4 New Rules for Winning in HR…But Only if You’re Female, Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, Gay, Straight, Young, Old, Disabled or Not…or White Male
by Alan Collins
I recently attended a Diversity & Inclusion conference at McDonald’s in Oak Brook sponsored by the NAAAHR.
Like everything else in HR, the D&I field is changing rapidly. McDonalds along with many other companies at the conference are making awesome progress.
Here are 4 new rules for winning in HR — taken from the insights I picked up from this conference as well as some of my own lessons over the years…
New Rule #1: Stop complaining if you’re not walking the talk yourself.
You’re an idiot with no credibility if you’re whining about your company’s progress on D&I but doing nothing to move it forward yourself. Let me illustrate…
Years ago, at a meeting of our African American Council at our division of Pepsi, the leaders were complaining that the company’s progress on inclusion wasn’t moving fast enough. Our executive sponsor, who was a white male CFO in the company, asked us out of curiosity to share the names of three people we were all personally mentoring. A few had none. Most had at least one. With a couple of exceptions, all the mentees named were the exact race and gender as we were.
He then challenged us by saying: “It’s easy to complain. But as the senior African American leaders in this company, you’re not walking the talk either. There’s no way things will change if you’re only mentoring people just like you. Here’s what I’d propose. Why don’t you set a personal objective for yourself that you will mentor 3 people over the next six months who are all different (more diverse than you are). And I’ll do the same thing, because frankly I need to walk the talk better too.”
At a follow up meeting six months later, we all excitedly reported back on our progress. Doing this was so insightful and developmental for us personally that we all continued our mentoring relationships well beyond the six months we committed to. In addition, we all cascaded this down to our teams. This simple little initiative shortly spread throughout the organization and was a very positive step forward in driving inclusion in the company.
New rule: Stop listening to what folks say, but instead to watch what they do. It’s easy to complain about your workplace. But what are you doing about it?
As an HR professional, you lose the right to complain about inclusion, if you’re not walking the talk yourself. Not sure where to start? Well, are there 3 people different than you, who could learn from your experience, who you can start mentoring…tomorrow?
New HR Rule #2: Be yourself…everyone else is taken.
Lots of HR people walk on eggshells these days. They bury who they really are. They’re not authentic. They’re uncomfortable revealing parts of themselves they’d love to share with others. They do this because they believe their organizations don’t really value their uniqueness. Or, they fear they’ll get biased treatment. And in many cases, they’re right.
However, the new HR rule is this. To excel, you must be able to bring your “whole” real self to work. Here’s why: unless you’re in a Broadway play, it’s too confusing and exhausting to play one role by day, be yourself at night and sustain your “A” game. And you need to tap into every ounce of energy you have if you’re going to compete with the best and brightest in your organization every day.
At one time, many of us were trained to sanitize our resumes, removing any trace of our ethnicity, sexual orientation or cultural heritage for fear that we wouldn’t be interviewed. Today, that’s still a very real risk in many organizations, though increasingly less so. But, if you’re going to find a place where you can thrive and make an “emotional investment,” in the company’s success, you’re going to need to take a risk – maybe even a big risk. That means feeling comfortable talking about that pick-up basketball game you played in the inner city on weekends instead of golf. It means being comfortable sharing your activities in the Gay Pride events in your town.
I will make no pretense that any of this is easy to do or will be embraced with open arms by everyone. But it’s necessary if you want to find organizations that you can embrace fully, feel comfortable in, and passionate about.
New Rule #3: If you’re in the job market, avoid companies that just count heads…they must also make these heads count.
When I first started in HR, the company I joined bragged about their diversity program. While there were no minority or female VPs at the time, they had quite an impressive and diverse group of HR managers. That was one reason I joined them. When I finally made HR manager (at a different company, mind you), 95% of those impressive managers had long gone. Here’s why:
- They were treated like dirt.
- There was no mentoring.
- No support system.
- No encouragement.
- No incentives for developing diverse talent.
- No commitment from the top.
- No culture of inclusion.
For EEO reasons, that company was only interested in counting heads. If talented diverse people left, they were simply replaced. Those were the old rules.
The new rule: If you want to increase your chances of winning in HR, you owe it to yourself to plant your career in an organization that not only counts heads…but makes those heads count. How do you know if that exists? Take a look at the seven bullets again two paragraphs up and see if the opposite exists.
