Take A Walk With Me
Take a walk with me.
Recently I went on a hike in a densely forested urban park. This shouldn’t be surprising since my primary home is in the Pacific Northwest where hiking is nearly a pre-requisite for citizenship. In fact, the beauty of the surrounding area is what impressed me the most when I first relocated to Portland, Oregon: majestic mountains, rivers, miles and miles of trails, both in the city and beyond.
Yet, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve undertaken a hike and, definitely, this was my first time venturing out on my own. Why? I’m a woman, I’m single and I’m a woman of color. I’m a parent and the sole provider for my child. It would never occur to me to go wandering around in the woods by myself. What if I didn’t return? What if I fell? Trust me, no one was coming to rescue me. At times, I even wondered if I went missing, would anyone other than my son notice?
As I walked, I thought about my reluctance to venture out on my own as a metaphor for diversity in the workplace. Just like this city is built for those who love the outdoors, the typical corporate workplace has historically been designed for a specific type of employee. In the past, the corporate culture was all about a man as a breadwinner with a stay-at-home spouse who was available to take care of nearly everything personal enabling the man to focus on work. That meant if travel was needed, even at the last minute, there was no problem jumping on a plane. If there was a need for multiple late night meetings, no problem because there was someone at home to keep things going.
I can remember when I started reporting to a VP who was new to the company. It was great that he brought a perspective that was more global. As a result, he changed the start time of a key meeting to 7:30am so we could include more time zones. I understood that, however, our onsite daycare did not open until 7:15am. So, as a single parent, I had to figure out how to get my child up and ready, out of the house, dropped at day care, drive to the office, park and make it upstairs to be at the meeting on time. As anyone with a young child knows, this was like asking me to scale Mt. Everest in flip flops.
Things came to a head one morning when, by some miracle, I arrived at the meeting before 7:30am and the only other people in the room were two women who were also moms. It seems the meeting start time had been pushed back at the last minute and we had missed the early morning email because we were too focused on dashing through the streets. It gave us a chance to talk about the struggle to regularly arrive on time and we agreed that I would speak to the VP about it.
This VP didn’t know me all that well and I wasn’t certain how he would react. Fortunately, he was open minded and expressed understanding. We settled on a slightly later start time that still worked for multiple time zones while lowering the blood pressures of those of us in charge of the morning drop off.
When you fit the archetype of the corporate leader, it can be easy to assume that just because you are having a great experience, everyone else must be, too. And if everyone in the top leadership roles fits that archetype, who will be the voice at the table to inquire if we have addressed the differing experiences of our employees? The key question is identifying how your culture may skew towards a particular archetype and challenging yourself to find alternative ways of working that optimize the contributions of a diverse workforce.
As many employees are compelled to move back into an office, even a few days/week, have you asked what support is key for them?
Diversity is so much more than hitting a particular hiring target. If inclusion is not also a priority, it’s been said, it is like being invited to a party, but not being asked to dance. This means you must be sure to examine several aspects of your culture:
What are your traditional meeting start and end times?
What are the expectations for travel? For example, are weekends necessary?
Are there policies for reimbursing childcare expenses related to overtime hours or time away from home?
Do late night emails appear regularly and are immediate responses expected?
If you often hold team dinners and offsite meetings, have you considered if they are indeed critical?
Certainly, those who don’t fit the archetype that your culture is built around can succeed, but at what cost to them? I’m convinced that the more ways in which you differ from what your company has idealized as the “right” leader, the more effort that is required of you to succeed.
My hike concluded without a hitch, but I had texted a friend to let her know where I was going and again to let her know I made it back home. So, while your culture is evolving, make sure employees who need it have someone checking on them.
Or, better yet, take a walk with them.