the importance of DEI within Finance and Accounting departments cannot be overstated. Let’s walk through a few ways to implement DEI through various financial operations:

1. Conduct a pay audit to improve pay equity, just like in the example. After all, you can’t fix a problem you aren’t aware of! Are people of particular demographics being paid less overall? If so, why? Is there an imbalance in promotion opportunities for people of majority versus minority groups? In the vein of the above example, are some people getting paid significantly less for doing effectively the same job as another person?

2. When compiling the annual financial report for shareholders, include a section about demographics, DEI statistics related to pay, and so forth. To do so is not only to ensure financial information regarding DEI is being monitored, but also to demonstrate to shareholders the significance of DEI to the organization as a whole.

3. Post pay ranges/pay rates in job postings and internally for prospective candidates and current employees to see. Not only will this help maintain pay equity through informational transparency, but to not be open about this information may give the wrong impression, as candidates may wonder if the choice not to be open about pay rates is because an organization has inequity they seek to hide.

4. Although most organizations no longer pay monthly, it is nonetheless important to emphasize that “[w]eekly or biweekly payroll frequency is the most equitable pay frequency.” Many people work paycheck to paycheck, therefore minimizing the time between each paycheck offers greater financial stability for employees.

Eliminating the wage gap, is not about docking a man’s pay to put him on the same level as a woman. It’s about recognizing when two people are doing similar amounts of labor to near-identical ends and compensating them fairly for that work!

Procurement

A Chief Procurement Officer sits at their desk, examining a lengthy list of potential suppliers. Numerous studies suggest that supplier diversity enhances innovation, expands access to new demographics, and improves flexibility, but where to begin?

Fortunately, implementing DEI into Procurement is not as intimidating a task as it sounds, hand over my heart! Here are a few tips for incorporating DEI strategies to improve supplier diversity:

1. First and foremost, identify what groups of diverse suppliers to work with on particular projects (e.g. women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, etc.). A good rule of thumb to classify a supplier as diverse is if they are “at least 51% diverse owned” and/or if they “have a certification attesting to their diversity.”

2. Beyond working with diverse suppliers, it is crucial that the consideration and requirements section of an organization’s procurement policy explicitly include “guidelines for engaging diverse suppliers.” Not only does this inclusion create intra-organizational accountability for working with diverse suppliers, but it demonstrates to other corporations how this organization prioritizes DEI.

3. Track the following key performance indicators: “How many diverse/local/small businesses were contacted; How many of those businesses submitted an RFP; How many of those businesses won their RFP; [and] What the contracts won were worth.” Monitoring these KPIs helps ensure an organization is working equitably with all of their suppliers and not unwittingly prioritizing some over others.

4. Lastly, work with suppliers that similarly prioritize DEI. Just because a potential supplier is not themself diverse doesn’t mean they don’t work with diverse organizations! Create a supplier chain that emphasizes the importance of DEI.

Still unsure where to start? SupplyShift recommends that “[t]ools like supplier.io and Tealbook provide databases of suppliers (including diverse suppliers) for businesses to build new relationships with. Companies can also attend diverse supplier events or join organizations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council for resources and peer learning opportunities.” Diverse procurement is easily attainable, so long as one is willing to put in the effort for it!

Legal

Implementing DEI into legal departments may seem glaringly obvious—just have a diverse team of lawyers at hand, right? Well, while diversity on the level of one’s team is certainly crucial, the incorporation of DEI into legal affairs can expand much further!

That sounds well and good, you may be thinking, but where do I begin?

A great question! Wolkters Kluwer offers the following starting point for Chief Legal Officers: “Start by interviewing the stakeholders. Ask your attorneys how they are making their assignments. Ask law firms whether they have diversity data and are willing to report it. If not, ask why and find out how you can help them change that policy.” Completing these steps helps ground an organization’s legal department in DEI from the get-go and moreover asserts to the law firms they may potentially work with that DEI is a make-or-break factor. Beyond this start, here are a few more tips for implementing DEI into the legal aspects of one’s organization:

1. When outsourcing legal matters, consider the diversity of law firms and legal service providers.

2. Develop measurable DEI goals. When doing so, create accountability metrics for providers, such as “the implementation of a certification system for hiring and promotion.” Deloitte explains that “[o]ne example of a certification in the legal field ‘measures whether an organization has affirmatively considered at least 30% women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+, and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, such as equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions.’” Such certification helps ensure organizational commitment to DEI beyond HR. (Even though this type of certification is specific to the legal side of business, wouldn’t it be amazing to include such accountability for all fields?)

3. Gather and maintain diversity data within one’s own department as well as any law firms the organization works with. Specifically, create a dedicated staff to “continuously check on diversity information gathered and call firms to follow up where data is missing.”

As with Marketing and Sales, Finance and Accounting, and Procurement, implementing DEI strategies into Legal departments is only as challenging as we let it be. With regular monitoring of DEI metrics and an emphasis on diverse certification, maintaining an environment of diversity and inclusion is easier than ever!

Now to conclude with some general DEI best practices that apply to all departments, regardless of their organizational concentration:

1. Include closed captions/subtitles for virtual meetings and videos.

2. Demonstrate how to use pronoun options for virtual meetings, e.g. Zoom.

3. Through IT, offer name pronunciation audio features for virtual meetings and e-signature software.

4. For written content, offer audio versions; ensure there is high contrast between the text and background colors; use easy-to-read fonts (such as dyslexic-friendly typefaces); and avoid regional turns of phrases that may not be understandable to all employees.

5. Remember RASCI: Who is responsible (responsibility for particular tasks); accountable (accountability for particular tasks, such as having the final say); supportive (the support network, e.g. providing resources to complete a particular task); consulted (offers advice with regard to decisions); and informed (maintains communication). When it comes to DEI, RASCI helps ensure that a) diverse people have not been overlooked for projects and b) diverse people are not primarily or only placed in supportive roles (rather than having the authority of “R” and “A”). When in doubt, apply RASCI!

