Nine Tips for Diversity Leaders

This morning, a discussion on LinkedIn finally grabbed my attention. An editor wanted to know (paraphrasing) what tips the group members have for future diversity leaders in terms of necessary skills and expertise. It was the type of question that a nurturing personality has difficulty letting get overlooked. So I responded.

Skills:

• Ability to listen carefully, process the information, and respond with an appropriate response. Most would call all of that "good communication skills" but communication involves more than just talking at people or reciting anecdotes about 'this happened to me.'
  
• Ability to operate as a professional without projecting an air of pride or smugness. Become a beacon and role model but first, and most importantly, be human.
  
• Use your maturity. It's important to have the maturity to deal with human nature and various age demographics in order to learn from them as well as convey useful information to them.
  
• Communication is critical. If your message isn't getting through, take some time to review what you're saying and how you're saying it. Then modify your strategy so that the vocabulary and voice are not only understandable but also heard. Also consider aligning yourself with someone who more closely identifies with your target demographic so that they are speaking the language. Then the message more easily reaches its destination and becomes effective.
  

Expertise:

• Choose a specialty area and learn as much about it as possible. The learning should not be solely classroom- and textbook-centric. Those are clinical settings based on what others are telling you. In many instances, the best experience is to be out in the field interacting with the people and situations that constitute your specialty area. In order to gain that experience while still learning your specialty, it would be good to do volunteer work at a nonprofit that specializes in your calling or intern for them.
  
• There are many ways to gain an appreciation of the needs and wants of your audience. Some people have walked and lived among their specialty constituency (sometimes not on a willing basis). That can be extremely dangerous if it's done with no safety tether (others outside of the situation who can help you get out of harm fast). However, that type of immersion provides real life awareness and the ability to develop meaningful strategies to address issues.
  
• Having a real appreciation of the constituency needs leads to engendering trust from the members. That is extremely important to being effective as well as developing respect.
• A leader needs to have the sophistication to appreciate when transparency is mandatory.
  
• Recognize that privacy and confidentiality are imperative.
  
• It's important to do proper screening, usually couched in casual conversation that makes the person comfortable enough to share their philosophies that wouldn't ordinarily be verbalized (or demonstrated) in an employment interview setting. That will make proper selection of the most effective personnel possible.
  

Someone recently asked whether it's possible for a White person to be a leader of a Black organization. The ancillary query related to whether a woman could be an effective leader of that same group. As that conversation evolved, we looked at the NAACP as an example. It was founded by mutually concerned individuals from all ethnicities and walks of life. Among the founders were abolitionists, Jews, Gentiles, Blacks, Whites, men and women. One of the most pivotal of the founders was Mary White Ovington. The first "president" of the organization (who served in that capacity for ten years) was a White man, Joel Spingarn.

A few words about being a leader, no matter what the cause or organization, is having foresight and vision. Those skills will allow the leader to see most of the pitfalls before they arise. That will then enable them to develop strategies to avert the difficulties, use them to the organization's advantage, or overcome them with as much ease as is reasonable. In order to garner the support to execute the plans and goals of the organization, a leader must have excellent communication skills or a trusted adviser and speaker who can communicate the rallying cry on their behalf.

Finally, it's extremely important that the leader be able to understand the psychology of their opposition. Doing so will empower them to gain the ear of those who resist. Sometimes resistance is nothing more than fear dressed as aggression or hate. The ability to allay those fears by showing the benefits of becoming aligned takes significant skill and ability while yielding results useful for more than the constituent group.

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Diversity Inroads at the 2012 Olympics

It seems the USA Dream Team has super powers beyond the basketball court. As I listened to Bryant, Durant, and James being interviewed after helping the Team win a Gold Medal for their country, I heard them verbalizing what I was thinking, what I was saying to myself, what I have advocated for so long. They spoke of having respect for their competitors. They proclaimed the importance of focus on doing well in the sport and putting forth their best effort to win - for their country. They expressed the supremacy of being a professional in your field. And they demonstrated the veracity of their expressions with the gestures of appreciation extended to their competitors and their coaches.

That was what the Olympics was about in Great Britain. It was the exemplification of the standards we need to use to guide us in the execution of our daily lives as we work - and live. Using the focus that the Dream Team members exhort will deliver the best that can be achieved. It will also deliver the best price to be had.

However, it became clear on a daily basis that these Olympic games were groundbreaking for more than the World records that were broken and reset. This was an Olympics that was also a celebration of diversity. Starting with age and while not the oldest in the history of Olympic games, Japan's Hoketsu at age 71 was the oldest Olympic competitor (equestrian) this year. Likewise, the 39 year old Iovtchev of Bulgaria was the oldest male gymnast this year. He noted that had he not entered the competition, a great many in his country would have wound up unemployed. His presence helped to continue the Bulgarian gymnastics federation.

