FUTURE TALENT November - January 2019/2020 | Page 22

F
FRONT OF HOUSE
resistant, it’s because they don’t
understand the commercial reality.
There’s a wealth of data about this:
appropriately diverse organisations
are more commercially successful.
Some of that is around what
we’ve described in terms of the
complexity and uncertainty of
today’s environment. On the one
hand, leaders have to have their
hands firmly on the tiller, but they
also need to be far more delegated
in their decision making. They have
to have their teams thinking too;
they can’t presume to have all the
answers. And that delegated style
of decision making does speak to
leaders who are diverse and who
h ave g row n u p e q u i p p i n g
themselves in a different way.
If you do not build a diverse
team, you will not outperform in the
way that you would if you did; and
your competitors will if they do.
That’s truth number one. Truth
number two is if you do not focus
on building up your own pipeline of
diverse talent, you’re not capturing
a signi fic ant prop or tion of
the workforce.
WOULD YOU NOW PUT THE
EMPHASIS ON INCLUSION RATHER
THAN DIVERSITY?
Yes, we’ve seen organisations fall
into the trap of focusing on the ‘d’
and ignoring the ‘i’. It’s
counterproductive. To give a live
example, if you place a female
around a board table in the scenario
where they’re the only woman (and
they’ve been hired because their
approach to problem solving and
influencing is different), but don’t
then build a culture of inclusivity
around that appointment, you run
a high risk of ‘tissue rejection’ and
of that woman being deemed to
have failed.
that sense that ‘one approach is
better than another’. Celebrate your
role models who do things
differently. Celebrate your wins that
are unusual, as well as mainstream.
In many ways, these things are
only as good as what is being
measured, so you have to combine
‘soft metrics’ (such as increased
customer satisfaction) with robust
measurement: tie management’s
KPIs to culture – and behaviour,
promotion and sponsorship. Tie
them to financial rewards.
Be prepared to call out the
leaders who don’t live those values
and take some tough decisions. If
you’re really going to live and
breathe D&I, the intentions and
ambitions need to go well beyond
the headlines.
HOW ARE YOU PRACTISING WHAT
YOU PREACH IN-HOUSE?
Aside from social mobility, the
real driver for increasing diversity is
the commercial realisation that a
difference of opinion and approach
drives better business outcomes.
Building a culture of inclusivity allows
a business to celebrate difference,
rather than stamping it out as an
irritant. It’s really important.
HOW CAN FIRMS MAKE THEIR
CULTURE MORE INCLUSIVE?
Your culture is as inclusive as the
people who form it. You have to have
people who promote difference.
You have to work hard to drive out
innate assumptions and biases and
If you focus on the ‘d’ and ignore
the ‘i’, you run a high risk
of tissue rejection
22 // Future Talent
We’ve understood the need to hold
the mirror up to ourselves. Our
president and CEO, Krishnan
Rajagopalan, is from a BAME
b a c kg ro u n d a n d h a s b e e n
appropriately intentional.
For example, two of his biggest
practices are currently led by
women. I’m our first female global
practice lead for financial services.
He encouraged us to go out and
make sure that we had the right
experience to get there.
Our Accelerating Women’s
Excellence (AWE) programme
helps in developing and supporting
our own and we’re now on phase
two; phase one saw 20-30 of our
most senior females going on a
year-long intensive programme; I
was one of the first recipients and
it was incredibly powerful.
Internally, we have a raft of very
successful employee resource
groups. One is for women, one for
those from BAME backgrounds;
another is for LGBT people. We’ve
opened up the dialogue around
diversity of all kinds and the need to
be inclusive and open-minded.
Jenni Hibbert shares further
insights on D&I in a video about
female leadership, via
bit.ly/H&SFemaleLeaders