Leaders, Are You Asking These Questions?
Janet Nguyen, Planet Women’s SVP of 100 Women Pathway, shares ways for leaders to create a culture of belonging and inclusion in the workplace.
Let’s start with how I got here. My journey with understanding equity and inclusion started in my early childhood. I was born as the fourth daughter to a family that desperately wanted a boy. In a society where gender was the primary indicator of value, I had none. In a society that revered its elders, I was the youngest in a family of seven. I learned from subtle, and not so subtle, messages that I was unwelcome and had no value. The fact that I am now at a place in my career where I am making my voice heard on this topic is something I never would have imagined even a few years ago.
Pictured: Janet Nguyen
Though I understood gender discrimination very acutely, racial discrimination was not something that I grew up thinking applied to me. It was only recently, after going through some deeply personal work, that I have realized that my life was also shaped by racism and racial bias, particularly as a young Asian girl in Northern Virginia in the 1970s. I was most definitely the “model Asian,” conditioned to believe that as long as I worked hard and didn’t cause any problems, I would be ok. As an immigrant, I was taught to be grateful for the opportunity to live the American dream, which is certainly more than I could expect from growing up as a woman in Korea. When I did think about racism, it just seemed too big and too painful to tackle. And honestly, I was too busy trying to survive.
Fast forward in my professional life, I’ve had a long career in human resources management, in the technology space as well as the conservation field. I have often been the only female leader of color amongst white men and occasionally white women. And I was often the only leader with young children and primary caregiving responsibilities. I am passionate about helping leaders and organizations create culture of belonging. So much of our lives are spent at work and these environments can and should be places where we feel valued, heard and understood. Below are some key lessons in how to create more inclusive work environments.
First off, it’s critical to focus on inclusion as well as diversity. In recent decades, DEI initiatives have largely focused on increasing diversity, which has led to an emphasis on recruitment. However, diversity only measures representation at a given point and time. It doesn’t capture the fact that under-represented people are not experiencing inclusive work environments, so they grow frustrated and exhausted and leave organizations at a higher rate. The reality is that even organizations that have increased diversity in their workforces have failed to create inclusive cultures where all people feel they are valued and belong.
Secondly, change starts from the top. Leadership sets the tone for a culture of inclusion. Leaders model behaviors and send small (and large) signs that signal organizational expectations and norms. Think about the work cultures you have experienced. Every culture has behaviors that are encouraged and rewarded. Often that ends up excluding those who do not fit into the norm. Changing the culture requires leaders to look within themselves and their organizations and recognize the behaviors that are contrary to inclusion. They need to make conscious changes and hold everyone in the organization accountable for change.
To give an example: In a business environment where men dominate conversations and interrupt women while they are speaking, it is critical for leaders to signal that behavior is not acceptable and redirect the conversation in meetings to give women space to speak. Don’t be afraid to be direct and say, “Excuse me, I believe that Nicole was not finished speaking. Let her continue.” A leader who refuses to allow dominating behavior in meetings and who acknowledges, validates and encourages all voices consistently will get many more perspectives — and generally benefit from more diverse and creative ideas!
Leaders need to speak less, ask more of the right questions and actively listen to the responses. When leaders spend most of the time in a meeting talking, that is signaling that their voice is the most important and that they hold the power. So what are the right questions?
These are the questions leaders need to be asking:
Who isn’t in the room?
Does everyone in the room look alike?
Do the people in the room represent different perspectives?
Who isn’t speaking up in the room?
Am I actively seeking out opposing views?
Who is dominating the conversation?
What behavior do I see that is shutting down the voices of others?
Who is closest to the work/problem/challenge and have we heard from them?
Asking these types of questions signals a recognition that barriers exist for women, People of Color and under-represented people. It is leadership’s role to draw out feedback and create a culture of belonging that helps people feel safe to speak up.
Leaders often ask for feedback and believe that is enough to signal that all voices are welcome. There is a difference between asking for feedback and truly welcoming voices in the room. By asking the questions above a leader is signaling that they value other perspectives and opinions — even those that make them uncomfortable. The leader who truly wants to welcome other voices understands that silence in a room does not signal that no one has an opinion or that everyone agrees. Often, it signals that people are afraid to speak up or that people know their voice doesn’t matter so they don’t bother chiming in.
And if you’re not getting enough voices in a meeting, try reaching out to people who typically do not speak up and ask for their opinion in a safer space.
© Jason Goodman
What’s going on with the “Great Resignation”? By now, you’ve probably heard about the “great resignation.” Well, recent research from McKinsey & Company confirms that two factors are playing a substantial role in the current spike in attrition. The top two reasons employees cited for leaving (or considering leaving):
1. They didn’t feel their work was valued by the organization (54%) and
2. They lacked a sense of belonging at work (51%).
What will happen to organizations if even half of these people decide to leave? Although this work towards inclusion is just beginning, I think there will come a point when organizations do start to make the shift to more inclusive cultures and that will become a competitive advantage as people continue to look for more purpose and a sense of belonging at work. At Planet Women, we want to help organizations start breaking down existing barriers and accelerate the movement towards inclusive cultures.
So how do organizations make change? Well, as they say, the first step is recognizing the problem. What are the ways that your organization is creating an exclusionary culture? There are exclusionary cultures that many of us would recognize based on our personal experience. These cultures exist in large part because of behaviors that are modeled and encouraged by senior leadership and shaped by capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism. I believe that these cultures can change if there is a strong commitment to bringing about that change, but there are very specific what I would call “antidotes” to heal these cultures. Let me give you an example.
Have you ever worked in a culture that valued workaholics and people seemed to thrive on busyness and stress? This type of culture would be characterized by high pressure, impossible deadlines, lack of personal lives or healthy boundaries and often results in physical and mental health issues, burnout, family and relationship issues, and a lack of social networks and community outside of work. If you look towards the leadership, the workaholic culture is on full display. Everyone emulates what they see leaders do to find success in that culture.
In a culture that values busyness and stress and ultimately a sacrifice of your personal priorities, who is unheard? Who is excluded? It is the caretakers of children and family members and I think we all know that caretakers are primarily women and often women of color.
What is the antidote to a workaholic culture? At Planet Women, we believe it is creating a culture of sustainable success that values the long-term health and engagement of all employees, which ultimately leads to organizational success. Inclusive organizations are really an investment in long-term success.
Now, I am certainly not saying that hard work isn’t important. In my experience, people who feel a sense of belonging and feel valued actually work harder while enjoying their work and feeling energized versus exhausted. Feelings of psychological safety, a sense of a common purpose and belonging all impact levels of engagement. Yet, if an organization is measuring employee engagement as a whole, they are missing a true understanding of the experience of under-represented people precisely because they are a small percentage of the whole and are already less inclined to speak out.
Understanding systemic racism and oppression earlier in my life would have taken a huge personal burden off my shoulders and made me feel less alone. I encourage everyone to undertake the personal work to look inward and understand your own history, roots, privilege and oppression. I hope that through sharing my lived experience and some of lessons I have learned along the way that I can help others to create cultures of inclusion that embrace people for their many differences and perspectives, which will ultimately result in organizations where women and people of color can thrive.
Janet Nguyen is the Senior Vice President of the 100 Women Pathways Project for Planet Women. Janet is focused on identifying and advancing senior-level female and minority talent into important environmental leadership positions and creating an innovative, compassionate, anti-racist, and more equitable work culture. Planet Women believes that with this new paradigm of leadership, results for people and the planet will dramatically improve.