The Right Reasons to Encourage Greater Diversity

Many business leaders feel compelled to explore greater Diversity for legal reasons.

• The need for more women in leadership roles to stop the charges of discrimination.
• The need to hire more minorities to reduce the number of civil rights lawsuits.
• The need to engage more minority-owned suppliers to meet government requirements.

Quite frankly, I view the rationale for all these as terrible business decisions. This is not the way to align company culture, strengthen the brand, improve top-live results, and create competitive advantage.

Yet, Diversity can be a powerful value in business when applied for the right reasons.

Diversity means being different; variety; or noticeable heterogeneity.

Business leaders that embrace this value understand the benefits of developing a variety of complimentary qualities within their team. They appreciate the magic that happens when people with different backgrounds, experiences, and skills come together.

It’s not about addressing legal concerns. It’s about matching differences that make a difference.

Benefits of Diversity

When individual employees possess different qualities that shore up each other’s weaknesses, it helps to close gaps in organizational thinking.

Key benefits of Diversity include:

• Increased creativity through better collaboration on ideas.
• Improved productivity by helping to focus on the things that make the greatest impact.
• Motivation to push through difficult and/or complex issues through broader accountability.
• Faster responses by seeing problems and new opportunities sooner.
• An expanded view of the marketplace through a richer view of the world.
• Greater appreciation and sense of compassion for others by having a more holistic view of people.
• Greater clarity on differentiating values through healthy debates that validate what truly matters.
• Improved confidence by feeling less likely to be blind-sided by unknowns.
• Organizational growth as each individual on the team also grows.

However, for Diversity to work well, the following two rules need to be enforced:

1. Everyone in a company needs to share the SAME moral principles (ethical standards).
2. The qualities of the individuals in a company should complement each other, not compete with each other.

Diversity in Action

The many benefits of Diversity are realized when specific differences are designed into a company. It should be purposeful.

• If a company has a lot of analytical people, consider the benefits of adding some creative talent and individuals who can “think outside the box”.
• If a company has proven itself as being aggressive and a fast mover, consider the benefits of adding some thoughtful talent who are long-term strategic thinkers.
• If most people in a company process ideas internally (i.e. introverts), consider the benefits of adding a few people who talk their ideas out loud (i.e. extroverts).
• If a company is staffed with lots of strategic thinkers, consider the benefits of adding some people who are technically oriented.
• If a company is filled with young people, consider the benefits of adding a few older individuals with relevant experience (or a company with a lot of older workers hiring some younger talent).

Business leaders that embrace the right reasons for Diversity acknowledge that legal reasons are not good reasons to pursue this value. Instead, they recognize that real business benefits are derived when matching differences that make a difference.

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What are other good reasons to pursue Diversity in business?