My favorite line in the movie a little chaos, is when Matthias Schoenaerts character Andre le Notre (The famous French Landscape Architect to King Louis XIV of the famous French gardens) replies to Kate Winslet’s character about why she was hired as the only independent female landscape designer. Le Notre says that the French gardens should be large enough to embrace voices other than his own. It makes me wonder if all leaders in senior positions and executive teams, consider embracing voices and perspectives other than their own. Though we often talk about diversity and inclusion (both legally and in practice), boardrooms at executive level somehow still look and sound the same. It is as if corporates are not moving fast enough to adopt and adapt to the necessity of contrasting voices and mindsets. In a time where there is a high demand to move faster in all sorts of business environments, insistent adaptation and an incoming youth that is calling for inclusivity like no other generation before – it is ignorant to ignore the writing on the wall or not at least start to try it out. By hiring employees with diverse backgrounds, world views, perspectives, cultures and experiences, organisations will begin to unlock a varied wealth of opportunities that fosters creativity, can drive innovation, and establish a foundation for sustainable success.
This is what is in it for you as an organization/ leadership:
- Enriched decision making and problem solving. It provides an opportunity to draw from a wider collection of observations, expertise, and experience. Leading to rich insight and a thoughtful decision-making process. A group of diverse individuals approach problem solving and the decision-making process from various angles and can potentially add value by delivering numerous findings to solve a problem. Therefore, decreasing the likelihood of settling for old solutions to complex challenges.
- Cultural intelligence. The ability to identify and adapt to cultural differences is becoming a normality in global organisations. It is an enhanced skill necessary to thrive in a global economy by having the ability to operate successfully in a wide range of settings and environments. A diverse organisation, provides such a setting, thus becoming appealing to top talent, enabling companies to navigate global markets easily and adjust to changing demographics, giving them a competitive edge in an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world.
- Expanded market reach. In addition, cultural intelligence gained, enable an company to connect and appeal to a wider customer base by having people and leaders who understand and relate to the cultural preferences and community values or ideals that are necessary to connect and form intimacy with the local customer base. Businesses then cater to a broader range of customers that drive greater market penetration.
- Mitigation of biases. Embracing diverse voices and perspectives, help mitigate and challenge unconscious biases that may exist within a company that are not so easily recognized in a homogenous environment. When you have a group of people that bring in a different understanding or take on what may seem normal to others, they start to challenge preconceived notions or unconscious biases that may be subtle or an oversight. Consequently, fostering a more inclusive and equitable work environment.
- Increased profitability and thriving: Numerous studies have shown that organisations with diverse employees, outperform their competitors in terms of financial performance, are healthy and psychologically safe work environments and make better strategic and long-term decisions for their organisation. It can be an influential factor from surviving to thriving for a business.
- Social impact: Most importantly, companies are run by people for people and the world is by nature – diverse. This is a matter of inclusion and being good corporate citizen who is socially responsible. By championing diversity, companies demonstrate their commitment to creating a fair and inclusive society, setting an example for other businesses and positively impacting communities at scale.
Here are a few suggestions to get you going as a leader:
- Learn about the culture/s of your team members. A lot of what makes unconscious bias applicable, is our inability to recognize assumptions about other people, cultures, or differences. We assume we are all the same. You can easily inquire about a colleague’s culture by asking what the do’s and don’ts are of that culture. What are their personal preferences. This goes a long way in building trust, respect, and psychological safety amongst peers and moving towards a healthy organisation.
- Encouraging quiet voices to share their viewpoint. There will always be individuals that are more confident or loud in sharing their opinions and perspectives, but you lose the rich information, insight and expertise of the individuals that keep quiet in necessary meetings and engagements. An inclusive leader should encourage that everyone is heard as it adds to the rich knowledge required to work through challenges and builds solidarity. Encourage difficult and uncomfortable conversations. They somehow have a way of freeing limited thinking patterns amongst a group of people.
- Cultural and religious understanding. To respect and understand another’s culture and religion, you may have to ask them how you can respect or observe their religion. What can you do to make it easier for them within the context of work and what is considered offensive. This builds long term trust, loyalty and psychological safety in a company or team. Don’t make assumptions because you have read up or seen someone of the same culture / religion. We are all different and a thoughtful conversation will get you faster to understanding and creating a safe space for your colleague.
- Appreciate cultural language differences. Language is a complex code system. It has multiple cultural and subtle shades of meaning and interpretation. Also, our mother tongue, defines our frame of reference of the world and language. It influences how we interpret or engage with others depending on our home language/s and culture. Misinterpretation and miscommunication take place when we assume that everyone thinks exactly as we do in the language that we are universally speaking – ie. English but in a multicultural world, people are speaking and interpreting the same language, differently because it is not their first language. Ask your colleague about how their mother tongue influences how they interpret messages or directions.
- Representation matters. To embrace voices differently than our own in a multicultural world, we must be comfortable to have uncomfortable conversations by challenging discrimination, unfairness, stereotypes and microaggressions within the workplace. People want to belong and for that to take place, representation matters. There is a conversation that happens often amongst brown/black people that there was someone that looks like me or there was no one that looks like me. It is mind boggling to me that in 2023 and we still need to seek representation in the business world because it is not normal. This is a reflection of the slowness of businesses in embracing diversity and inclusion at executive and senior levels, globally.
Inviting different and diverse voices in senior leadership is not just a moral imperative. It has a strategic advantage towards a more inclusive, resilient community and world. It builds solidarity and uplifts society.
On reflection, are you truly embracing voices other than your own and what could you do today to improve that?
