Leveraging unseen strengths
Companies stand to benefit enormously if they can learn to nurture and support the cultural capital that minority professionals routinely develop outside work. Our research reveals four ways companies can discover and leverage these hidden skills: Companies need to build a greater awareness of the invisible lives of their minority professionals; they need to appreciate and try to lighten the outsize burdens these professionals carry; they must build trust in their ranks by putting teeth into diversity goals and encouraging more latitude in leadership style; and they should finish the job of leadership development begun in minorities' off-hours activities so that those nascent skills can make a difference to workplace performance and competitive strength.
Shine a light. First, greater awareness and appreciation of community work is key. A large number of minority women professionals (45 percent) do not feel that their roles and responsibilities outside the workplace are recognized or understood by their employers. Minority women in larger companies (56 percent), young women of color (50 percent), and Asian women (49 percent) are the most likely to feel that their lives are "invisible" to their employers.
| The research data underscore the need to expand and amplify what is meant by inclusion. |
Demitra Jones, on the other hand, has no such concern. A dedicated human resource generalist at Pitney Bowes, she feels her employer is fully supportive of the evenings and weekends she spends with her sorority sisters. When Demitra says "sorority," she's talking about Delta Sigma Theta, an African-American organization founded in 1913 that "places more emphasis on service than on socializing." Her membership in the organization is a strenuous commitment, demanding thirty hours a month on top of sixty-hour workweeks. It's a win-win situation for her and for Pitney Bowes and has been since the beginning. It was a Delta Sigma Theta member who matched Demitra with the company even before she entered college through Inroads, a leadership development institute for minority youth. Since then, Pitney Bowes has continued to support Delta Sigma Theta in many ways, from purchasing advertising space in fundraising souvenir journals to matching Demitra's own donations. More important, it has kept an eye on the cultivation and training of Demitra as a leader in both worlds. It's no coincidence that her rapid rise in the company paralleled her progress through the leadership structure of the sorority, which she joined as a junior at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
What Pitney Bowes has done is not difficult; the company merely shined a light on an aspect of employee life that is often left in the shadows. This kind of light can take many forms. Some specific suggestions that came out of our survey include, for example, ensuring that recruiting activities are recognized explicitly in job descriptions and performance evaluations. Also, allowing employees to set aside time for volunteer activities—even a few hours a month—would send a message that employers recognize and value social outreach and community involvement. An overwhelming majority of our survey participants would welcome training from their companies in fundraising for volunteer activities. Companies could even take an active role in helping young minority professionals access nonprofit boards, thereby giving them an early opportunity to develop leadership skills they can bring back to their workplaces.
Lessen the load. Companies that are truly invested in seeing their diverse talent flourish must be better attuned to the extra burdens carried by many minorities—particularly minority women, whose load of care reaches beyond the nuclear family to extended family and the community. Over half of minority professional women are working mothers (51 percent), compared with 41 percent of professional white women. Many, too, are single moms or prime breadwinners. African-American professional women in our survey are more than twice as likely as white women to be single mothers (18 percent, compared with 7 percent). In addition, minority women spend significant amounts of time caring for elders and extended family. Seventeen percent of African-American female professionals care for elders and extended family, spending an average of 12.4 hours per week on this care. (The figures for professional white men and women are 6.6 and 9.5 hours, respectively.)
| Unilever takes direct aim at hidden biases by asking selected groups of current and future leaders to spend time outside the realm of their normal experiences. |
Given this heavy burden of care, some well-established practices like flextime and telecommuting may be especially attractive to minority professionals. Beyond these, there are forms of assistance that few companies have considered, but that might, at small expense, be of tremendous benefit. For example, in our survey there was considerable support for company initiatives that "widen the tent," such as employee benefits that go beyond the nuclear family. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of minority women want help paying for health insurance for up to two members of their extended families. Many minority women (72 percent) want a few days of annual leave for the purpose of elder care or extended-family care. And 74 percent of minority women say they would appreciate help in accessing state and federal services for a range of nuclear- and extended-family needs.
Time Warner is one company that has begun to address the issue. Patricia Fili-Krushel, executive vice president of administration, explains, "I wanted to check if we were looking through a white lens in terms of how we organize benefits—and, sure enough, we were." The company recently extended its employee assistance program (which includes, for example, access to child care referral services and company scholarship programs) to other reliant family members (perhaps an aunt or uncle). "In the last five months, there's been a 200 percent increase in uptake," she says. "There's a lot we can do that doesn't cost a lot of money. It just takes some different thinking."
Reimagine inclusion. The research data underscore the need to expand and amplify what is meant by inclusion. We're not talking here about the same old diversity initiatives, but specifically about innovative policies that build trust and foster workplace environments where minorities feel able to share the full round of their lives. Our survey revealed a widespread wish that companies establish "safe harbors"—places where employees can discuss issues, challenges, or opportunities in their private lives while maintaining anonymity. (Support for this notion was highest among Hispanic women professionals, at 75 percent, but it was also favored by majorities of African-American women, white women, and African-American men.)
Respondents in our survey also emphasize the need to "walk the talk" in diversity initiatives and put in place financial incentives to motivate managers. Fully 71 percent of minority businesswomen support the idea of evaluating managers on their track records in recruiting minority talent and favor linking this evaluation to compensation.
