Over the past few years, my team and I have had the opportunity to work with exceptional leaders in the corporate sector, helping them to enhance inclusion and innovation in their workforce. One of our key means of achieving this has been by helping these leaders reshape their company’s inclusion plans and protocols. As we have heard from other various leaders with whom we have worked, the benefits to reshaping inclusion plans and protocols are innumerable.
Overlooked Fact 1:
Today’s leaders view the need for inclusion plans and protocols as an essential part of doing effective and productive business; there is an unprecedented consensus that multicultural collaboration and retention is a cornerstone for every company’s sustainability. There is an indisputable, striking case study for the ROI for diversity and inclusion. Quite simply, every company must have a multicultural and multi-generational workforce that benefits from a culture where diverse viewpoints are respected and contributed. Leaders of companies who are unable to do so will not be able to maintain their role as company leaders. Likewise, companies that are unable to benefit from such leadership will become extinct.
“Leaders of companies who are unable to [foster a multicultural and multi-generational workforce] will not be able to maintain their role as company leaders.”
Overlooked Fact 2:
The characteristics of a multicultural workplace has evolved. In the past, many aspects of a person’s life were never revealed at work. Today, it has become essential to allow employees and team members to bring their full and authentic selves to the workplace. This has been an intrinsic step in creating multicultural workplaces in which team members are encouraged to bring their diverse backgrounds to the workplace. These diverse selves include lifestyle choices, nationalities, religion, race, and gender identifies; and even their parental roles. The multifaceted aspects of each employees life must now be respected and accommodated in the work environment.
Overlooked Fact 3:
Visionary leaders around the country are using their voice to transform multicultural collaboration and retention in ways we have never seen before. As much as we are seeing official company policies and mission statements underscore their deep commitment to a new era of respecting multicultural collaboration, we are seeing the leaders themselves personally using their voice and platform to encourage today’s trend towards multiculturalism in the workplace. Many of the company leaders we have interviewed, (who we will be featuring in the upcoming VLNetwork Web Episodes, including leaders from Toyota, Hallmark, and Verizon) share courageous and bold statements about the importance of supporting people and revealing and contributing their full selves.