It was rumored that there was a woman over 50 who competed in gymnastics but I can find no record of such an entrant. Perhaps the rumor was about 86-year-old Johanna Quus but she was not an Olympics entrant. She performed at the Cottbus, Germany World competition. However, the women's beach volleyball team included three women, Jen Kessy, Misty May-Treanor, and Kerri Walsh Jennings, who are aged 35, 35, and 34, respectively.

Speaking of women, are you aware that women were not allowed to compete in the original Games? They sort of wrangled their way in. It took a few centuries for them to actually gain access to the field and legitimately vie in the competitions. They made it by the Nineteenth Century. These 2012 Games were the first in which women were represented in all national Olympic committee entries. This was the first time for Qatar, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia to have women in the games. Muslim women also made inroads. They pushed the barriers out of their way and succeeded in making striking accomplishments on the fields of competition and behind the scenes in planning and deveopment. This year the religious holiday of Ramadan fell directly in the midst of competition. Woroud Sawalha faced challenges of attire in addition to those of their sport and restrictions on where they could train. They made astounding victories in their own rights.

Then there were those who entered the Games and did not look like any of their competitors. Oscar Pistorius was the first athlete who is a double amputee to compete in and win the Men's qualifying 400M. Although a teammate took a fall during the Men's 4x400 qualifying heat that appeared to disqualify South Africa for that event, South Africa (his team) lodged a protest and was allowed to compete for a medal in that race. The men's team took no medals in either of his events.

Pistorius probably faced challenges as grueling as those endured by fellow countrywoman Semenya. The sweetness of victory was not kept from her. Semenya came from last in the Women's 800M to cross the finish line as a Silver Medalist.

Lest I be accused of overlooking youth, women's USA gymnast Gabby Douglas at age 16 was the first Black woman to win Gold in the the Women's Gymnastics and also helped her team to win the All Around Gold.

There's so much to say about these 2012 Olympic Games. However, it's time to take a breather. But many of the situations that arose is these Games brought back memories of bygone Games and competitors. Those will come in a little while.

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Raising Cultural Pride

With February being Black History Month, it begs the question to call attention to the successes Blacks have made in various professions and ways they have proved themselves notable. This year a little more thought went into how to bring attention to the career inroads made by pioneering Blacks.

For a person involved in diversity issues, it's prudent to do comparisons and take note of how each ethnic group draws attention to its positive traits. For example, some ethnicities have successfully gained empathy for their situations and grown from a position of underlings. One group are Jews especially because of the atrocities their ancestors suffered in the Holocaust. Mexicans distinguish themselves through their developments various forms of art. The Chinese and Japanese (Buddhists) gain distinction in two ways: their reputation for having a quiet disposition and their skills in mastery of martial arts, one feeding on the other.

However, it doesn't seem to make a difference into what age we've advanced because Blacks still suffer from the negative stereotypes developed in the 18th and 19th Centuries. They still need to make huge efforts to overcome being judged by the color of their skin. (Mind you, Arabs and Muslims are now suffering similar discriminations but the bases are tied to fear of having a terrorist in the house.)

Compounding the state of affairs for Blacks was the rise of Jim Crow laws and practices in the Reconstruction South, cultural practices of the Antebellum South, and an attitude toward those with darker skins tones that grew out of quite surprising roots. As we learned from Ancestry.com's "Who Do You Think You Are?" series, coloreds and Negroes were not considered to be people; they were not even thought of as humans.

Research shows time and time again that people of this race were routinely treated as children would be. Someone else, usually the slave owner, would make decisions for them or become their mentor in some business dealings or endeavors. Many had the opinion that the people were poorly educated, if at all (a throwback to the practice of not allowing slaves to be educated nor learn to read) and therefore had poor comprehension skills. It didn't matter that there were Negroes who had attended some of the most distinguished Ivy League universities and graduated with honors in their disciplines. Their names and accomplishments faded into the background until some stalwart seekers researched the matters.

Time moved forward but the equitable treatment of Blacks did not. Enter the Civil Rights Era when Martin Luther King, Jr., basing his steps toward full integration for Negroes and others on the principles of non-aggression (adopted from Ghandi's teachings), the "proper," conservative coloreds made herculean efforts to not be seen as violent savages in order to win their point. On the other hand were the radical Blacks, such as the Black Panthers and members of the early stages of American Islam, who fomented hate for hate and wore Afro hairdos, in part a statement of defiance and in part a statement of self acceptance and pride.

