We’ve Got Leadership DEI Backwards
- By Winston Thomas
- June 29, 2021
It is why Gartner, in their “Diversifying the Leadership Bench” report (paywall), put forward the idea of consequential accountability “which meaningfully impacts behavior and outcomes for individual leaders,” according to the research firm.
In their survey of 3,500 employees in February 2021, Gartner notes that companies that embraced consequential accountability will reach “gender parity 13 years earlier and racial parity six years earlier in their leadership benches.” It integrates DEI measures into leaders’ performance evaluation processes to ensure mutual understanding of and commitment to DEI as a strategic priority.
“Consequential accountability ensures that senior leaders make meaningful progress against their DEI goals in order to progress in their organization,” said Leah Johnson, vice president, advisory, in the Gartner HR practice.
Rethinking DEI at the top
Consequential accountability tackles one of the most significant issues when diversifying leadership: a lack of diversity in the leadership pipeline. Many companies have tried to resolve this by investing in diverse talents at the entry level. Still, the problem persists.
The reason lies in the middle. A Gartner analysis showed that the real issue is that progression of underrepresented talent stalls in mid-level and senior-level positions. Ultimately, talent progression comes down to the decisions and behaviors of senior leaders. Changing their mindset is hard.
So, Gartner suggests implementing consequential accountability in three key areas:
1. Zero in on decision making
Many companies invested in unconscious bias training to reduce workplace bias and help leaders think differently about talent and diversity. Unfortunately, Gartner's research found this has no significant impact on ensuring an organization’s performance management processes are unbiased.
Instead, it believes that CHROs need to take a two-pronged approach to address how leaders make decisions:
- First, companies must redefine the criteria leaders use to make talent decisions focusing on eliminating bias to drive equitable talent decisions.
- Second, CHROs should integrate objective data into talent processes around leaders’ key decision-making moments, such as evaluating candidates for a promotion or analyzing the health of succession pools.
2. Not all DEIs are the same
Every organization is unique in its talent makeup. So, their DEI solution needs to be unique as well.
Gartner suggests CHROs partner with the line of business (LOB) leaders to identify diversity gaps in their talent pools and progression tracks to uncover unique challenges or concerns that may prevent them from acting on DEI goals.
Next, they should establish localized DEI teams to support business leaders as they implement their own DEI solutions.
3. Use outcomes for leader advancement
“When leaders are not held accountable for advancing DEI goals, yet are personally responsible for advancing talent, this creates a disconnect,” says Caitlin Duffy, research director in the Gartner HR practice.
“Consequential accountability helps close these gaps in an accelerated and sustainable way by increasing personal urgency and relevance for leaders,” she adds.
Duffy suggests three tactics:
- Create standardized mechanisms to monitor and track leaders’ progress against individual DEI goals.
- Establish peer-to-peer leader transparency around DEI measures to motivate individuals toward action.
- Integrate DEI measures into performance evaluation processes to ensure leaders’ advancement in the organization requires them to lead inclusively.
Diversity is about performance, not ego
In the end, DEI is less about looking good or becoming an attractive employer and more about improving company performance. It is one reason why companies are beginning to see that leadership DEI is a company matter, not just a CHRO concern.
McKinsey’s “Diversity wins: How inclusion matters” offered evidence. The 2019 analysis (before the pandemic) found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile — up from 21% in 2017 and 15% in 2014.
“Companies with more than 30% women executives were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30, and in turn, these companies were more likely to outperform those with even fewer women executives, or none at all,” the report argued. The same compelling picture emerges when looking at ethnic and cultural diversity.
In a tough market racked with uncertainty, turning a blind eye to these facts and figures is ill-advised.
Winston Thomas is the editor-in-chief of CDOTrends, DigitalWorkforceTrends and DataOpsTrends. He is always curious about all things digital, including new digital business models, the widening impact of AI/ML, unproven singularity theories, proven data science success stories, lurking cybersecurity dangers, and reimagining the digital experience. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/bodrumsurf
Winston Thomas
Winston Thomas is the editor-in-chief of CDOTrends. He likes to piece together the weird and wondering tech puzzle for readers and identify groundbreaking business models led by tech while waiting for the singularity.