And there we have it—multiple ways departments beyond HR can implement DEI into their daily workings. As we can see, there’s no shortage of opportunities! No matter what department one works in, DEI will inevitably help the entire organization flourish.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Business and Ballet: What The Corporate World Can Learn From DEI in Dance

When most of us think of ballet, our minds may jump to its beauty as an art form or the skill and dedication it requires to be successful. I’ll wager a guess that many of us might not consider all of the DEI lessons to be learned from ballet!

DEI and ballet? you may be musing. Now that’s an interesting combination.

Indeed, it is interesting, and we are all the better for this art’s unique approach to DEI initiatives. Better yet, there are a multitude of ways the corporate world can learn from the dance world in their own implementation of DEI! Today we’ll break down three avenues in which businesses can follow in the footsteps of ballet to weave DEI into their organizational practices.

1. Financial

Historically, many underrepresented communities have been excluded from ballet for the simple but tragic reason that they could not afford to attend classes. Even today this class divide persists; however, many ballet companies are fighting back against this inequality. A group called Project Plié, for example, has put forth excellent examples of financial strategies that any organization can learn from to support DEI initiatives. Project Plié provides training scholarships to both students and teachers of color; offers internships and related scholarships for arts administrators of color; and partners with other ballet companies to more effectively develop outreach programs. While the financial support from a non-ballet business will certainly differ in its specific execution, providing this type of economic assurance to underrepresented communities helps open doors for them that they have historically been restricted from accessing.

2. Organizational

The information to take advice from here is a more 1:1 comparison, as ballet companies, too, have organizational facets not dissimilar to those of the corporate world. When Atlanta Ballet takes on new hires in their company, not only must all employees undergo DEI training, but the organization “welcome[s] each new employee with a peer mentor to support their onboarding experience, foster open communication, and facilitate training and access to organizational resources.” This type of consistent support is crucial to ensuring the success of all employees, but particularly those from underrepresented communities who might otherwise experience unintentional isolation in the company. As such, we can easily see how this strategy is applicable to any type of organization, not just ballet; mentorship, communication, and encouragement are the key to success!

Additionally, Atlanta Ballet invests in what they call “Town Hall” meetings, which are opportunities for all employees to get together and share conversations about organizational progress toward DEI and other matters. Anonymous post-meetings surveys are also offered, of particular use to people who may not feel comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. Again, non-ballet companies can apply this strategy, too, hosting quarterly or even monthly meetings to give individuals a chance to express their thoughts on what’s working, what isn’t, and what can be done to improve DEI initiatives overall.

3. Disability

Even as short a time as a few years ago, we did not often see people in wheelchairs performing ballet. Now, the dance scene is much more accessible, and numerous studios offer training for people with disabilities and able-bodied people! From this intersection of ballet and disability, businesses can learn two key frameworks for approaching disability inclusion. First and foremost, place the same expectations on people with disabilities and able-bodied people, but simultaneously offer individualized attention as needed. In ballet, this means having classrooms that do not discriminate because of ability and giving instructions that all students can understand, but perhaps also having aides who can assist students with disabilities when they need specific attention. In the corporate world, we might think of this as accommodations—do not treat people with disabilities as lesser, but don’t refuse to offer them the resources they need to do their best work, either.

Secondly, ballet offers the following framework: rather than thinking about what dancers with disabilities cannot do, think about what they can do. A dancer in a wheelchair may not be able to move their legs, but what about their arms? Their torso? How can their wheelchair be understood as an extension of their body and thus capable of dance? The corporate world must take a similar approach: rather than assuming an employee with disabilities cannot perform a certain task or obsessing over those tasks they cannot perform, we must consider the tasks they can complete and modify our guidelines accordingly. People with disabilities can do anything, from ballet to stocking shelves to running a company, and it’s high time we put forth a yes, and mentality when it comes to disabled inclusion.

And there we have it: three key ways the business world can learn from ballet. Plié, arabesque, pirouette—the corporate landscape of DEI hasn’t seen anything yet!

(Want to learn more? Check out Boston Ballet’s Education and Community Initiatives Toolbox for a plethora of resources dedicated to racial justice and DEI!)

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Start Learning About Conformity Bias to Stop Conforming

Picture this: you’re standing in front of an elevator. You send a text message, putting your phone away once you hear the familiar ding! The low creak of doors sliding open follows. You look up, ready to step inside, but—

Everyone is facing the back of the elevator.

Okay, you think. This is weird.

What do you do? Get in the elevator like normal, becoming the only person to face the front? Or do you get the elevator and face the back, like everyone else?

I don’t know about you, but I think I’d face the back! After all, most of us aren’t particularly keen on sticking out like a sore thumb. If you agree that you’d do the same, fear not: for better or worse, to conform is human, and everyone else who participated in this Candid Camera TV experiment also found themselves facing the back of the elevator to avoid standing out from the crowd.

I’ve talked about conformity before on this blog, such as when I explored three tips to manage conformity bias. But today, we’re going to delve further into six types of conformity and how they affect us, because we often don’t realize how many ways the world encourages us to conform! Shall we begin?

1. Imitation

When I took my first sales course early in my career, my instructor taught us about something called “mirroring.” They explained that to more effectively connect with a potential client, we should be intentional about moving our body to parallel their movements. To do so would increase the trust between ourselves and the client; after all, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Allow me to be honest: after my instructor finished explaining, I still did not understand the significance of this technique. That is, until I bought my first car. As I discussed the merits of the vehicle with the salesperson, I noticed that they were imitating my behavior! If I shifted my weight from my right to my left foot, they did the same. If I gestured outward, they copied the gesture, too! The salesperson was utilizing a type of conformity we simply call imitation, or the mimicking of body language, in order to connect with me and increase the likelihood of me buying their car. Pretty strategic, huh? Next time you’re preparing to make a big purchase, watch closely! Your salesperson might imitate you, too.

