How HR can support DE&I as it faces pushback across corporate America

Let’s talk DE&I.

Corporate diversity initiatives faced backlash and cuts last year as conservative politicians, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, fought to end them at companies, Politico reported.

In her recent book The Advantage of Other, described as “a leader’s guide to building an equitable, dynamic, and productive workplace,” CEO of social impact firm Flexability Nancy Geenen shares how leaders can create a company culture that supports DE&I.

Geenen talked with HR Brew about what insights HR pros can glean from her book.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you hope HR pros learn from your book?

Understanding your team and knowing them in the workplace, having real strong self-awareness, and [promising] to get better as a leader.

I tell a story in the book about myself as a leader. When I first became a leader in the law firm I was working at, I was given a leadership assessment, where I was pretty confident I’d be in the 90th percentile, and I was in almost everything, except for empathy. My default emotion was lower than 10% on empathy. Years later, I took the test, and now I’m in the 80th percentile, which I feel pretty good about.

Empathy, that understanding, that willingness to listen…makes a big difference. Self-awareness, knowing your triggers, being willing to say, “Oh, I did that poorly, [and] say, ‘How can I get better?’” Invite the other person to help you do that. That’s what great leadership is. Doesn’t matter where you are, whether you have a title or not. Natural leaders have this.

Many companies have cut DE&I initiatives in the past year. How can HR pros now prioritize DE&I?

First, we have to…get definitions about diversity, equity, and inclusion. A team leader who wants to get more out of their team and build a high-performing team, we have to put the “i” back in team, and the “i” is inclusion and belonging. It’s making sure that everyone on your team, or part of your organization, feels seen and heard, and they can’t feel seen until they’re heard. It’s…what we call psychological safety, which is about creating an opportunity for a team member to contribute based on their lived experiences and their many identities. This is where great performance, great productivity, and great profit comes from. I think there’s been backlash around supporting DE&I, but that can be seen as a good thing because it means we’re making progress, we’re fighting against the status quo bias, and people are starting to pay attention.

How would you recommend HR prioritize DE&I moving forward?

I look at DE&I upside down. We start with inclusion and talk about creating a work environment where everybody seems seen and heard. Then, you start addressing the equity piece, which is really the systemic tools, policies, and resources to make sure that things aren’t necessarily equal, but they allow individuals to thrive, uniquely, within the organization.

Then, diversity. The metrics of diversity…[metrics] was the easy fix in the last couple of years. Companies said, “Okay, we’re going to have a DE&I program. We’re going to hire a woman of color, who is LGBTQ+, to lead…” Companies did this without giving those leaders resources, like time, people, and money, and they didn’t have a strategy.

The hardest conundrum that an executive faces…is now you’re gonna say, “We’re going to fix our diversity statistics,” by bringing in a person of color, an immigrant, a veteran, or a member of the LGBTQ+ [community] to lead…You want to do more with diversity, but you also need to look within your organization. You have to ask questions like, what’s important to us? Do we have an engaged workforce? Do we have teams that are high-performing? Then, build out a plan that hopefully makes sense and advances the company’s mission, profitability, and productivity on top of the well-being of every person in the company.