Promoting Diversity is Harder than It Looks

Diversity in business leadership is a no-brainer. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is also smart, hard-headed business thinking. Companies with diverse leadership teams make more money.  So why is it so hard to promote women, people of color, and other diverse people into senior leadership roles? A sobering recent experience helped me understand this on a personal level.

I was organizing a panel of speakers for a dinner as part of the Power Networking for Women event in Chicago. I wanted high-powered speakers, and I put together a list of people I knew would be great panelists. Then I read the fine print.  The organizer of the event, Deirdre Joy Smith, has a powerful commitment to promoting diversity, and she required that at least one panelist be a woman of color and at least one be under 35. I looked back at my list – and every single person was a middle-aged white woman.

That’s what happens when you rely on your network of comfortable relationships – you come up with people like yourself. And I must admit I felt a momentary flash of irritation. The women on my list were terrific speakers. Where was I going to find top quality presenters who met Deirdre’s criteria?It took me about three minutes to figure it out. I am a mentor for a group of young executives through The Executives’ Club of Chicago. Everyone in the group is under 40, and several of them are young women of color. Duh! There was my talent pool to draw from. Within a couple of days I had invited Nashunda Bolden, a Business Solutions Manager for CRS Group who is an experienced writer and presenter. Nashunda did a great job at the dinner and provided a unique perspective that would not have been available if the panel had been a more homogeneous group.

I know that when you look in the same old places, you will find the same old people. But that didn’t stop me from falling into the trap myself. Without a systemic requirement that I put together a diverse group, I wouldn’t have.Lesson learned.