by Michael Stuber || 31. October 2024 || Leadership & Culture, Newsletter

Understand (and close) the Corporate DEI Leadership Gap

Formerly, DEI Leadership focused on providing ‘the tone from the top’. In an increasingly complex – and polarised – environment, we see a wider need. At the same time, it appears that all too ‘personal’ engagement produces unwanted side effects. Here is what leadership must do.

The 'Rescue DEI Trilogy' part#3 (autumn 2024)

When a corporate leader observes conflict or polarisation, they will investigate the topic and then decide if they take one side or if they stay out. Taking a clear position requires to see a case while staying out implies that there is no clear or strong relevance for the organisation. Consequently, in the current situation, there is an utmost need to revisit the WHY of DEI, again.

Making the Leadership Case for DEI

The ‘why DEI’ can be answered from different perspectives including the corporate identity and values or the current business agenda, priorities and challenges as well as the eco system of an organisation. Senior leaders should also consider their particular leadership portfolio to explore the relevance of DEI. I described these approaches to a large extend in this article and in the ones referenced there.

On the other side, a strong personal case was considered a powerful inroad for DEI. In the current situation, however, we see that female, LGBT or POC/BAME champions for DEI amplify the constituency perception of DEI and hence a they-vs.-us connotation. This should by no way mean that personally driven leaders should pull out from DEI. Closing the DEI Leadership gap requires first and foremost to (re)engage top and senior business managers who have no apparent personal reason to engage in the topic, but good business reasons.

A Leadership Perspective on DEI (the what)

When DEI was new and initially launched in organisations, we insisted that everyone, including top and senior leaders should stick to one core messaging. Today we see a need that leaders add context to a given corporate baseline understanding of DEI. This applies for both leaders with and without a personal case for DEI.

Conditio sine qua no: Sense-making

Each leader should be able to analyse and formulate a short sense-making for DEI in the respective business context. Sense-making continues to be the (arguably) most important function of leadership and this applies even more for DEI in a corporate context. For the public discourse has focused on representation (of visible diversity) or normative communication or behaviours. These aspects are quite distant from the origin of D&I as a business-based framework to make the most of differences, and from operational realities as well.

Connecting the organisational dots

Showing how DEI connects with priorities or programmes in an organisation is a key task for leaders as they provide a purpose for DEI. Actually, in most situations, it is quite easy to connect DEI in and doing so will often create synergies. This is most obvious for growth, transformation/change, talent needs, end-to-end models or productivity goals. Seeing DEI as a separate goal or task, however, does not resonate in a polarised or pressurised context. The past eight years have shown this more than clearly.

Practicing DEI Leadership (the how)

Demanding ‘role modelling DEI’ from corporate leaders has become a mantra as much as it has often remained an empty phrase. With a growing need for supportive leadership, we must revisit our understanding and related expectations of the concept. Ten or twenty years ago, we might have provided mangers five key items about DEI. As more aspects and stakeholders got connected to DEI – including, e.g. sustainability, post colonialism and 160 forms of bias – the facets of potential DEI role-modelling became blurred and even unmanageable. Therefore, there will always be areas or aspects where someone will perceive your behaviour to be inconsistent or inappropriate.

Explicit vs. implicit Role Modelling

Traditional expectations of role modelling DEI include speaking about diverse topics using the ‘right’ language or attending events with particular themes or in unusual locations. In the current situation, I do not think this is particularly needed or helpful to close gaps or bring people back together. Instead, we see a huge need for corporate leaders to reframe DEI, explicitly, in a way that makes it digestible for larger audiences and restate (and insist on) the basics of healthy corporate cultures and effective collaboration.

On the other hand, managers find numerous opportunities to role model DEI implicitly in everyday situations: From project team composition to celebrating successes outside main company hubs; the way these activities are designed, carried out or commented will show more or less value of DEI. Then, there are also the critical ‘everyday moments’ where a leader has to reconfirm the importance of making cultures and behaviours future proof.

Long-term evolution of business models

Many organisations – and even societies – feel as if they were at a crossroads where they must decide if they

Continue to open up to international markets, further digital transformations or diverse talent or
Revert back to models that were successful in the past, including national, fenced, homogeneous, face-to-face ways of pursuing their business.

My analytical work with companies shows that this choice only seemingly exists. Most growth or financial goals cannot be achieved with the models that created national industry leaders decades ago. And even if some companies would choose to re-focus on smaller markets, their realities of global supply chains and international stakeholders (or shareholders) would still create vast needs to continue the transformation that started ten or twenty years ago.

Moments of Truth

In this light, business leaders face moments of truth related to topics such as flexible working, cost management or growth (both business or organisational).

Understanding that valuing diversity in a way that propels belonging is one of the quickest ways to optimise productivity and hence cut costs. Pressure, instead, creates fears and insecurity that lead an erosion of commitment and engagement, and an increase in absenteeism.
Understanding flexible working as a natural evolvement of workplaces, which fills the space between the location-free work of sales forces and the location-bound work of production or lab workers. ‘Back to the office’, on the other side, serves as an indication of a control-focused (and hence mistrusting) form of leadership as seen in a few large multinationals that should have no interest to waste productivity for the personal preference of a CXO.
Growth always and only comes with an enlargement of both your operations and your mind-set. For new customers and markets, new productions sites or new product and service area all require an organisation to think differently about itself as a player in the market. Simple export models worked while the world was not connected – today and integrational approach to growth is the only model that can work.

Leaders leading into the future

Unpacking the corporate DEI leadership gap has helped us to see fundamental nexuses of DEI with both management and leadership that are equally important to all leaders. These are critical for a renewed, rational consideration of the importance and contribution of DEI in a dynamic business landscape.

Standpoints and decisions about DEI must be informed by the same kind of quality information and considerations as those about other topics. To that end, companies and their leaders should remove the personal or political flavours from DEI that lead to polarised attitudes and dynamics.

Companies reply on togetherness of different talent, skills, knowhow that always come with different personalities, background and identities. This togetherness requires a shared set of values and shared set of goals that exist – in theory – in most organisations. Re-focusing on these will enable and encourage people to unite and perform to their best, together.