People – Opinions – Processes from the start up in your Diversity and Inclusion strategy.
By Armin Forstner, Managing Partner, Serrano 99
In my hometown Vienna, I recently addressed the audience at the fair.versity exhibition and conference on: Diversity and Entrepreneurship
This topic is close to my heart because not only am I an immigrant, gay entrepreneur running a start-up in London but also, I do want to break the cycles of corporate ‘tick-box’ exercises around D&I and help change corporate cultures to really gain the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Challenges for Entrepreneurs
Reflecting on my own professional experience, I can highlight 3 key factors that entrepreneurs and leaders should consider when building a competitive and profitable company:
- Focus
- Success
- Sustainability
Focus
Companies, particularly start-ups which are CEO/Founder led, tend to be led by a very driven, focused and dominant personality. These are all important traits when bringing an idea to life. Having that clarity of vision and purpose can sometimes narrow your view and will not afford you the open-mindedness that is required when receiving feedback, praise and criticism while launching a business.
Success
Success can have a number of draw backs. Early success in your start-up, does reinforce certain biases such as your confirmation biases (I knew I was right) and over-confidence bias (I am right, I get things done, I am the right person to lead this company, no one can do it better). The consequences are that these biases reinforce your mental models of who you are as an entrepreneur and as a leader. You become more hardened to the belief that your opinions and perspectives are the right ones, and less inclined to having an open ear to those around you.
Sustainability
Starting a business is the easy part, keeping it alive, growing it and trading over a long period of time is a very different story. In a time of growth, it is important to think about processes in your start up that support this growth. Embedded in these processes should be a D&I policy. CEO/Founders get caught up in the ‘Doing’ execution mode that even though they establish processes along the way, they lack long-term strategic vision for the business they are building.
POP culture for Start-Up D&I
Tackling these 3 challenges is where diversity and inclusion can play an important role. Diversity and inclusion for an entrepreneur, is a wonderful enabler when building a successful business, so it is important to consider your diverse and inclusive culture from the beginning. There are 3 main elements when building your D&I culture:
People
Find partners, co-founders and team members that help you maintain your focus and achieve your vision. You do not need people who are mirror images of you. To achieve success in the marketplace you need people who reflect the community/society you are selling into. Society is diverse, your workplace should reflect that. Differing backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives bring a competitive advantage with them. A more varied and diverse array of eyes looking at the same challenges, opens opportunities for more creative and innovative solutions.
Opinions
Overcome your mental models and biases with positive leadership tools to allow cognitive diversity. You need to be challenged! Building a team that only says yes fails to critically assess where the real challenges are in your plan and where true opportunities lie. On the other hand, accepting and allowing different opinions is easier said than done and this is where most of the Inclusive Leaders, despite their best intentions, fall short. Developing your positive leadership skills by understanding your behavioural decision making, how it impacts outcomes and how to negate the negative mental models and biases, is critical for sustaining innovation, creativity & growth.
Processes
Plan for organisational development that allow to recruit and retain diverse talent. With a diverse workforce you will have diverse needs and expectations. Consequently, design practices and processes that are human-centred which meet both the need of the organisation and its people. Recruitment and retention of talent to sustain growth is critical, consequently you must have adaptive processes that offer opportunities to employees and create an open, positive culture.
These Processes together with the free flow of Opinion and your diverse People will create your POP D&I culture! Positive leaders are inclusive leaders. They demonstrate courage and commitment to understanding themselves and others, while they build generative and positive work environments. We in Serrano 99 build positive leaders with the skills necessary to create high performing and inclusive organisations.
