“It takes a lot of personal energy and commitment on behalf of a lot of people to make meaningful sustainable change,” said Kimberly Fernandes, VP of learning and organizational development at The Wonderful Company. “Companies that are making strides in an enduring way are doing it slowly and less publicly.” 

Following the murder of George Floyd, many companies announced diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. However, in some cases, those initiatives didn’t last long. “It’s hard to sustain that level of public outrage,” she said. 

One of the best ways to make lasting changes is to create an organizational culture that allows all employees to see themselves as potential leaders, says Fernandes. 

She noted that 60% of The Wonderful Company’s employees are Hispanic, but most leaders are white. To change that, the organization is cultivating talent from its frontline workers, whether they are harvesting fruit and nuts or in the company’s production plants. 

“They are given career pathways to develop into those leadership positions,” Fernandes told reporter Stacy Perman of the Los Angeles Times, during From Day One’s LA conference. Fernandes and four other executives spoke in a panel discussion titled, “Developing Diverse Leadership From the Start.”

From the Top Down

The mandate for energetic, inclusive leadership must come from the company’s board of directors and C-Suite to be successful, says Michael Watson, head of customer success, North America at Eightfold.

“If it’s lower than that, then you’re just one person away from leaving the organization and everything changing,” he said, noting the average tenure these days is three and a half to four years. 

That’s why it’s essential to have succession plans not just for business continuity but also for employee resource groups and DEI “so you don’t lose a beat when someone leaves,” Watson said.

But what if corporate leadership isn’t setting an agenda for diverse leadership?

Watson said he worked for organizations in the past where this was the case, “I used to say to my teams all the time, ‘If we can’t control the culture of everyone in this company, at least we can control the culture in our team and our group.’ Our thought was maybe other people will see that and be inspired to take that on.”

Leaning Into Core Values

The push for diverse leadership must align with a company’s core values, according to the panelists.

“It starts with the culture,” said Marissa Waldman, chief excellence officer of Leaderology. “We’re seeing it in turnover. We’re seeing it in unions and strikes. The employees are demanding companies take a stand. We need the C-suite to step forward and align with the company’s values in a way that isn’t performative.”

If a corporation has its values on the wall, employees expect senior leadership to take them seriously, says Waldman. Workers are saying, “This is what we care about. Prove it, or we’re going to hold you accountable,” she said.

If company leaders only advocate for diverse leadership to tick a box, “it’s not believable,” said Christina Glennon, head of DEI programs and operations, Levi Strauss & Co.

She said the company “has a really strong history of putting people first. So our value of empathy really comes through in our DEI programming, primarily in the way that we expect to captivate the hearts and minds of our leaders.”

Ways to Develop Diverse Leadership

Over the past couple of years, there’s been an outpouring of development programs and pipelines to assist employees who traditionally have not been in leadership roles, says Darren Chiappetta, global head of employee relations & workforce compliance at Roku.

“I spent 20 years at Disney, and the employee resource groups were a part of it,” he said. For example, if Disney were making a movie with characters from an underrepresented group, the ERG would approach employees from that group for their feedback. “It starts them on the path of seeing that their voice really matters,” Chiapetta said.

The next step is to meet with employees who have leadership potential and put together a plan for them to achieve their goals, says Watson. “Lay out that roadmap of, ‘How do I get there? What skills am I missing? What courses do I need to take?’” he said.

Levi Strauss is proud of its leadership development programs for women and employees of color, says Glennon. “They have often worked three or four times as hard as anyone else just to be treated fairly, so what they encounter in the workplace is different,” she said. “We’ve created accelerator programs to help them overcome some of the invisible barriers that stand in the way of their success.”

Organizations must help these emerging leaders “tap into their fearless authenticity so that they can act in alignment and conviction with their values and their purpose,” Waldman said. “And then, most importantly, create psychologically safe spaces so that others can do the same. It’s only then through that empathy, authenticity, understanding and aligning around purpose, that we can ensure that everybody is getting what they need to grow and to be recognized in the organization.”

Mary Pieper is a freelance reporter based in Mason City, Iowa.