2. Informational Conformity

Today is the big day—in T-minus two hours, you have the interview for your dream job. There’s only one problem: what should you wear? When in doubt, your best friend has your back. You call them up and they immediately recommend the perfect get-up, allowing you to look professional while feeling totally comfortable.

This inclination to trust someone who we believe has accurate information on a subject is known as informational conformity. We trust our friend’s recommendation about what to wear for the interview because we believe their taste and assessment of our style to be accurate. Wearing their chosen outfit becomes “the right thing to do.” As this example demonstrates, informational conformity isn’t inherently a bad thing. It usually refers to a person lacking knowledge or certainty on a particular subject, therefore they look to an individual or group for guidance. Of course, it’s important to remember that a bit of skepticism is also healthy. When we’re at the doctor, informational conformity tells us to trust their expertise when they diagnose us, and that we should therefore conform to their advice. But if we still feel something isn’t right, it is better to push back against that instinct for conformity and instead voice our concerns! While there’s no shame in trusting others, we must trust ourselves, too.

3. Normative Conformity

You’re at a work function to celebrate the successful establishment of a partnership between your organization and another business. Everyone is laughing and chatting, glasses of champagne and wine in hand. When a server comes over to offer yourself and your friend a drink, you take one with a nod and cheerful thanks. Your friend accepts a drink, too, though more slowly.

After a while, you notice that your friend has hardly sipped from their glass.

“Are you okay?” you ask, concerned.

“Hm?”

“Your drink.”

They glance down at their glass. “Oh. Yeah, wine isn’t really my thing.”

You tilt your head in confusion. “Then why’d you get a glass?”

Your friend hesitates, then shrugs. “Everyone else was drinking. It’d be weird if I wasn’t, wouldn’t it?”

This example demonstrates a type of conformity many of us are familiar with: normative conformity. Normative conformity might also be described as conforming to social norms, typically for fear of rejection or exclusion from a group. The above example is unconscious, where the friend was not forced to drink, but simply felt pressured to because their coworkers all were. More serious instances of normative conformity can be classified as peer pressure, where there is an articulated threat or warning against a person to conform, or else. It’s therefore worth noting that normative conformity can certainly be dangerous, such as people becoming regular smokers after they started smoking to “fit in,” not because they truly wanted to smoke.

4. Majority Influence (Compliance)

Exciting news: today you are participating in an experiment! You and a group of individuals are taken into a plain room, where you are sat down in a semicircle before a board. The facilitator explains that you will be shown a line on one card, and your task is to decide which line on a second card is the same length. Ready? Here are the cards:

The correct answer is unmistakably Line 1, you decide. Unfortunately, you’re the final chair in the semicircle, so you will be last to report your response. The facilitator points at the first participant.

“Line 2,” they say, confidently.

You blink. What?

The next participant: “Line 2.”

Okay, now you’re getting concerned. It’s Line 1, isn’t it?

“Line 2,” the third participant says, and so do all the rest until it is finally your turn to speak.

Maybe… Maybe it isn’t Line 1?

If you choose to say Line 2, don’t feel bad! What I have just described here is the Asch experiment, originally conducted in the 1950s. The original results: 76% of the 123 participants gave at least one incorrect response when it was their turn; overall, 37% of responses were wholly conforming. This experiment thus demonstrates the power of majority influence, a type of conformity we might also describe as compliance. In other words, we conform to the opinion of the majority publicly, though we might disagree with them privately, because their sheer number means a) we don’t want to challenge them and b) we wonder if they are actually correct. But what’s the importance of this conformity outside of lines and experiments?

The answer is obvious but important: every time we walk out the door, our opinions are shaped by those of the majority. Be it fashion trends seen as we scroll through Instagram or politics blaring at us from TV, the more we see something repeated, the more we may come to question any dissenting opinions we hold. This herd mentality is risky, as it can suppress diversity of thought and reinforce oppressive ideals. But much like normative conformity, awareness is key to challenging the power of majority influence: knowing that we’re susceptible to majority influence allows us to catch ourselves before falling in too deep. And like informational conformity, too, it is also crucial to trust ourselves! When we find ourselves doing something because everyone else is doing it, we must learn to stop and ask, Is this something I want to do? Is this something I am comfortable with? And if the answer is No, trust your gut!

5. Minority Influence

Let’s dive into another study! You and five others are sitting in a room. You’ve all been instructed to identify the color of a slide before you. Going around the circle, there is consistency: you and three other participants echo the same sentiment that this slide is blue. But what’s an experiment without a little disruption?

Participant 5 shakes their head. “No, it’s green.”

Participant 6 confirms: “Definitely green.”

You and the other participants brush them off. Four of you against two of them—the majority must be in the right.

But Participants 5 and 6 keep at it. New slides are shown, all the same blue, but Participants 5 and 6 insist they’re green. Eventually, you exchange a glance with Participant 3 on your left. Could… Could it be green after all?

What I’ve just described here is a simplified version of an experiment by social scientist Serge Moscovici that examined a type of conformity known as minority influence. How can this be? you may be wondering. How can there be both majority and minority influence? Think of it this way: majority influence relates to the size of the majority, where their overwhelming scale causes us to reason that if everyone else is thinking or doing a certain thing, they must be right. With minority influence, it is the unanimity and consistency of the minority that allows them to influence the opinion of the majority. Although the experiment I have described shows minority influence in a more staged manner, minority influence is crucial to maintaining diversity of thought in our world. It’d be pretty boring if we all behaved exactly the same all the time, wouldn’t it? Hence why it is important for us to listen to opinions that differ from our own, especially if those opinions are ones that challenge the accepted status quo. In short, the power of the minority encourages creativity and facilitates social change!

6. Obedience

“Obedience”? What’s obedience doing on a list about conformity? It’s not so wrong to obey instructions, is it?

