“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” – Malcolm Forbes***
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is an exciting career path for the right personalities. In my work with various consultants, corporate professionals and community representatives, I found some interesting yet powerful personas.
Caring Professionals
There are two camps, in which most D&I leaders I have worked with, reside. One is the Caring Professionals. These individuals could be defined as somewhat touchy feely. They are very personable, relational and friendly. They connect with people quickly and easily, and before you realize it, you are sharing some of your deepest truths and greatest professional horror stories… maybe even personal stories as well. These were some of the greatest people to partner with on projects, workshop facilitation and idea generation. I found them to be a very unique and special breed of D&I practitioners to collaborate with on any explorative journey. They knew who they were and were deeply in tuned to the environment in which they were operating, their ability to connect helped people to open up, they were sincere, honest and were highly confident as well as competent in their roles as professional change agents.
Radical Professionals
Another group of practitioners are the Radical Professionals. I encountered this D&I character more than any and found them to be those that I related to most easily. More than likely, it is because I spent most of my career in corporate settings, had begun to move in the direction of diversity work while in an HR setting and thus began working on diversity strategies in partnership with executives as well as management and professional level employees. Working with so many different disciplines required the ability to work with all levels of employees.
Honestly, the HR persona fit well with the strategic planning and implementation side of the job. I’ll admit, some were a bit on the stuffy side, not my style but most were quite human. It was always enjoyable to experience the moments when someone would let their hair down, and begin to speak candidly about the realities of the work.
Radical Professionals spend a great deal of time carrying the corporate face and managing the corporate image, like most business professionals. That corporate face and that corporate image can get in the way of truly learning from one another and actually getting the job done. If you’re not careful, you get caught up in the “We’ve done this and we’ve done that” exchanges. I hated those! I didn’t mind when someone else would brag on a colleague’s accomplishments and questions would ensue from there, but when that one colleague in the bunch would always find the opportunity to garner the group’s attention to blow their own horn, it was a bit much. I rarely learned much from those conversations. Interestingly enough and maybe sadly enough, this tended to be the popular “type” that many corporations sought for their D&I leadership roles. The persona was usually more of a level 10 version, however, while the crew I hung out with was mostly midlevel. Maybe that’s what actually made them “Radical,” because they dared to be honest, were willing to push the envelope for radical change while valuing the importance of maintaining their professionalism at the same time. In the “Five Essential Leadership Competencies of an Effective D&I Practitioner” a guidebook by Whitney White , a D&I professional should be Self Aware, Resilient, Authentic, a Catalyst and Relationship Oriented. You can see that these five aptitudes were displayed in both of the personality camps mentioned.
In the corporate world, personality is everything. I read an article recently in which the writer spoke at length about the extroverted leanings and biases of corporate decision makers. She specifically pointed to a need to keep personality types private and not share them, thus preventing some of the discrimination and exclusion that regularly occurs in hiring, promotions and evaluations when one is introverted and more sensitive than their counterparts. It is unfortunate that anyone would suggest that certain aspects of diversity be hidden because of a lack of inclusion. It is unfortunate for obvious reasons, but it’s worse in the D&I arena because that is the very reason for which we push for inclusion. Some don’t want to talk about race because it is too sensitive, others don’t want to talk about gender because it might bring the wrong attention to women, now we should avoid personality differences for fear that we will discriminate even more. We’re missing the point.
If differences cause exclusion and incite discriminatory behavior then we are to call them out and flush out the unacceptable practices that perpetuate the inequities and injustices we were recruited to eradicate. This shows the necessity of the profession and the ongoing need to continue. While some hope we’ll work ourselves out of a job by “fixing” everyone, the reality is, as soon as we fix one problem, another one will present. Like diseases in the Emergency Department of a hospital, they just keep coming.
What is ironic is that company representatives often look for professionals and management to be extroverts…outgoing, talkative, energized by people and collaborative, yet they hesitate to hire this same outgoing, outspoken champion to lead the diversity effort. Why? They might fight a little too hard, thus fitting into a third category, the Social Justice Professional.
Social Justice Professional
The Social Justice Professional, is a fighter, an activist. The D&I Social Justice Professional is a change agent, but this professional personality pushes harder than others, speaks louder when injustice is found to be at play and openly threatens the status quo. They do not fear the outcome of their fight as long as progress occurs.
While the corporate world has historically favored the outgoing collaboratives, they may do the opposite when choosing a D&I leader. Mild to moderate is the preferred leader of the corporate change agents. Once again, we’re missing the point. We have much more work to do than we think. I look at the newer influx of diversity leaders and I pray for them because I see the cycle continuing unless we learn to address the very things we fear the most… change.
Rosa Parks said it best in self-penned book with Gregory J. Reed, “Quiet Strength,”
“If you want to be respected for your actions, then your behavior must be above reproach. I learned from my grandmother and mother that one should always respect oneself and live right. This is how you gain the respect of others. If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble, and trusted, this is recognized by others. If our lives demonstrate something else, that will be noticed too.”
– Rosa Parks
Thanks for the good article, I hope you continue to work as well.Спаситель на продажу