New HR Rule #4: Don’t make it about black and white…make it about the green.
New HR rule: Accept the fact that life isn’t fair. Fair is something that you pay when you jump in a taxi (i.e. fare). You make your own breaks. Don’t worry about why you were hired. You could be hired in HR because the diversity plan calls for bringing in an Asian female. The guy next to you could be hired because he’s the CEO’s white godson. You were both hired because of your ethnicities. But so what? You both got in.
Now that you’re in, focus on distinguishing yourself by figuring out ways to help your business generate more of the green stuff. As an HR pro, make building your financial intelligence and delivering value priority one.
Will that eliminate bias and make things fair? Probably not. Your may still feel your mistakes are magnified more than those of others. You may still be misperceived, misinterpreted or even stereotyped on occasion. You may still have to be better adept at building alliances and marketing your accomplishments in order to succeed.
However, you can waste precious time grousing about the unfairness of it all, or you can invest that same time making yourself indispensible. Of course, today no one really is irreplaceable. But by focusing your HR attention on ways to help your organization deliver their business plan, reduce costs, and improve their competitiveness, you can become a valuable, tough-to-replace commodity…the type of commodity no wants to get rid of and that other companies would like to have…no matter who you are.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours? Please provide your comments or additional insights on this article by clicking here.
Onward!
About the Author: Alan Collins was Vice President – Human Resources at PepsiCo where he led HR initiatives for their Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Tropicana businesses. He is now President of Success in HR, Inc. and the author of: UNWRITTEN HR RULES: 21 Secrets For Attaining Awesome Career Success in Human Resources featuring TWO FREE CHAPTERS that can be downloaded HERE.
© SuccessinHR.com
February 26th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Great post and I agree with your thoughts! It seems “action” is what is often lacking in many diversity and inclusion efforts. I can’t tell you how many intitiatives, task forces, etc. I’ve been assigned to that were ripe with plans but green in “action.” This should be a must read for those that are waiting for others to take the lead – just do it. Thanks again.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I was curious about your hook – “This issue is very, very provocative…maybe even controversial.” I was looking for something controversial but this is just calling out what’s happening. I love the post! And I feel it applies beyond HR. Economic empowerment will begin when more folks practices these four rules.
Oh, I’ve coached and mentored ppl from all walks of life even before I started my business. My only criteria is “are you willing to learn and change your behavior?”. In experience I’ve found it more difficult to mentor/coach African American in corporate than ppl of other races, ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. Why?
Those I’ve come across have so many “can’t do, they won’t let me, they need to change first” beliefs that it stops the growth and success momentum.
That’s not true if they are entrepreneurs or students. And working with them has expanded my thinking and perspective tremendously. I’d add to your list – mentor someone outside your business experience.
Thanks for the post – maybe it was a provocative.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
@Miguel – Well said. I couldn’t agree with you more. Action and follow-thru are the biggest impediments I’ve seen and experienced in driving D&I…as well as passing the buck and not taking ownership. Looking around for others seems preferable to looking in the mirror.
@Denise – Thanks for the nice add to the list – agree 100% – mentoring someone outside of your business experience with a different frame of reference works too. I’ve personally benefited a lot from having mentors like that in my life. Thanks for sharing your experience in coaching those of different groups/backgrounds. I like your take on coaching corp AA vs other groups — I’ve not heard it before. Great stuff! One last point: you know something – when this article was in my head it was a lot more controversial than it wound up being now that I read it again…but, glad it was at least a little provocative for you. Stay warm.;-).
best,
Alan
February 27th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Companies are too much involved in what looks like diversity and inclusion (d&i) instead of intellectual diversity and inclusion.
Here’s a little bit of d&i that the 7000 students in the University of Delaware (UD) dorms were to be indoctrinated in (participation was to be mandatory by the students):
“Hello, Mom? I’m a Racist!