In 1963, Professor Stanley Milgram conducted a social experiment to test the limits of obedience. He recruited 40 participants, all of whom were told they were partaking in a study designed to improve learning. Participants were told to administer test questions to a group of “learners” and to shock them with different levels of voltage if they answered incorrectly, with highest voltage being a whopping 450 volts. Unbeknownst to the participants, the learners were all confederates with Milgram and received no actual shocks.

Every time the learners answered incorrectly, the participants obediently shocked them. Even as the voltage increased in 15-volt increments and learners began crying about heart trouble, pleading for help, and begging the participants to stop, the majority of participants continued to shock the learners whenever they were told to do so. In fact, 65% of participants continued shocking at the maximum voltage, to the point where the learner became unresponsive.

The power of authority is frightening, isn’t it? What compels us to follow orders even when those orders conflict with our personal beliefs in what we know to be right or good?

Although this example represents an extreme case, obedience is a type of conformity that we should all be aware of. In some ways, we might think of obedience as the formal version of normative conformity: rather than conforming because we think we should do so, we conform because we are told to do so, often by an authority figure.

Now, I’m not saying we all should stage a coup in our workplaces! Rather, I hope to encourage us to think over the instructions we receive from our superiors, be it at work or in a place of worship or any other situation that involves a type of hierarchy. If we instinctively agree with a set of instructions we receive, we should reflect upon why instead of unquestioningly obeying. Obedience is important, yes, but not to the point of suppressing individual reactions.

And there we have it! Six types of conformity and how they shape our daily lives. Of course, informational conformity may be telling you to trust my breakdown of these definitions because you believe that I possess accurate knowledge. If in doubt, try searching up these types of conformity yourself!

(Most definitions sourced from “The Many Varieties of Conformity,” a chapter in Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International H5P Edition, unless otherwise linked.)

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Thrive in Every Economic Trend with DEI

Nowadays, concerns of an upcoming recession are impossible to avoid. Many organizations are taking preventative measures to protect themselves when this economic downturn ultimately hits. Recessions can be frightening, no doubt, but every economic low will eventually soar into an economic high, and a business may even find themself thriving like they never have before. But how do we first make it through these difficult economic times?

Let’s begin with a story.

A business owner was faced with the threat of an economic recession. For her organization to survive, she knew she would have to cut costs. She narrowed her options down to two: lay off 20% of her staff, or implement a 20% pay cut across the company. Neither option was favorable, so the owner brought the choice to her staff. I know it will be difficult either way, she said, but I want everyone to feel included in this decision.

Her team decided that instead of forcing a fifth of their company to shoulder the entirety of the economic suffering, they would all take a 20% pay cut. The long-term goals of the organization would be better served by valuing their people and by maintaining trust—trust between members of the team, and trust between the team and the business owner.

Today, companies are faced with similarly difficult decisions. For an organization to survive an economic recession, costs must be cut. The trick, however, is to modify company budgets “with a scalpel, not a meat cleaver.” In the process of this trimming, it is of the utmost importance that organizations consider the welfare and feedback of everyone on their team. Admittedly, small and mid-sized organizations can more directly access individual opinions, while a larger organization may not be able to sit down with every employee. Nonetheless, the message communicated must remain the same: the business values their employees, and they are investing in the best future for all of them.

But what does this have to do with DEI?

As of late, DEI budgets have been among the first costs slashed within organizations in their attempts to brace themselves for an economic recession. The message communicated by these cuts, however, is the opposite of what a business should seek to show their staff. Many employees were concerned from initial implementation of DEI that such efforts were superficial, and that DEI would ultimately not be part of an organization’s long-term goals. Immediately slicing DEI budgets can be a realization of that fear, and it may decrease trust between organizational leaders and their staff, particularly people from underrepresented groups, as the business is communicating that they don’t value their staff enough to ensure everyone feels welcome and included.

When an organization is faced with an economic recession and is considering cutting costs by eliminating DEI, there are three questions they should ask themselves:

1. Why is DEI considered a “cost” if it is truly part of our long-term vision (or is it just a box to tick off)?

2. How will a reduced focus on DEI impact trust within our teams, especially members from underrepresented groups?

3. How can we use DEI to increase our competitive advantage during an economic downturn?

There are a multitude of reasons why cutting DEI budgets is not the most effective strategy to ensure an organization survives an economic recession. For one, many organizations have used DEI initiatives within PR tactics for multiple years now, including statements on their websites and social media. To eliminate these efforts can make a company appear disingenuous, as it would appear that DEI is not a core value of their organization despite how they claimed it to be. As such, “[t]o decrease or even eliminate DEI risks reputational damage that will be difficult to repair down the road.” In other words, jumping the gun and cutting DEI can easily create the impression that creating an environment of inclusion for all employees was not a long-term goal for the organization and was merely a superficial box to check off. The result? Decreased trust between leaders and their team members, which will do a company no favors as they try to band together and survive difficult economic times.

Additionally, recent research suggests that DEI actually helps businesses survive recessions. Forbes reports that “‘companies with consistently inclusive workplaces thrived before, during, and after the Great Recession [of 2007-2009], earning a 4x annualized return.’” In simpler terms, companies that prioritized inclusion not only survived an economic recession but in fact thrived during it. Furthermore, “[w]hile the S&P 500 suffered a 35.5 percent decline in stock performance from 2007-2009, companies whose key employee groups had very positive experiences posted a remarkable 14.4 percent gain.” And this isn’t all! Accenture recently reported that “companies are missing out on $1.05 trillion when they are not being more inclusive,” suggesting not only that DEI itself is economically beneficial, but the lack of DEI is economically detrimental and can harm a business.

Those are a lot of numbers, but the message is clear: DEI means investing in one’s team, trusting one’s team, and reinforcing the value of one’s team. As a result, DEI can help an organization prosper during economic downturns and beyond! DEI fosters creativity and innovation; DEI helps companies make better decisions; DEI gives organizations greater access to new markets; and ultimately, “75% of inclusive companies exceed their financial target goals.”

