Based on my self-assessment I believe in the value of diversity. Diversity not only provides
different insights, but the way I see it it allows a person to become more open minded.
Diversity is not only a racial perspective, it's a cultural background and a life experience
factor. In my line of business, I intentionally ensure to hire a diverse team in order to be
more innovative. I am also chair for the Hispanic diversity and inclusion forum at my
organization. This has helped me realize that the intent of this diversity forum is not to
target Hispanics, but to bring diverse groups together to educate and provide leadership
guidance.I believe that women hold few top leadership positions compared to men due to a
few factors. A woman has to work twice as hard to prove herself capable. Women are
typically looked at being more sensitive than a man, so certain roles make it more difficult
for women to be in due to being stereotyped. I see it in my organization quite frequently.
As for a way to change this stereotype, it comes to weeding out old mentalities to the new.
It won't continue being easy for women, but many strive to make it every day.When I try to
foster greater inclusivity in my workplace, the main focus is to look at hiring individuals
from all different backgrounds with the mindset of what that will bring about. As I
mentioned earlier I believe inclusion means bringing people together to have a common
purpose or mission. Any type of resistance should be discussed and understood. There
might be a reason that be handled in manner to change the mindset. It all starts with the
individual and the change in culture. After completing the assessment I believe I value
diversity. Last week I used an example of stereotyping while driving. If another car is too
slow, or driving slowly in the far left lane one could guess the race/gender of the driver.
Honestly it could be anyone and it isn't fair to judge entire segments of the population on a
single experience. Unfortunately stereotyping happens at work as well, and I consciously
make the decision not to do it. I am tempted when I see a young person with their pants
hanging off their backsides to prejudge their work ethic and how they will get along with
their coworkers. Some times they are good workers, sometimes they are not. It is never
related to their appearance, but more what kind of person they are, and everyone is an
individual.I don't know why there are not as many women in top leadership positions in the
past. Could be there was no interest in hiring women from larger companies, or perhaps
there were less women in the workforce applying for those positions. My current plant
manager is a woman, and she is the first woman plant manager at this plant, and we have
been running over sixty years. It was such a big deal she made the paper, and the local city
magazine. The last three plants I worked at, all of the plant managers were women, and my
company is pushing hard to have it's top leadership positions representative of our
population as a whole.Personally I have been requesting that the positions I am looking to
fill are posted externally, and I am including folks from diverse backgrounds in the
interviewer panels. If I am interviewing a woman candidate I want at least one woman with
me interviewing. If I am interviewing a veteran I try to have a veteran with me
interviewing.If I was using a rational approach to organizational change I would set
diversity quotas. I need a fifty-fifty split men and women. And equal numbers according to
race. I would shoot for representation from all protected classes like veterans, and disabled.
Change can be hard, and if there was resistance to inclusion and diversity practices I would
start with training, one on one meetings with HR. I would set clear expectations and
boundaries, and check to make sure they are being adhered to. I have a high value for
diversity. I was recently certified in DEI (Diversity Equity and Injustice) through a SHRM
accredited course and the USF Muma College of Business. This week's elf assessment is
very telling. If you really value diversity you'll see if through this week's assessment and
consciously look for ways to re-think stereotypes, levels of prejudice and biases that we
sometimes build inherently. Diversity is beyond race and ethnicity, it's age, gender, social
disparity, LBGTQY concerns, civiil injustice and so much more. Diversity is considering
all of these sectors or subgroups and uniting them for the common good. It's 2022 and the
Lily Ledbetter ACT is in place (thanks to President Obama) but women still hold few top
leadership positions, and earn 70 cent to the dollar of our male counterparts - this is proof
that diversity is needed and gender is still a barrier to success. Sure, we are transformational
leaders, I THINK WE NEED A FEMALE PRESIDENT IN THE U.S. TO FINALLY
BREAK SOME OF THESE HORRIBLE 'GOOD OLE BOY CYCLES', but until we truly
honor diversity and remove gender as a threat and inequality - this won't happen in the U.S.
Sure we have a black female vice-president right now (so we're close) but changing minds,
means changing centuries of bad behavior. It starts with us individually, in the work place
with small conversations with colleagues who aren't 'like-us'. This is small and subtle but
starts a positive culture of acceptance in the workplace.
A diverse team makes for better synergy. The differences of those team mates (age,
experience, background, gender, talent, life experiences, perspectives, communication styles
etc.) allows those people to come together to make an impact. Good synergy will normally
lead to high productivity. The people on the team will feel valued and appreciated. They
may even feel vulnerable but open to expressing themselves and delivering higher results
because of a better workplace relationship. In a team setting, when I feel valued I want to
give more and contribute to the project. I have no problem being innovative and sharing
ideas with my colleagues to support the end-goal. Team synergy is a bigger buy-in to
management as well. The more team synergy, the less management has to worry about
conflict and challenges among the team members. The organization should give the due
importance to women in not just new talent hires but also in promotions, thus ensuring
equity at all levels. The critical departments of gender inequality must be identified and
special attention must be given to address gender bias in those areas. Getting women come
in power or at important decision-making positions in organizations is also one important
step in ensuring appropriate balance in males and females staff. I agree some times it can be
challenging not to classify someone from their appearance or actions based on previous
experiences you may have had in the past. I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt
and treat everyone fairly until they give me a reason not to trust them. I think having a
woman and others from different backgrounds sit in on interviews can give you a unique
prospective from multiple angles from multiple people. They may see the positives or
negatives in a person you are interviewing that you may not have picked up on during the
interview. I am glad to hear that your employer has taken the opportunity to train its
employees in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. I am a firm believer that education is key.
Training sessions and academies for employees, including its leaders, is vital to the success
of the agency. I believe employers who value their employees will make an effort in
training their employees. Both the employer and employees will benefit from it which can
lead to employees feeling valued and wanting to stay longer with the employer. I totally
agree with you by being in the Army you must work around all kinds of people from all
over the world from different backgrounds both women and men but at the end of the day
everyone comes together to complete the mission. For me, I mostly worked around men
most of my career and only at the end had the chance to work around women n the military
which I had no issues with diversity and feel like any one is deserving to be leaders
regardless of their gender. Now the military is starting to select women for combat arms
positions after these positions have only been for men. This was a major change and impact
for the U.S. Army which took effective communication for this to happen and for Superiors
understanding diversity and inclusion in today’s world.