The media focused heavily on one part of the RA training called “Diversity Facilitation Training.” RAs were trained using definitions like these:
A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination…
REVERSE RACISM: A term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege. Those in denial use the term reverse racism to refer to hostile behavior by people of color toward whites, and to affirmative action policies, which allegedly give ‘preferential treatment’ to people of color over whites. In the U.S., there is no such thing as “reverse racism.”[2]
The training was heavy-handed as it passed from RAs to students. Guerrier described it as leaving “a mental footprint on [students'] consciousness.” The staff actually called the program a treatment: “through the … curriculum experience (a treatment) specific attitudinal or behavioral changes (learning) will occur.” The fact that ResLife viewed students as patients in need of “treatment” for their problems revealed their utter lack of respect for the students and their freedom of conscience.
A freshman at Delaware couldn’t escape the ideological, highly politicized messages about consumerism, social justice, affirmative action, world redistribution of wealth, and so on. The messages were woven into the fabric of the very place where students slept or talked late into the night. The door decorations were not the usual “Hello, My Name Is,” but rather featured the “three interlocking circles” of “sustainability”: “social justice,” “healthy environments,” and “strong economies.”
The messages were reinforced by “roommate contracts,” “suite constitutions,” and the one-on-one sessions for which RAs—students themselves—had been trained with “delivery strategies.” And they were reinforced at the mandatory floor meetings, where RAs led activities that forced students to reveal their personal views and to suffer public shame for taking conservative rather than progressive positions on social issues. In one such activity, students were to stand on one side of the room if they agreed with, for example, gay marriage, the other side if not. Staying in the middle was not tolerated because, the students were told, the real world is polarized like this.”
You can read more about this case, which was finally stopped for its obvious violations of the students’ civil rights, here:
http://ow.ly/16rF3M
I have attended d&i training in Fortune 500 companies that were like the U of D “Diversity Facilitation Training,” only far more subtle than the U of D’s cultist approach. For example, the so called White or White Male Privilege which is mentioned in many Corporate d&i training programs: there is no scientifically valid evidence that this exists…none whatsoever. Yet, Corp. Diversity “experts” run their “training” assuming this is an undisputed fact. If you really look at the theory of White Privilege with an open mind, it is rather racist in its core concepts. One could never say the same things about other groups that the theory of White Privilege says about whites without being accused of racism (and those accusations would be accurate).
I really think most of what d&i wants to accomplish can be done with some superior interpersonal skills training instead. This certainly fits in with your HR Rule #4. Thus, I think your HR Rule #4 is brilliant on so many levels. One thing to add to it: if you are indefensible to your boss, you are more likely to be on the “Do NOT Layoff” list instead of the “People To Layoff” list (written or unwritten, every company has these lists).
I agree with much of what you say on mentoring. I would add that you can pick someone to mentor who looks like you, but still is different….different career background or different education or from a different industry (public sector vs. private (very little is the same with those two), etc.
D&I should have its goal intellectual diversity. After all, intellectual diversity is what will find better perspectives to improve customer service, improve stockholder value, help the company increase market share, etc. In fact, most companies use these as reasons to justify having a robust d&i program, training, recruitment, etc.
BUT, too many companies confuse intellectual diversity with visual diversity. They assume a company that looks diverse also has intellectual diversity automatically. Not so. Think of the Democratic party….very diverse looking, yet on issue after issue, they have the SAME opinions and ideas. They all think alike on increasing government spending, raising taxes, affirmative Action, etc.
So where is the intellectual diversity here? Looks can be deceiving and with regard to d&i in most companies, looks usually are deceiving.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Whoops! Typo error alert: “if you are indefensible to your boss,” should actually have been typed as, “if you are indispensable to your boss,” which totally changes the message in that sentence.
This was in the 5th paragraph from the end of my first post.
Brain
February 27th, 2010 at 6:36 am
wonderful post Alan and absolutely perfect to the tee.
have a happy weekend..
Warm Regards,
Andy
February 28th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Wow, What a wonderful read! I certainly can relate to your statement:
“To excel, you must be able to bring your “whole” real self to work. Here’s why: unless you’re in a Broadway play, it’s too confusing and exhausting to play one role by day, be yourself at night and sustain your “A” game. “
For years I hid behind who I was and what I like to do on my personal time, worrying about what others might think or that I might offend that 2-3% of people that could not relate. I have changed that aspect of myself, and have received comments from colleagues that I work with that they see a difference in me. HR professionals need to keep it real, and demonstrate our authenticity to our companies.
Thanks Alan.