The Importance of Being an Ally
In the months since I became the North
America diversity leader for Strategy&, many people have approached me to
ask, “What can I do to help?” And I’m always happy when they do. But I’ve found
that, more often than not, people are thinking big picture. They want to get
involved with planning an event or starting a new initiative. This type of
engagement is important — we need people to step up and to dedicate their time
and resources to the cause of diversity. But there are other ways to make an
impact.
Consider
this: How many times have you been in a meeting and realized that the woman
across from you wanted to make a point but wasn’t speaking up? How many highly
skilled women have you known that haven’t put themselves forward for promotion
because they don’t feel “100 percent ready” (whereas research has shown that
men feel comfortable going
for it at 60 percent)? How often do you attend a panel and notice
that the panelists look a lot alike? In these and many similar scenarios, it’s
important that people not just sit on the sidelines. Instead, they need to be
an ally.
If we start with the most simplistic
definition, an ally is anyone who supports or empowers another person or group.
Opportunities to do this are peppered throughout our work and personal lives.
But we may not see them, or we may think that we don’t have anything to
contribute.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I have
mentored many junior women over the years. This made sense for me — I can
relate directly to the kinds of challenges women face. But I wasn’t serving as
an ally for other groups, because I didn’t necessarily understand the issues
they were confronting. I didn’t know how I could make an impact. This came to
the forefront early in my tenure as a diversity leader, when members of two of
the firm’s affinity groups came to me with a problem.
One was Forum, our African-American affinity
group, and the other was Spectrum, which represents the interests of our LGBT
staff. These groups told me they lacked funding to represent the firm,
particularly at recruiting events. When they asked for money to pursue these
activities, they explained, they were told none was there. When we looked at
funding across the board, we discovered that another affinity group, for women,
was overfunded because it often “gave back” money at the end of the year. We
rebalanced the budget to enable all of the groups to function effectively.
This may seem like a small thing to do — and
in fact, in terms of my time and effort, it was. But it made a big difference.
Being an ally isn’t necessarily about dedicating large amounts of time or
money. It can simply be taking a moment to really listen: to recognize and
understand the challenges facing someone or a group of people. It means
empathizing with their situation and giving them the tools they need to solve a
problem for themselves.
Consider how powerful a modest action can be,
leading to an outcome that supports not only your existing staff but future
colleagues. If you watched the 2015 Oscars, you may remember John Legend and
Common performing the theme song from the movie Selma. It might not be obvious
at first, but if you look closely at the choir, you’ll see that only the
African-American members are singing. The others are marching silently, showing
their solidarity — acting as allies.
How do you get started? Being an ally is a
skill: You build the capability over time, and have to be willing to make
mistakes. First and foremost, know the issues. Talk with your colleagues to
understand the challenges they face. People are often afraid to take this step,
because they don’t want to be presumptuous or risk offending a colleague. But
I’ve found that people are open to conversation and appreciate being engaged.
This may feel unnatural or comfortable; to help people feel at ease, try
starting off by talking about a challenge you’ve faced or an experience you’ve
had.
Second,
know yourself. Relate to the issues that you’ve seen based on your
own personal experiences, and understand your
biases.
Third and finally, take action whenever and
however you can. It can be as simple as stopping an inappropriate joke,
encouraging broad participation in a team discussion, or ensuring inclusion on
dinner invitations. Or it can be more dedicated, such as joining and
participating in an affinity group or acting as a mentor or sponsor for a
skilled employee from a group underrepresented in leadership positions. For
example, in my practice, digital business and technology, we’ve actively tried
to make gender a part of the conversation. We’ve had dialogues about traits
common to women that can benefit the way we work, we’ve incorporated gender as
a standard topic in our post-project-completion discussions, and we’ve added a
“diversity champion award” that is given to one member of the practice each
year.
Big or small, every positive action helps
foster an environment in which diverse groups can ask for what they want — and
feel confident that they will have the support they need to get it.
Kelley Mavros
http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/The-Importance-of-Being-an-Ally?gko=358d9&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20160908&utm_campaign=resp
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