Throughtout the years there have been stories of the persecutions suffered by slaves and the race. In some cases, these stories paralleled those of the Jews during many of their histories. But Blacks appeared to throw these atrocities into the faces of their audiences without the benefit of lessons about their strengths and accomplishments.

As I said at the beginning of this article, this state of looking at other races and ethnicities and how they've fashioned their cultural accomplishments of one type and another into acceptance and celebration, it made me want to look at how similar stories could be told about the Black (Mother) race. I remembered the research that I did last year in order to bring snippets of Black history to a retirement community throughout the month of February, Black History Month, in order to fulfill the request to do so.

That research brought out some little-known information about American Negroes. Initially it was difficult to understand why some of the history and accomplishments have slipped into oblivion. However, celebrating these accomplishments and showing that they were the means to creating a platform for success would do two things. First, it would reveal the secret to attainment and thus carve out a means of subterfuge and destruction. Second, it would develop a way of thinking that people who are part of the race have no other natural talents. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Women in the field of early science used their traditional roles as hairdressers for the mistress to gain traction in creating cosmetics, formulating chemicals for makeup, hairdressing products, better ways to put curls in or straighten them out. Others were seamstresses who not only cut the cloth and sewed, adding the small touches to give the clothing style and flair, but also the ones to work the fine details. They were the ones who listened as the mistress mused or complained or bragged and responded accordingly. Black women were in the kitchen making some of the family traditional dishes as well as creating masterpieces that sated guests at balls and grand dinners.

These were the nannies who tended the babies and children. To the extent allowed, they taught the children obedience, respect, customs and essentially became tutors who spontaneously adapted their teaching styles to the situation at hand.

The men were noted most for being barbers, preachers, and educators. Again, not only communication but listening skills were paramount to being successful. It was very important to be good at negotiation in order to work out various types of matters. And diligence in all matters showed the grist of a good worker no matter what or where the labor. In all cases, one's discretion was the key to moving forward.

We now have large numbers of legislators, judges, scientists, and other professions with more than exceptional members of the Black race (from some part of the African diaspora). I have not taken the time to try to research their climbs to success and the stumbling blocks that were part of their path. I don't doubt that those impediments only made each person the better warrior and representative of their industry's expertise. They quietly do their work and excel at it without making waves.

Is that the example, then, that we need to learn this year during Black History Month? Just be good at what you do. Do it quietly and do it with distinction for the quality that's delivered. The trouble with that version of the lesson is that having something done quietly means no one will lift the ivy wreath of success to press it onto the head of the one who deserves it; it will fade into the shadows and few will be aware of the magnitude.

In the alternative, do the work to the nth degree of integrity and expertise. Do it to the best of your ability. Then improve upon that. Make it an example of something done in a workmanlike manner. The rest will speak for itself as others repeat the story in the right places and word spreads.

NOTE: My sincerest gratitude to Geoff Boxell, fellow writer and history aficionado, for the history of Blacks in Britain.

Diversity Training - Knowing Where to Start

It was less than a month after becoming part of the retirement community for what is supposed to be final recuperation and then whatever comes next. However, the signs of problems became more obvious and increasingly profound. The facility is in dire need of diversity training. There need to be focused discussion about race relations and equal treatment. The awareness of domestic violence and handling the issues of the abuse -- whether physical, verbal, economic, or psychological -- need to be brought up several levels and surpassing mere elder abuse.

The other matter that provided evidence of the profound need for attention is the fact that several key employees (who are guilty of the offensive, disparate behavior) are not native Americans. Instead, they are immigrants. A few others are so young that the Civil Rights Movement isn't even in their vocabulary, let alone a true appreciation of what the term means. It was merely a section of their Social Studies class that they memorized and then forgot in order to get the grade of "A" or "B" in the class and then move on. Still others who are immigrant employees merely want to avoid making waves and overlook situations that need handling. Their philosophy is "Don't make a big deal" about it.

The most telling situation was at the February 5 Activities Committee meeting. The Director of Activities and her assistant rattled off a list of things that would be done for the month of February. One of them was recognition of President's Day by way of a re-enactment of a speech by Thomas Jefferson. The month's activities was read and explained and then stopped. There was absolutely nothing said about recognizing Black History Month.

The interesting thing about the Activities omission was the fact that on January 27, the Chaplain had asked that I deliver the sermon for the worship service in February in honor of Black History Month. The recognition was not going to be isolated to merely one service. Chaplain had the insight and foresight to realize the significance of the event. She wanted acknowledgement of Black history and achievements throughout the month. My presentation of moments in Black history at each worship service throughout the month of February was the anticipated contribution.

