Leadership Ladder for DE&I Skills

 

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 One of your goals is to ensure your entire team is performing as best as it can, and that it continues to improve. Unfortunately, times change and the techniques you have used in years gone by will need refreshing. For instance, in recent years there has been a focus on applying empathy in the workplace. Now even empathy-related tactics have been expanded into a new and important area. Today you can be a better project manager/scrum master, a better leader, by addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I).

The objective here is to ensure that individuals from marginalized groups are not left behind but instead are fully incorporated into the team activities and decisions. The particular individuals or groups may differ depending on your geography or culture, but the tactics to use are consistent. DE&I-specific tactics start with specialized coaching and becomes more sophisticated as needed. This allows you to start simply and "grow into" these new skills. Here are four categories of skills that will help you plan your growth.

Coach

Every day, as a leader, you can make a difference to marginalized individuals on your team by acting as a coach, by being DE&I-sensitive.

• Start by asking questions: Are there gaps in skills or knowledge that will help the individual be able to participate more? Is it more a lack of confidence? Is the individual experiencing behavior from others that is demeaning or toxic?
• Once you find out what is needed, get approval from the individual as to how to proceed. The team member being coached must be in control in this situation and must be assured of your good intentions and trustworthiness. The process may go slowly at first.
• Follow-through with the next steps at the appropriate speed. As you achieve success, it will build momentum for the next activity. Be sure to communicate the improvements you are seeing to the individual being coached in a timely fashion. Get feedback as to what they think and whether they are more confident. Don't depend on your interpretation of the situation. You, your behavior, may be part of the problem. If it turns out to be, do something about it to continue to build trust and improve the team.
• Part of coaching team members from marginalized groups is to create a safe place to build their skills and confidence, recalling that you are doing this to give the individual an equal footing with other team members. Incorporate opportunities, for example, in team meetings, project reporting, and stakeholder interactions.
• Work to adjust the behavior of others where it interferes with creating a safe work environment for all team members. Such behavior blocks team performance.

Support

Once those being coached have built up their confidence, be proactive in supporting them for other growth opportunities they find. These may be within your team or outside the team. Help them with additional skill-building, documenting evidence for interviews or networking.

Defend

You will have more skin in the game for this level and may end up countering cultural norms.

• Intervene when you see individual instances of demeaning behavior or even dismissive comments directly targeted to a marginalized individual’s abilities.

• Set the facts straight on the individual’s capabilities. Call out stereotypes as a blocker to project performance and achieving business goals.

Sponsor

An even higher-level of support will be to promote a worker from a marginalized group for a particular position as career advancement.

• Acting as a sponsor, you bring career opportunities to the individual and assist with preparing to submit for a position or to assume the role.
• The sponsor role is beyond just helping and learning. It is identifying possibilities proactively and recommending to stakeholders an individual for that role.

Team members from marginalized groups will thrive once they are participating on an equal footing with others on the team. The reality is that they will be less likely to get the chance to do so without an ally. That's where you come in, a new type of leader prepared to assist. While the skills for DE&I may be new, there is a ladder of techniques available to you allowing you to grow over time. And make no mistake, these skills are differentiators if you want to move into more complex projects and more sophisticated organizations.

There is more to discuss on this topic. Use the comments section to address your own concerns and look for futures posts to dive deeper. Don't forget that I also have articles and more on ProjectManagement.com going back to the year 2000.