Hiring for Diversity, Managing for Conformity
In some ways, we have come a long way. From the days of no women in leadership to today when companies are undertaking diversity goals, divulging the gender-pay gap, and creating new policies to include ‘the other variety’ of population to be a part of the productive workforce. In all the other ways, our workplaces adamantly exhibit and promote the virtues we sweared by centuries ago . Now, it’s time to move on from having diversity as just a hiring goal.
I think of diversity as bringing together people who are different from each other at various levels. Its the exchanging of thoughts, aspirations, values in such an open and inclusive way, that it influences the group to see things differently. It is the way of working that lets people imbibe the positive aspect of each other’s experiences that they themselves were fortunately or unfortunately not able to live, due to, yes, their being diverse. When this happens, we enrich our heads, broaden our view points and may be, develop new perceptions of the world around us. In short, it is the light-bulbs that glow in your head when you assimilate new information or absorb a new view-point. In my experience in the corporate world, however, I have found myself more trying to ‘fit-in’. More often than not, those personal or business reviews have felt like: It’s great you are ‘here’, to go any further, its time to change and be like ‘this’.
According to a recent survey, in 2017, 9% of senior IT leadership are women, same as in the year before. Even though, 35% of organisations have a formal diversity initiative in place. The biggest reason this is happening is, we are hiring more women but, after that, we are only constantly telling them to be more ‘manly’. As you see, this makes our diversity goals superficial, self-defeating and a bit mindless. Today we talk heavily about the concept of ‘bringing your whole self to work’. It’s a wonderful concept but if we are asking half the population to act as the other half, we are applauding the concept without understanding what it means.
In a recent study done over its own workforce, Google finds that the top characteristics of success are all soft skills: being a good coach, communicating and listening well, having empathy, being a good critical thinker and problem solver, and being able to make connections across complex ideas. However, even in the light of skills above, the number of women in leadership remain low. Its not about the corporate responsibility of equal opportunity or a conquest of who is a better manager. Its about who, as an individual, brings skills that help businesses and people grow.
In the past, a part of a fast-growing and sales-heavy organization, I have been on the look-out for advice on speaking up with impact in meetings. One of the most astute advice I heard was to keep reminding oneself how holding back one’s input will hurt the team/company. To someone struggling to verbalise their thoughts in a set-up different from their natural behvaior, this gives a strong reason to jump-in. Companies now spend enough time and energy in coaching women on how to be more assertive and authoritative. These initiatives are very valuable and women are benefitting greatly from them. However, this is half the work done. To create a true level-playing field, there is a need to coach and sensitize all employees, men and women to overcome their long-held belief, biases and gender stereotypes. Over the centuries, human belief systems and biases are geared towards following a voice of authority. By similar logic, it’s important to acknowledge that women are typically wired to talk from a place of patience and non-aggression. We can’t unlearn our beliefs, however, we can consciously, through sensitization train ourselves to identify our biases and work through them. We have been doing this for decades for cultural sensitisation to smoothen cross-country business interactions! We need to stop seeing these diverse values as a sign of weakness just because they don’t conform to the established corporate culture. And this is not gender specific. I have seen bright, competent male colleagues thrive more in an environment of openness and non-aggression.
We are always asking women to undertake more complex projects, over their predefined annual goals, to invoke enough confidence for a promotion. While any ambitious woman will appreciate the opportunity, I did too, I now think it’s a flawed approach because it’s a vote of no-confidence to begin with. It’s widely known that men are hired based on potential but women on experience. Unless we create a change in mindset and question leadership based on that mindset, we will be stuck in this futile loop where different employees are judged on different gradient.
In order to really benefit from diversity programs, we need to let diversity flourish in instead of holding-up the standards of conformity. First, companies need to define what diversity means to their business. Whether trying to promote innovation culture, or retaining customers, or going after a new customer segment, start by mapping-out which values promote these goals and translate this understanding into new belief-systems, conduct, and team-diversity goals. Then, inculcate the values by learning opportunities such as role-plays sessions for all (men and women), awareness sessions on different communication and working styles. Its important to be mindful that the extent by which this is needed might vary depending on the culture of the company/country. Last, make leadership accountable. When it comes to performance management, encourage and question leadership about the objectivity of their decisions. This objectivity should eventually seep into not just evaluations but also in the way goals are set and in the kind of conduct we encourage in meetings. Also value diverse mindsets during hiring in leadership.
The WHY:
We have heard in enough detail about how the Wall Street crisis might have not happened if we had more women at the top. We all know how the financial performance of a company with more women on the board is statistically better. We all know that half the world’s talent lies in the other gender and how the hunt for specialized skills necessitates tapping into that pool. We all know how half the world’s consumers are women and hence understanding and meeting the needs of this segment is key to succeeding. But what does diversity it mean for the future?
Human intelligence is a combination of logic, cognition, emotion and empathy. As we get ready to revolutionise how we live with AI, it needs to reflect the wholesome intelligence and preferences of the diverse set of users. The creation of such bias-free algorithms, training data, design is dependent on creating and nurturing highly diverse team. Else we risk not just continuing with our biases but also promoting them further with AI. Let us think about the kind of world it will make for our kids.
Diversity is about creating a truly vibrant place thats representative of the world outside the corporate walls in terms of potential, views, thoughts and decisions. And, good managers mentor women: the easy option, sadly. Progressive leaders find the balance: while doing the former they also create an environment where diversity of thought flourishes.
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