Diversity and Inclusion

This may seem like a strange article to be posting here.  It talks about the discrepancies of representation in the film industry.  For me, it strikes a chord – women and certain ethnic groups are often minorities in our organizations.  They are better represented in the lower ranks, but the upper echelon tends to be male and white.

There have also been a number of studies about women and speaking.  Women are perceived to be talking more than the majority of the time if they speak more than about 25% of the time.  What this shows is we have an inherent bias that women should be seen but not heard.  To address this unconscious bias, we need to make intentional efforts to ask for the opinions and input of the women on our staff.

As has been addressed previously, we need to reach out to women and encourage them to share their voices.  And we need to ensure we are bringing them up through the ranks in a proportional and representational manner.  If we find women don’t have the skills they need to lead, we need to ask ourselves what we are doing that keeps them from acquiring those skills.

Is your leadership representational of your employees? 

Are your employees representational of your customers/guests (or who you want your customers/guests to be)?

What can you do to make representation more accurate of who you serve?

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