5 Reasons Leaders Don’t Care About Creating an Inclusive Culture

Search Google for the importance of diversity and inclusion, and you’ll find about 240,000,000 results of interesting research highlighting the value of these tenets for organizations of all sizes.

So why are our workplace leaders failing to make it a priority?

How can managers expect to win if all they do is copy-paste initiatives from other companies in hopes that they’d work?

The fact of the matter is that many of them talk up a storm and promise to do something about it, but then nothing gets done.

Despite large companies making elaborate plans to invest in inclusive initiatives, a whopping 75% of employees still feel under-represented and feel like they don’t benefit from its programs.

I believe that leaders don’t care about making changes to the work culture because:

Some people don’t want change, because it’s in their best interests to remain the same

Most of the Western societal contexts are built upon the influence of a white majority. It is undeniable that white people have benefited from the inequalities and biases in society and will continue to do so if no one challenges these systems.

The normative whiteness can be seen on display everywhere. From the depiction of beauty and body standards to something as minor as the use of appropriate emojis, whiteness has become a benchmark against which all other races are measured. And white people are not ready to give up that supremacy.

Although this isn’t true for every white person, but the vast majority of white people lack the emotional empathy of how certain words can perpetuate or enforce a white standard on people from ethnic backgrounds. It is the consequent denials, the ridiculing and trivializing feelings and the mental acrobatics that white people display which makes it even harder for them to see how the system benefits them at the expense of others.

“There is nothing more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” — Martin Luther King Jr

It Can Be Uncomfortable To Talk About

Identity, culture, and belonging are personal topics that offer diverse experiences — something that not everyone likes to talk about. However, in the wake of BLM and the ongoing police brutality, leaders must address institutional racism and systematic bias that has long affected the black community.

Just because it is difficult and uncomfortable to talk about doesn’t mean it is not necessary. And if we want to start making a positive difference and create an inclusive culture, recognizing the importance of having these conversations is the first step.

This speaks to privilege, the white majority in the western world have a choice to say silent but people from black background do not have the same luxury. Just because something is uncomfortable does not mean it is not necessary. Safety bias means we avoid situations that feel dangerous.

Whilst we are unlikely to be in physical danger in the workplace, fear of saying or doing the wrong thing, perhaps offending someone in the process, can still feel like a threat at a deep psychological level.

Improving Inclusion Is Not A Core Strategy

Creating a diverse culture is often seen as more of a circumstance than a strategic business goal with specific actions. Leaders will know how to talk about diversity and equality and call famous authors or sociologists to conduct talks and discussions, but that is as far as they’ll go in cultivating an inclusive culture.

Many companies just want to appear on the board of diverse organizations and to get their ratings up. Since creating a diverse workplace is central to attracting a talented workforce, many of these companies only care about their business growth rather than a psychologically safe work environment which is paramount for creating an inclusive culture.

They Are Afraid Of Getting It Wrong

Everyone agrees that conversations about racial inequality are essential. However, many people are afraid to take the initiative and continue to associate only with people who are like them’.

They are trapped in a safety bias where they think that talking about inequality and racism can offend someone in the process.

The fact that it still feels like a threat to many shows the extent of white fragility. They’ll only go as far as putting up a BLM status on Twitter or changing their profile displays. But, when it actually comes to having real conversations on equity, inclusion and belonging, they’re at a loss.

However, what they don’t realize is that being white give them the privilege to confront issues about racism without having to worry about any material risk. It might feel uncomfortable, but it won’t be detrimental to their career. On the other hand, being a POC and talking about race can pose a degree of threat to their position at work. If they express frustration or anger at the refusal of white people to understand their feelings, they can be painted as a bully or worse, tap into the pre subscribed notion of black people being aggressive. So at the end of the day, white people still have got nothing to lose.

This is also evident from the fact that even though all ethnic groups are likely to be more qualified than white ethnic groups, looking at CEO, CFO, and chair roles at the UK’s biggest companies data compiled by Green Park found that not one was filled by a black executive and only 10 of 297 leaders, or 3.4%, were from an ethnic background.

“Corporate leaders need to stop telling us how much they care and do something to show us that black lives really do matter,”

They Only Want Immediate Results

Challenging notions that have been ingrained in a society can be complicated. It requires patience, practice, investment and consistent dialogue to achieve the desired results. The success, therefore, could not be measured in quantifiable terms that many leaders hope it would. It is not about producing the right numbers but about teaching organic change.

When leaders do not see immediate change, they lose confidence, and their efforts start to vanish.

To Conclude

The bottom line is that it is imperative to empower people to help them understand the effort and the skills necessary to implement the workplace changes concerning inclusion and diversity.

The fact is that everyone thrives in an inclusive environment, and real leaders understand this fact. They also know that everyone pays the price for inauthentic interactions, no matter how privileged they may be.

If you’re already on the track of improving race relations at work, our next piece on 5 Reasons Why Leader Should Care About Creating An Inclusive Culture will be posted next, so keep a look-out for that!

Removing systemic racism and gender bias from your workplace is vital from moral as well as organizational perspectives. And it’s about time our leaders got to work on these problems.

If you need help understanding this, I run workshops, I speak and I coach on this subject matter. I also have an amazing guide that can help you get started so email me at hello@mindsetshift.co.uk or leave me a message on LinkedIn.