This was particularly important to Marie, a Wall Street professional coming back to the financial world after a few years doing client work. She wanted a company that not only had a diversity program, but had one with teeth. As an African-American woman, she was all too familiar with diversity initiatives that never seemed to amount to anything and diversity goals that were never evaluated past their inception. When Marie started work at Lehman Brothers, she was encouraged by the firm's sizable diversity bonus pool—an incentive that recognizes individual managers and teams for their innovative diversity initiatives. The fact that her new firm encouraged investment bankers to take diversity seriously by providing meaningful incentives was a source of reassurance for Marie.
At Time Warner, there is a policy that for any hire at the vice president level or above, the slate of candidates must be diverse. In 2002, the company created the role of executive connector to make sure that there are viable candidates available for consideration. The connector uses contacts in numerous social and professional circles to develop an extensive pool of diverse candidates. Since taking on this role, Debra Langford has been instrumental in the hiring of sixty-five minority senior executives. She travels frequently to events and conferences looking for talented high-potential candidates. Once Debra has facilitated a minority hire, she monitors his or her progress. She knows that, unlike their white counterparts, the individuals may not have preexisting relationships within the company. Debra organizes formal and informal gatherings of employees with similar backgrounds—for instance, a lunch for African-American fathers or a dinner for minority lawyers.
Minority professionals are also reassured when they see companies actively combating hidden bias. According to DeAnne Aguirre, a senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, a good way to begin is to "examine the prevailing mode of managerial behavior, determine where it is narrowly drawn, and reenvisage a much more inclusive model." In our survey, 72 percent of minority women back cultural sensitivity training for managers to break down stereotypes.
One company that has historically welcomed diversity and champions the notion of bringing one's whole self to work is Unilever. Through its Getting into the Skin program, introduced in 2002 as a key part of the company's leadership development program, Unilever takes direct aim at hidden biases by asking selected groups of current and future leaders to spend time outside the realm of their normal experiences. Former Unilever co-chairman Niall FitzGerald helped create the program and was also a participant. Of a 2002 journey to Croatia, he remarked, "I lived the life of a Salvation Army volunteer and picked up an unkempt, uncared-for man off the street…we talked about his life. In an eerie twist of fate, he turned out to be from my hometown. We were two people who fate had dealt very different hands. He taught me, in a way no other experience has, the power of generous listening—without judgment." Other participants have spent time at a rural hospital in Mexico, an AIDS clinic in Ireland, and a prison in Germany. The current CEO Patrick Cescau continues to build on Unilever's mission of inclusion and has established a diversity board, which he chairs.
Finish the job of leadership development. Companies will reap the most benefit from the outside leadership experiences of their employees when they begin to consider this cultural capital explicitly as a form of leadership "action learning." What this means is that they should observe established pedagogical practice, helping minority executives reflect on their experiences, extract and generalize the lessons, and apply what's been learned to other settings.
Some leading corporations are beginning to view after-hours work as leadership training. Goldman Sachs is one, says Aynesh Johnson, an investment banker at Goldman. With the firm's full knowledge and encouragement, Aynesh is sharpening her people skills by working as a board vice president for the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, a nonprofit organization that supports public housing residents who happen to share a zip code with some of the richest people in the world. In the process of figuring out how to fundraise for these families, Aynesh has taken on a marketing task so challenging it would serve admirably as a business school case study. "It's a very rich and wonderful opportunity," Aynesh says, carefully. "But it's not glamorous." Nevertheless, Aynesh is proud to call her position on the center's board "part of my career." Describing her volunteer work, Aynesh says "it has taught me how to work with a wide range of individuals…maximizing their contributions." She's also learned how to listen gracefully when a prospective donor says no and how to refuse (also gracefully) to take no for an answer. These are skills her superiors at Goldman Sachs think are important. As a result, at work she does not hesitate to be open about this outside commitment. "Managers know, all the way up to the executive suite."
Another way to transfer cultural capital to the workplace is through networks of mentors. Many minority businesswomen are skilled mentors themselves, having reached out to young people in their own communities. They therefore know the potential of these relationships and feel frustrated when they lack mentors in their own organizations. In our survey, a significant proportion of minority professionals (66 percent) supported the creation of mentoring programs across divisions and the matching of minority employees with senior colleagues from similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds. When mentors build trusting, open relationships with minority protégés, companies gain an important window on leadership talent that is often hidden from view. Mentors can actively engage their protégés in discussions about their outside roles and work with them to apply and enhance those skills in their everyday jobs.
General Electric provides much-needed access to mentors and actively fosters leadership along the way through affinity networks. The African-American Forum is a case in point. It began informally—fifteen black managers coming together to study retention problems—and has grown into a major initiative that both serves as a vehicle through which minority employees find mentors and holds an annual meeting that draws nearly 1,400 people and features top executives. GE has integrated the AAF into succession planning. As Deborah Elam, manager of diversity and inclusive leadership, explains, "The practice of taking high-potential employees and placing them in leadership roles within the AAF allows top executives to better see the strengths of talented minority professionals."
About the Research
About the Research
Statistics in this article are the findings of a 2005 survey, fielded by Charney Research under the auspices of the Center for Work-Life Policy. The targeted survey sample comprised 1,601 professionals in the United States, ages 28 to 55, with college or professional degrees. This included 1,001 minority women (of whom one-third were African-American, one-third were Hispanic, and one-third were Asian), 200 minority men (also equally divided among the three groups), 198 white women, and 202 white men. The survey targeted people equally in four professional areas: medicine, law, education, and business and accounting. Interviews averaged twenty minutes and were conducted by telephone between January 2005 and February 2005. (A detailed report of the findings will be available at www.worklifepolicy.org in late 2005.)