I once had someone approach me before I gave a speech on DEI to tell me that DEI actually meant “DIE. He sincerely believed DEI would spell the death of any organization that implemented it. But as these statistics reveal, the opposite is true: DEI helps organizations retain life, both financially and within the hearts of everyone on their team.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

The Exclusive Impact of Being "The Only"

Have you ever experienced being “the only” person in a room? And I don’t mean literally, though I suspect we’ve all experienced that, too. Rather, have you ever felt like you were surrounded by people who simply didn’t understand you, or who didn’t connect with you? I would bet that most of us here have experienced this quiet social isolation. As a result, many of us can understand and empathize with this particular workplace phenomenon: being the “Only.”

Also known as tokenism, being the Only refers to being the only person of a marginalized group(s) in a workplace. As the description suggests, being the Only is an isolating experience, and it has both physical and psychological consequences on a person’s health. Unfortunately, there is low awareness of these negative effects. One 2021 study, for example, found that “78% of… respondents sa[id] they face[d] greater scrutiny [in the workplace] because of their race, yet… [only] 29% of white respondents… believe[d] this to be so.” Worst of all, this phenomenon is not new! A study from 1995 examined the effect of this workplace isolation on Black employees in the U.S., and many of the results remain consistent between then and today.

Manifestation of the “Only” Phenomenon

While the manifestation of being the Only can vary depending on the person, their workplace, and other site-specific factors, research across multiple decades has determined that certain stressors are common across the board for people who find themselves as the Only. Let’s walk through the overarching trends from these studies:

Firstly, there is performance pressure. Research reveals that people who are the only employee of their race, gender, sexuality, etc. experience additional pressure to succeed, where they often have to overachieve in order to be considered on equal ground with their coworkers of the dominant social group(s). And yet, the same study concluded an Only must reach these above-average accomplishments without calling “excessive” attention to themself—an impossible double bind. Ultimately, psychologist Jo Eckler explains that an Only becomes subjected to intense scrutiny and invisibility, where their achievements are hyper-examined and simultaneously ignored.

Another commonality research has found in the Only’s experiences is boundary heightening. The Only phenomenon leads to social exclusion, usually unintentional, where the “differences” between an Only and their majority coworkers are inscribed through “jokes,” interruptions, a lack of invitations to work-related activities, etc. As a result, an Only becomes forced to expect this social isolation, leading to heightened personal boundaries.

A third stressor seen in being the Only is role entrapment. Research shows that an Only often finds themself defined by stereotypes for their respective racial group(s), gender, sexuality, etc., which can lead to a distortion of individuality and personal identity. Furthermore, this phenomenon can cause an Only to be rendered a stand-in for their entire community. The only Black man in a workplace, for example, becomes expected to speak for every Black person in the country.

In terms of workplace opportunities, research found that being the Only means a person has “less access to supportive mentors and sponsors” in their organization, as well as decreased “access to career-development and financial opportunities.” This continued isolation within one’s work environment compounds the stressors we have already described.

The simple descriptions I provided of these overarching issues already alludes to just how disorienting being the Only can be. A more in-depth approach, however, is required to fully recognize the physical and psychological consequences of being the Only in an organization, including how these consequences feed into each other.

Physical and Psychological Effects

Research shows that “‘onlies’ — the only woman, the only LGBTQ[+] person, the only woman of color — are [more likely] to experience subtle forms of bias” in the workplace. Consider this shocking statistical comparison from the same study: “About 64% percent of all women reported they experienced microaggressions at work. That number jumped to nearly 90% when women frequently found themselves in ‘only’ situations.” Rather horrifying, isn’t it? Although this comparison is specific to women’s experiences, it still reveals how being an Only puts a person at greater risk of a harmful work environment. All of the following are physical and psychological consequences of being an Only:

• Intense bodily fatigue

• Greater likelihood of being mistaken for lower-level positions (e.g. people of color are assumed to be waitstaff, women are assumed to be secretaries, etc.)

• Having their competence and authority doubted

• Feelings of embarrassment, frustration, and overall emotional drainage

• Extreme physical and emotional burnout

• Feelings of other-ness

• Intense emotional isolation

• Feelings of guilt and shame

Because of these negative consequences, people who are an Only are “1.5x more likely to think about leaving their jobs” than those who do not experience this consistent workplace isolation.

Certain experiences of being an Only are more exclusive to specific identities, too. Black people who are the Only, for example, often find themselves forced to code-switch, where they are expected to “leave their cultural language, style, or demeanor at the door to better fit in with their white counterparts,” which leads to increased stress and anxiety. Queer men and women who are the Only often don’t feel comfortable or safe speaking to their coworkers about themselves or their lives outside of work. Consider the following graph about women’s experiences as the Only from the 2021 Women in the Workplace study:

In short, there is no doubt that being the Only is a physically and psychologically draining experience. For those of us seeking to make our workplaces more inclusive and welcoming to all people, we must do everything in our power to prevent people of color, women, the queer community, people with disabilities, and individuals from all marginalized communities from experiencing this damaging isolation. Fortunately, there is a simple solution: facilitate diverse hiring.

The benefits to diversifying one’s workforce are countless, including increased business results, a rise in creativity and innovation, and attracting new hires—a positive feedback loop! I have written extensively on diverse hiring in the past, including tips to succeed at diverse hiring as well as a step-by-step checklist to diverse hiring, all of which can help an organization bring the Only phenomenon to an end. Remember, diverse hiring does not equate to “unqualified” hiring; it simply means “hiring based on merit with special care taken to ensure procedures are free from biases related to a candidate’s age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics that are unrelated to their job performance.”

At the end of the day, preventing a person from experiencing the isolation and exhaustion of being an Only simply means we must ensure they are not the only or one of the only people from their community in a workplace. By doing so, we help allow all of our employees to find coworkers they can connect and empathize with in more ways than one. Simple as that!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

Can We Learn From Other Generations?

