More From the New Book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will To Change

Not seeing yourself and people who share your identity however you define your identity reflected in any leadership roles at the company you work in can cause pain frustrationamp160and ultimately disengagement on the part of employees who long to see themselvesamp160and their identities in positions of leadership I canamp8217t overstate the impact leadershiptoworkforce representation hasRepresentation matters Actress and activist Geena Davis in speaking about the staggering underrepresentation of women in feature films has said about young women amp8220If she canamp8217t see it she canamp8217t be itamp8221 Promising employees who look at the org chart and donamp8217t see themselves wonder whether there is a path to leadership for them When a highprofile or executive levelamp160leader leaves and if that person is diverse in ethnicity a woman an amp8220outamp8221 LGBTQ executive I have seen fast and broad ripple events through the employee population They imagine the worst and internalize a message that amp8220people like me canamp8217t be successful hereamp8221 This is often the net effect of the departure even if the executiveamp8217s separation from the company might not have had anything to do with identity or the fact that he or she is amp8220the onlyamp8221 of a particular background at that level in that companyThere was a highprofile departure of an out executive at one of our technology company clients I was working with the companyamp8217s LGBTQ employee resource group at the time and had a birdamp8217seye view of the unintended impacts that can happen For a little background as is true for many LGBTQ networks in the corporate arena this group maintained an official amp8220publicamp8221amp160mailing list and also a amp8220bccamp8221 list meaning there were still many who wanted to stay informed but not go public about their membership in the group due to fears about being amp8220outamp8221 at the company When this executive left suddenly many on both lists interpreted it to reflect poorly on the companyamp8217s amp8220trueamp8221 support of LGBTQ talent versus its stated support which in the case of this company was very strong This was one of those companies with many many awards by all the big names and it walked the talk tooAs news spread of the executive leaving I heard anecdotally that many on the bcc list became afraid of even that list are corporate lists ever really secure and asked to be removed and some on the public list did the same in the days after the departure effectively going undergroundI share this story often to communicate especially to executives how delicate employee engagement truly is especially for diverse talent who are constantly scanning the horizon trying to discern if they are genuinely supported or if itamp8217s just lip service At my companyamp160we know how difficult it can be to create awareness and understanding among those who are part of the traditional majority in workplace leadership who havenamp8217t personally experienced this amp8220got to see it to be itamp8221 factor and therefore dismiss it as griping or blame it on the lowamp160numbers in the pipeline instead of hearing the plea that it is to be seen heardamp160and represented in the pipeline to leadership Employees who crave seeing others of their heritage or background in leadership positions seem to be looking for reasons to stay and the organization should bend over backward to provide themOur third and final excerpt from Inclusion Diversity the New Workplace ampamp the Will To Change will be published on Monday November 28Click 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 bloggersamp160amp160

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More From the New Book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will To Change

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Jennifer Brown

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More From the New Book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will To Change

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Jennifer Brown

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