The President of the Residents' Association also perceived the importance of Black History Month recognition as well as use of capable talent. She asked that I deliver an inspirational at both the Sunday midday and evening meals starting in February and continuing from then on. February could focus on Black History but she wanted someone to handle delivering the inspirational or blessing for each meal.

These two requests were encouraging. They represented the fact that there is awareness and sensitivity to many of the issues impacting the community. They also represented the fact that there is an undercurrent seeking increased support and momentum to begin setting the example of acceptance and appreciation not only in word but also in action. The positive foundation was laid.

It was easy to determine where to start in recognizing Black History. Start by talking about how it started and why. Recognize and remind of the fact that the acknowledgement and celebration has not always been a full month of activities. In fact, it has been slightly over 100 years that recognition has even existed. It used to be only one week in the shortest month of the year.

The next important issue was to recognize not just the traditional, well-known names in Black history but to call attention to the other significant people and their contributions to the richness of our American culture. But that also was not sufficient. Names can quickly be forgotten. A brief five minute talk is nothing more than a distraction. Appreciation of the struggles and sacrifices that witnessed and became the reason the inroads and successes were significant were also needed.

Perhaps remembering the 1950s peaceful demonstrations, over and above Rosa Parks' momentous bus ride, are also needed for laying the proper groundwork toward positive change. In just 50 years, it appears we have forgotten the integration of schools, the fire hose and police dog attacks on well-groomed peaceful marchers, the peaceful lunch counter demonstrations that became the catalysts of positive change and acceptance.

Yes, those appear to be the right starting points. The most critical of all of it is the awareness and support of the community management. Fortunately, although there is not awareness of how pitiful the acceptance is and how lacking the practice, there is a desire to be among those counted and exemplary of being a healthy environment. The important first step is recognizing that there is a problem. The next step is identifying the type and degree of the issue. Next is developing the proper strategy to cause appreciative modification and change. And finally comes constant reinforcement.

Diversity training, as with any other type of behavior modification and development, takes teamwork and diligence, in addition to realizing that it must be started and then doing so.

Viva

It's the Little Things You Say

Some employers wonder why they just achieve full diversity in their workplace and then it suddenly collapses when an exodus of five to ten people occurs. The pay is good. The benefits are excellent. The working hours aren't excessive. Work-life balance issues are addressed. There's everything going for the environment. So why are these five to ten people leaving after a year or two? The scenario is repeated year after year, department after department.

Maybe that's the problem. The things that are being held constant but not examined. Undoubtedly, the interviewers are people who have been in the organization for a good amount of time. They've become acculturated. They speak and reflect the culture. That's one of the reasons they were selected to be interviewers. They represent the corporate culture in addition to knowing all of the details about the position and the best fit for it. As interviewers, they don't grill the candidates; they have conversations. They tell anecdotes that are actually open invitations to share information and personality. They relax and begin to spontaneously react to things said by the candidate and then reveal a little more of who they are and why they've been with the company for as long as they have.

There were faux pas during the interviews that the candidate chose not to address or acknowledge. But as time passed, the new employee realized these were not aberrant. These instances are part of the corporate culture and they keep getting repeated in various ways.

Coupled with watching the practices is the listening. The listening started from the moment the phone call reached them for the phone interview and the invitation to come in for a personal interview. The listening was happening as they sat in the reception area and as they made their way through the halls from one office to the next. The listening was happening as they walked into the front doors into the elevator from the commute to the office.

It was the little comments that were made in response to something that was willingly volunteered in order to show how motivated the candidate was. It was an observation that over-reached the situation but simultaneously came crashing down on a particular class of individuals. It was an observation that was basically pandering to some part of the candidate's identity and the observation was completely wrong. They were asked where they expect to see themselves in five years. The honest response was met with a muttered, "Yeah, right." During their tenure with the company, some executive asked them to reserve some time because they wanted to meet with the employee. The employee had been doing the right type of networking and politicking to move into that department and commented to their supervisor that the meeting would hold a lot of opportunity for them. The supervisor's comment was something on the order of, "I doubt it."

One of the things these corporate emigrants realize is that there is no place for them in the higher rungs of the company. They've been there long enough to have watched the various types of personnel who are pushed along and who has been diverted or discouraged from following a particular path. The pattern repeats itself without benefit of gossip nor sniping remarks.