Today’s workplace is unique, as it is rich not only with racial, gender, and ethnic diversity but also because it consists mainly of four different generations: Baby Boomers (late 50s to late 70s), Generation X (early 40s to mid-50s), Millennials (late 20s to early 40s), and Gen Z (elementary age to mid-20s). When most of us think of “diversity,” generational diversity may not be our go-to example, but the range of ideas and experience that comes with each age group is as instrumental to creating a productive workplace as any other element of diversity. There are numerous areas in which younger and senior generations can learn from one another, so today we will explore a few of these infinite learning possibilities!

First and foremost, it is crucial to acknowledge that speaking about the four different generations involves the risk of generalizations. As such, I want to put forth that my commentary is based on my own experience with and research regarding workplace generational diversity; nothing I say is meant to be the “final word” on how a person of any generation presents themself, what information they hold, or what skills they possess. Everyone is different! This blog will thus focus on some overall, but not exclusive, trends within each generation.

Additionally, although these four groups encompass a variety of ages and experiences, the generations are not as “different” as some may cite them to be. It might be more accurate to say that the differences between each generation are not “innate” but instead born of their diversity in experiences, experiences that are all shaped within an individual and their unique circumstances. Many of us overestimate generational differences! In fact, research suggests that both younger and senior employees believe other generations view them more negatively than these generations actually do. This instinct toward negativity can result in poorer workplace interactions, which is something all organizations want to avoid. By recognizing how generational differences vary and are not guaranteed labels that absolutely apply to every person within a given age range, the more easily we can learn from each other.

From Baby Boomers & Gen X to Millennials & Gen Z

For the most part, many individuals of senior generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X) have been in the workplace longer than individuals of younger generations (Millennials, Gen Z). As a result, these additional years of experience grant them insight into various difficulties that a person may encounter during their work life which younger generations simply may not have come across yet. For example, individuals in senior generations are often more familiar with working through economic recessions, meaning they might be able to provide financial guidance to younger workers, such as profitable but safe ways to save for retirement. These additional years of work experience also mean senior generations can typically provide practical advice to younger generations for managing their workloads: delegating one’s assignments, reframing their commitments, and knowing when to pull back versus when to push forward.

Furthermore, because senior generations have typically been in the workplace—or multiple workplaces—longer than younger generations, they may have also seen more change in their work environments than younger generations. Consequently, they may be able to advise younger generations on interpersonal skills, such as the many intricacies of face-to-face communication, as well as the importance of loyalty and perseverance, even when it feels like the ground is falling out from under one’s feet. With their extensive work experience, senior workers are also in a better position to retrospectively discuss what they regret in their careers. For many, they regret not what they did but what they didn’t do—such wisdom may prove invaluable to any number of younger employees.

From Millennials & Gen Z to Baby Boomers & Gen X

Perhaps the best thing about generational differences is that they are a two-way street—for all Millennials and Gen Z can learn from Baby Boomers and Gen X, there is just as much Baby Boomers and Gen X can learn from these younger generations, too! For starters, Millennials and Generation Z have grown up in the age of technology. That immersion has given many of them valuable insight into the nuances of tech, including access to and communication through various technological and online platforms—insight that can be beneficially shared with senior generations. Similarly, younger generations tend to have greater experience with social media cultivation, such as building one’s reputation online, which is also information they can share with interested parties of older age. And in addition to growing up in a period of technological change, younger generations also tend to (though do not always) have more recent educational experience than senior generations. This observation is not to claim any generation is “more intelligent” than another, but rather to simply acknowledge that information evolves with time, and it is never a bad thing to engage with the benefits of recent educational developments.

Related to periods of changing technology and evolving education, younger generations have also grown up surrounded by diversity. In fact, Generation Z themselves are “more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation.” As a result, younger generations tend to have greater “knowledge of different cultural touchstones,” meaning they are usually more confident in their ability to expand their diverse networks and combat issues of homogeneity. Do not misunderstand this observation as implying senior generations are incapable of recognizing the benefits of diversity! Rather, younger generations are often more familiar with harnessing diversity because many of them have been doing so since Day 1, allowing them to provide practical guidance to senior generations on these matters.

Younger generations have also grown up in an age where work-life balance has become a greater priority. They recognize that success is important, but they simultaneously believe that success should not come at the expense of their physical and mental health or of their relationships with friends and family. In other words, if a job demands more than a person is able to fairly give, younger generations can recognize that it’s okay to seek employment elsewhere. As aforementioned, senior generations can provide advice on the importance of loyalty to one’s workplace, but the flipside of loyalty can be an unhealthy commitment. Younger generations are therefore able to advise senior generations on prioritizing oneself as a person, not as merely an employee.

At the end of the day, it is crucial we recognize that generational differences are a blessing, not a curse, and that we do not have to see “difference” as “division.” As this blog explores, generational differences can offer advice born from a plethora of experiences, all of which are shaped by the individual themself, regardless of how old they are. Liane Davey puts it well: “It’s time to stop using the generations as an excuse for the distance among us and start really communicating to bring us all closer together.” An excellent point, and truth be told, we can take her wise words a step further—don’t they apply to every aspect of diversity, too?

So, what are we waiting for? There’s still so much we have to learn from one another!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Best Practices For Board of Directors (Part 1)

In recent years, DEI initiatives have transformed from “nice-to-have” into “must-have” elements of an organization’s strategy, and this positive progress cannot be overemphasized. But although DEI initiatives require support from all levels of an organization, boards of directors may be uncertain about how to become involved in DEI, especially as many may not see themselves as directly linked to these initiatives. Fortunately, there is one linkage that facilitates extensive opportunities for boards of directors to support DEI: the connection between a board of directors and their CEO.

First and foremost, boards of directors and CEOs should work together to define their organization’s vision for DEI, because only then can they together incorporate that vision into the overall business strategy. For example, the board of directors from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute developed a resolution that established diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values of their organization. But beyond these early efforts, boards of directors are also in the perfect position to hold CEOs accountable for their implementation of DEI initiatives. This blog is the first of three on the subject, and today we will explore how boards of directors can hold their CEOs accountable for diversity.

