A New Excerpt from Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change

The book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook made tremendous waves when it was published in 2013 It was a clear call from a successful woman to other women mainly about managing their careers more intentionally more boldly and paying attention differently to the rules of the game I appreciated Sandbergamp8217s call to step up not to play small and not to hesitate in negotiating salary or moves up the ladderIn her TED Talk Sandberg described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers and urged them to be fearless and boldamp160 She expanded upon these ideas in Lean In amp8220Women need to shift from thinking Iamp8217m not ready to do that to thinking I want toamp160do that and Iamp8217ll learn by doing itamp8221 I would define the restraint or amp8220Iamp8217mnotreadynessamp8221 as the collateral impact of stories we tell ourselves about our worth our value and our ability to lead as well as the messages we receive from the wider culture itamp8217s connected to the stereotype threat we have grown up with as girls and now women trying to make it in the business worldSandberg laid a tremendous amount of responsibility for womenamp8217s slow advancement on women themselves and while the book was widely lauded there was also a backlash from women who did not share Sandbergamp8217s relative privileges as a starting point Itamp8217s a lot easier to lean in to the discussion if you are already at the table if you are already in the room and if you enjoy relative privilege in terms of your ethnicity your education and your socioeconomic backgroundWomen do need training and mentoring in order to rewrite their narratives so that they can move forward with intention but as I hope I have made clear by now organizations must equally participate in and prioritize inclusion and opportunity from the top Womenamp160showing up differently can have adverse effects if those like her and her senior leadership arenamp8217t ready to provide steadfast supportSandberg herself acknowledges the structural inequities and bias when she writes amp8220Success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively for women When a man is successful he is liked by both men and women When a woman is successful people of both genders like her lessamp8221 While the onus is on all of us to rewrite this narrative a tall order there is a critical part for top leadership to play in elevating female role models up the hierarchy lauding their successes and providing air cover for them to show up powerfully without being subject to a double standardThe ancillary workstream to the message for women to modify their approach is of course to call for change in the system affecting women It is fascinating to me that weamp8217ve assumed all of our business cases our data our case studies our HBR articles and so on will be enough to convince our organizations and their leadership that change is needed without enlisting those very leaders as real partners Successful movements for equality have often turned a critical corner when those outside the demographic who need the most support step forward to learn more to challenge their assumptions and to advocate and push forward on the behalf of that demographic In the diversity context a largely white and male executive suite in so many companies is precisely the audience we need to proactively includeThere are and I know some of them male champions in our midst hailing from that majority whose participation we so badly need We must focus on arming our early adopters in the majority with the facts to understand the problem help them over the hurdle of the inalienable fact that they havenamp8217t experienced the same headwinds and then lay out a plan for action with them as full partnersThere is no single way to make change happen companies need a whole ecosystem of measures But shifting our mindset to focus on those who havenamp8217t traditionally participated in the dialogue would certainly get us further faster We canamp8217t afford to leave such a powerfulamp160resource on the tableClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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A New Excerpt from Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change

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Jennifer Brown

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6) - By Carl Mayer

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A New Excerpt from Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change

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