Melissa Majors (MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter), CEO of Melissa Majors Consulting, will be presenting “The 7 Habits of Inclusive Leaders” at 4 p.m. CST on Nov. 6 during MPI’s WEC digital event (she’ll also be presenting to in-person attendees at 9 a.m.). We spoke with Majors, who has dedicated her career to maximizing the business impact of education, inclusion and leadership strategies, about creating cultures of inclusion and moving beyond the superficial. Register for the WEC digital experience.
Some companies/leaders believe they’ve created a culture of inclusion when they haven’t. Can you give us an example of how they’re coming up short?
In short, less talk, more action.
The most inclusive companies/leaders recognize the business advantage associated with being inclusive. According to the latest Diversity Wins study conducted by McKinsey and Company, inclusive companies are outperforming non-diverse companies on profitability by 40 percent.
Inclusive companies have higher ethnic and gender representation, especially on their boards and leadership teams. They mitigate bias in processes and collaboration, and have strategies that align with their overall business goals.
Conversely, non-inclusive companies are motivated by optics. They react to the latest headlines, make promises they’re not sure how to execute and create uninformed solutions that don’t solve real problems. One of the more common pitfalls is an over-investment in training as the only solution for lack of inclusion. You can’t train this away.
Like public promises or spinning up Employee Resources Groups, optics-motivated solutions may temporarily alleviate the pressure to take action. However, these solutions are rarely sustainable, don’t produce measurable business results and in time get deprioritized because they lack ROI.
Are some efforts to make a business more inclusive merely superficial, and if so, how can that be overcome?
We cannot solve problems we cannot see. Thanks to unconscious bias, barriers to equally involving others are invisible to many decision-makers in organizations. They haven’t experienced under-inclusion and have blind spots related to the unfair situations non-dominants experience. A lack of diversity in their social circles exacerbates their limited perspectives.
These blind spots fool smart leaders into making poor decisions related to D&I. A typical example is a public statement committing to social justice. Employees and clients watch for evidence of action. If it doesn’t materialize, it results in the perception that the company or leader is untrustworthy because they make promises they don’t keep.
To overcome this, leaders must define the problem they need to solve before solving it. Use tactical empathy to understand the needs and interests of those they serve and use that viewpoint to inform their solutions. Not the other way around.
What have you experienced or observed recently that gives you hope that we’re building a more inclusive society right now?
We’re in an awakening to the systemic structure of social injustice. This realization is fueling action such as requirements for diverse representation on executive teams, requests for evidence of D&I in RFPs, technology that reduces bias in hiring, etc. These solutions and many more are evidence of sustainable progress toward equality.