A crucial starting point is for boards of directors to ensure CEOs are tracking the demographic statistics (gender, race, veteran status, disability, etc.) of employees at all levels of the organization. Reviewing the organization’s EEO-1 filing is often a good first step, but ideally a more comprehensive set of data should be collected. Hanneke Faber, president of Europe for Unilever, puts it well: “‘You get what you measure…. you need to know how many minority employees you have and at what levels in your company; you need to set a goal to improve it, and you need to talk about it every quarter.’” As simplistic as this step may seem, the importance of possessing accurate statistics about an organization’s demographics cannot be overstated.

Once these statistics are in hand, boards of directors should ensure CEOs are overseeing the comparison of this data to both the demographics of the organization’s surrounding community and those of the customers the organization serves. From there, target goals can be put into development. For example, if the community has an Asian population of 17% but the organization only employs 3%, this lack of ethnic diversity can be precisely identified. Furthermore, the organization’s demographics should also be compared to such statistics of other organizations within and outside of one’s industry that are leading in DEI (assuming that data is available for public perusal).

Not only should boards of directors confirm CEOs are tracking static employee demographics, but they should also ensure CEOs are tracking hiring demographics (e.g. of women, people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, etc.) to determine that diversity initiatives are being implemented so as to produce tangible results. For example, the board of directors might check to see if CEOs are requiring that talent be sourced from diverse locations, such as historically Black colleges and universities, as well as building talent pipelines by offering internships to high schools/universities with higher percentages of underrepresented groups. A positive model to look to in this respect might be General Lester Lyles, the former chairman of the USAA board of directors, who championed the necessity “‘that people… of all backgrounds have an opportunity’” to be represented in every level of an organization. The search for talent is thus a significant stepping stone toward this goal. When it comes to hiring, boards of directors should similarly check to see if their organization has a policy in place that “requir[es] more than one diverse candidate [be considered] for each open position… throughout the company” and moreover that this policy is being implemented. Through the incorporation of these strategies, the board of directors (and their CEO) will ideally see improvement in diverse hiring from their organization.

Not only should boards of directors be aware of and involved in diversity initiatives for their organization, but the more open they are regarding these initiatives, the greater trust they can build with their community. Billie Williamson, director at Kraton Corporation, Cushman & Wakefield, and Pentair, argued that when boards of directors are public with diversity, it “‘sends a very clear message [about] what’s important to the company.’” As such, boards of directors should ensure CEOs are transparent about their organization’s diversity statistics and initiatives, both to employees and to the general public.

Together with their CEOs, boards of directors should also highlight their commitment to diversity “in communications to shareholders, in public appearances, in interviews and conference presentations, and informally in networking and professional conversations” as well as other applicable communications, including the organization’s website. Furthermore, boards of directors should confirm that their CEOs compare how other organizations within their respective industries describe their commitment to diversity, as knowing this presentation may shape the board’s and CEO’s desired description. In a similar vein, boards of directors should ensure CEOs look into the diversity policies and strategies of community partners and vendors, because there should be a standard the organization expects to maintain: simply put, a strong commitment to diversity is a non-negotiable requirement for partnership.

At the end of the day, boards of directors should be provided information every meeting about the status of diversity initiatives, demographic statistics, etc. for their organization because the board of directors is an instrumental component of ensuring an organization’s successful commitment to DEI. In this blog, we hope to have provided straightforward, tangible ways boards of directors can reach out to their CEOs regarding diversity, and we hope you’ll return for our following assessments on how boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for equity and inclusion, too.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Best Practices For Board of Directors (Part 2)

“Diversity” and “inclusion” are words gaining more and more significance by the day in the corporate workplace, but when people speak of DEI initiatives, the “E” sometimes falls by the wayside. However, the equity of diversity, equity, and inclusion is instrumental not only unto itself but also in ensuring that the diversity and inclusion elements of DEI themselves are successful! As a result, this blog is a follow-up to our article on how boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for diversity. So, let’s jump right in!

After the board of directors has worked with their CEO to define their organization’s vision for DEI and ensured a thorough, enforceable commitment from the CEO to diversity, equity becomes the next critical step. First and foremost, boards of directors should confirm CEOs require that their team conduct pay equity studies, i.e. the comparison of salaries within a specific level of an organization to determine if there are pay disparities to be investigated. For example, if a woman and a man have both had the same job in an organization for the same number of years, but the woman is being paid less, that discrepancy should be looked into and redressed. Similarly, the board of directors should ensure CEOs are tracking inter-level pay studies. These studies compare workloads and salaries between various levels of an organization to determine if someone at a “lower” level is performing the same work as someone at a “higher” level and should thus be promoted to fairly compensate for their labor.

Another important element of equity that boards of directors should hold CEOs accountable for confirming if CEOs are seeking partnerships with organizations led by underrepresented groups and supporting the leadership of women, people of color, disabled individuals, etc. in the surrounding community. While there is also an evident connection to diversity in this task, the reason it has been included in this article about equity is that these acts of partnership and support create opportunities for equity. Equity involves equal access, and as a result, reaching out to organizations led by marginalized groups is a crucial first step to remedying the access denied to them in the past. Patricia Karam, CEO and founder of Mission Recruit, emphasizes the need to enlist diverse vendors, establish diverse partnerships, etc. in order for an organization’s environment to be truly equitable; the support provided by boards of directors for these measures therefore cannot be overstated.