Perhaps there was good follow-up and the candidate was contacted by phone or letter or email. The message was essentially that although the candidate's qualifications and background are exceptional, they simply were not the right fit for the position. Good luck in [your] future endeavors. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or perhaps there was no follow-up. A person who looks just like everyone else in the company was hired and life just went on. If either of these situations occurred, the candidate who was passed over had little to say aloud. In fact, they may have even forgotten they interviewed at your company. Why? Because of how under-whelmed they were. They were relieved to be out of the way of the sniper shots.

In the alternative, they were hired for some reason. Maybe it was because they are of the ethnicity or gender that was required at that time. But they've reached that exodus threshold and just tendered their resignation. That's when a disappointed at the resignation notice is made and thoughts about losing a worker of that quality are mulled. Where to find more of that type of worker to do exactly the same thing but more of it. After all, that's why they were hired. More importantly, how do you keep them?

"Sam[antha], you're such a great [insert job title]. You're conscientious and hard working. You get things done and don't need a lot of supervision. You're not like the others of your kind. You're an exception. We'd like to keep your kind with us in the family. Is there anything we could do to convince you to stay, to keep doing your exceptional work for us?"

It's about this time the key to the door has been turned and locked. Sam[antha] doesn't need to say anything but will probably respond with, "I don't think so. But thanks."

EEOC News - Work-Life Issues; Minimum Wage

A couple of hours ago, the folks at Starbucks wondered why I stood on top of a table and cheered. (Well, I wasn't quite that demonstrative!) Yes, I had my very own personal celebration. It's because I've been a feminist since the 1960s. I've been an affirmative activist since the '60s. And I'm on record as being in favor of an increase in the minimum wage so that it returns to being a livable wage.

And a few hours ago I read the news from today's Employer Advisor E-Alert. That service announced that EEOC has made a ruling in regard to discrimination that touches on work/life balance when it comes to FMLA, caregiving responsibilities on either side of the age gap, acknowledgement (I said acknowledgement) of the fact that women are indeed discriminated against when it comes to caregiving responsibilities and career advancement opportunities, protection of women from being passed over for wage increases and promotion, recognition of discriminatory issues related to men and women of color.

And (oh yes) the Federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 over the next 26 months. Yes, that is definitely a long time and the cost of living will have skyrocketed again so that the net increase will be a decrease. But at least there is some type of increase instead of stagnation.

That's a mouthful! That's a whale of a lot of progress. That's so much that I won't even attempt to summarize the news. I'll simply allow the news blurb to speak for itself: Workplace Bias: EEOC Spotlights Work/Family Balance in New Guidance.

Employer Advisor will have a full report on these matters in an upcoming issue of the California Employer Advisor. I'll be more than glad to keep you apprised. I might even dance on top of the tables at Starbucks next time!

EDITOR'S NOTE, August 3, 2007:
The Managing Editor at ERI contacted me today to advise that the treatment of the news blurb was use of copyrighted material. Today's edit will allow you to read the article via the link to the public content on ERI's website.

Drawing on a Point

Earlier this month, I talked about the major resistance that the recruiting population expressed at seeing analogies in politics compared with corporate and recruiting matters. There was one small voice among the shouters, amid the threats and bullying, that acknowledged that politics do have an impact on the direction in which our economy is headed and their impact on job market numbers. One voice out of nearly 50 is such a pitiful showing. (I weary myself with those musings.)

There's an article on today's AOL that seems to drive home, in exquisite form, why the Bush press conference has so much significance in regard to jobs and employment, especially in relation to the direction in which the economy is headed.

American Optimism at New Low, Poll Finds talks about the matter that is affecting men and women, blacks (actually, minorities of all colors) and whites. The survey indicators continue to plummet. One of the reasons why is because people are seeing that their financial security, job opportunities, and other things related to offshore spending rather than reinvesting in America are shortchanging everyone's viability.

The other thing people are seeing is that too much time is being spent on a situation (Iraq) that is not a domestic issue. Still another and even more compelling fault cited is poor leadership.

The reason women and minorities express concern and disdain for current policies, according to the AP article, is "numbers for women and minorities result largely because both groups tend to be more Democratic, less supportive of the war and more vulnerable to economic downturns, analysts say."

The latter is the essential reason. The article does an excellent job of fair reporting by virtue of the fact that interviewees who were cited are from both major parties, one even noted as being a conservative Republican, but still expressing the same dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, this month's survey was of a scant 1,000 respondents over a three-day period. While 300 people per day is a good number, it is difficult for 1,000 to be a truly accurate sampling of a few billion in national population. Still, this survey has been running since 2003. The statisticians are using a good margin for error number and the results are steady. The numbers compare and contrast to others used in similar surveys. Thus, I would say even though the sampling is small, it is reliable, realistic and deserves our attention to the issues called into question.