Boards of directors should also ensure CEOs are repeatedly tracking equity surveys, as it is only through the repetition of these surveys that comparisons can be made and long-term progress analyzed. Important surveys to oversee include examining the percentage of employees who believe they have equitable opportunities for advancement. Knowing how employees themselves perceive their opportunities is critical not only because it can illuminate disparities in items like promotion, but also because equity is deeply connected to accessibility, and thus information on and expectations for advancement must be made accessible to all. Similarly, the board of directors should confirm their CEO is tracking surveys that examine the percentage of employees “who feel their compensation (pay and benefits) is fair for their role, experience, and industry standards.” Paralleling the significance of pay equity studies, these surveys not only aid in identifying concrete pay gaps, but they can shed light onto the perceived reasons why these gaps exist, thus opening up areas for investigation and improvement by management. For example, if disabled employees are being paid less than their able-bodied coworkers, and they believe it is because of reasons [x] and [y], concrete redress in those areas can begin.

At the end of the day, when it comes to equity, Paula Bellizia, president of Brazil for Microsoft Corp., believes that “‘[y]ou can’t take your eye off the ball, or people continue to accommodate past behaviors and prevent progress.’” Boards of directors should be provided updates every meeting about the status of equity analyses within their organization, because only then can a genuine commitment to the equity component of DEI be seen at all levels. In this blog, we hope to have provided straightforward ways boards of directors can reach out to their CEOs regarding equity. We hope you’ll return for our following assessment on how boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for inclusion, and check out our previous article on accountability for diversity, too!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

DEI Best Practices For Board of Directors (Part 3)

Diversity, equity, and inclusion. In our previous two blogs, we have reviewed the many ways boards of directors can hold their CEOs accountable for diversity and equity, which leaves but one category left: inclusion. Of the three, inclusion can be the most difficult to monitor, because unlike diversity and equity, there are not as many quantitative statistics associated with this element of DEI. Nonetheless, there are still some quantitative as well as numerous qualitative elements that boards of directors can, should, and must confirm their CEOs are overseeing when it comes to inclusion. No reason to delay—let’s walk through each task!

Once the board of directors has both worked with their CEO to define their organization’s vision for DEI and ensured a thorough, enforceable commitment from the CEO to diversity and equity, keeping track of how inclusive the workplace environment is of the utmost importance. To begin, boards of directors should confirm CEOs are requiring that their HR team and/or hiring managers regularly seek feedback from diverse employees who are leaving the organization. Moreover, they should ensure the collected responses are compared over time. For example: let’s say these surveys reveal many Hispanic employees were initially leaving because of reason [x]. A few months later, after appropriate DEI initiatives have been implemented to address reason [x], retention of Hispanic employees has increased. The same surveys are again conducted, demonstrating that the Hispanic who are now leaving are more likely to leave because of reason [y]. The progressive cycle repeats: such surveys can precisely identify issues of exclusion and thus allow for the development of strategies to increase inclusion, helping ensure the retention of diverse employees. Terrence Duddy, senior independent director for both Hammerson plc and Debenhams plc, puts it succinctly: “‘The data from these people as to why they are leaving may unlock the issues in a way that the data from those who stay cannot,’” meaning there is no reason for boards of directors to not ensure their CEOs are overseeing such measures.

Another step toward inclusion that boards of directors can take is confirming their CEOs are staying informed on mentoring and sponsorship opportunities for underrepresented groups—what those opportunities are, who is leading them, and how effective they are proving to be. Mentoring and sponsorship are invaluable in fostering inclusive environments because they help ensure diverse employees know they have someone looking out for them within the organization. This task for boards of directors is especially important when taken together with the aforementioned retention surveys, because—for example—if mentorship and sponsorship programs are being offered to disabled employees, but disabled employees are still leaving the organization at higher rates than nondisabled employees, the board of directors and their CEO can recognize that these programs must be reworked.

Now, here’s the trickiest part: measuring the overall environment of inclusion within the workplace. Such a task is not as simple as the previous two means by which boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for inclusion, but it is just as important for successful implementation of DEI across an organization. As a starting point, Deloitte offers some general guidelines for boards of directors to monitor inclusion within their organization:

These guidelines, however, are just that—guidelines! They are not the be-all, end-all of examining inclusion. In terms of concrete action, such as the “metrics” Deloitte mentions, boards of directors should ensure their CEOs are requiring that their team repeatedly perform inclusion surveys. The Gartner Inclusion Index is one option that can be employed for the development of questions that effectively measure inclusion. Similarly, these surveys might seek to determine the percentage of employees “who believe they are treated fairly and with respect in the workplace,” with demographic elements noted. For example, if 74% of female employees report that they don’t believe they are being treated with respect, and they identify this unfair behavior as a result of reasons [x], [y], and [z], then such survey results should send up a red flag for a conversation to be had between the board of directors and their CEO over those issues. In addition to this collection and analysis of inclusion surveys, boards of directors should confirm their CEOs are overseeing the organization of focus groups; monitoring the development of means by which exclusionary behaviors (e.g. microaggressions) can be reported (e.g. an online system, a DEI committee, etc.); and so on and so forth, as all of these strategies contribute to a more inclusive environment.

Last but certainly not least, boards of directors should also hold their CEOs accountable for their own inclusive behavior. Within employee surveys, there can be questions regarding how or if the CEO embodies certain traits of inclusive leadership, such as commitment, courage, cognizance, curiosity, cultural intelligence, and collaboration. Additional questions should inquire about the CEO’s commitment to DEI and the overall organization’s commitment to DEI. With this information, boards of directors can better evaluate the next necessary steps for ensuring their organization is one that fosters inclusion across all levels. The board of directors of YW Boston have voiced their dedication to an inclusive environment; Wendy Foster, a member of the board, succinctly observed that “‘[t]o have the greatest impact, boards have to “walk the talk” and do the work!’”

As with diversity and equity, boards of directors should be provided updates every meeting about the status of inclusion initiatives and surveys within their organization, especially because inclusion often presents additional difficulties to measure. Ultimately, the need for boards of directors to become more involved in DEI is imminent. With the three articles we have developed on how CEOs can be held accountable for diversity, equity, and inclusion, we hope to have provided straightforward, effective ways boards of directors can reach out to their CEOs regarding these topics. When all levels of an organization play their part, a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive future will shine over the horizon.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.