The Real Demands for Chief Diversity Officers
Updated: May 5, 2021
Within every business unit of an organization, employees face the reality of warring over differences, unfair treatment, and lack of inclusion. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) has become essential functions for organizational success, which is why recent years have given rise to the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) role.
In today’s climate for ending social injustices, the demands for CDOs are deeper than optimizing organizational culture, aligning DE&I goals with business outcomes, and making sure employees and vendors adhere to organizational policies and practices. Today’s CDOs must be savvy in meeting the demands of the Purpose Business™ to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across all business units.
PURPOSE BUSINESS™
It is important that CDOs embrace the reality that regardless of the SIC or NAICS codes, their organization is in the people business, which opens the door for the Purpose Business™. The Purpose Business™ does not have anything to do with what people do for your organization. However, it has everything to do with what people are willing to become to advance the mission of your organization.
The Purpose Business™ is the science of building parameters to harvest the Energy of Purpose™ beyond what people do for a living. Harvesting the Energy of Purpose™ is the new demand for CDOs because it sets the conditions for helping employees reach their highest growth potential to advance the overall mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Sure, the role of a CDO is to set the tone for creating a culture where ending the war over differences, unfair treatment, and lack of inclusion is the norm. However, without helping the people within your organization build parameters for harvesting the Energy of Purpose™, the risk for being a lone warrior in the battle for diversity, equity, and inclusion will be high.
SYMPTOMS vs. DISEASE
One of the biggest moves you can make for your organization is to transition from treating the symptoms from the deficiencies in diversity, equity, and inclusion, to treating the disease. For over fifty years, organizations have treated symptoms like discrimination, disparities in pay, unfair hiring, and promotion practices.
Employees are forced to confront unconscious biases with a low Diversity Purpose IQ™, which increases the risk for organizations having a policy that does not move employees to action.
When employees are forced to comply to diversity policies with a low Diversity Purpose IQ™, their buy in to the overall DE&I mission will be low. Unfortunately, a low buy in to DE&I policies will add unnecessary stress to the CDO role.
We are facing one of the greatest opportunities to affect change at new levels. The biggest demand for CDOs in this new era for change is treating the disease that is responsible for the low buy in for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The failure to treat the disease will only increase the risk for employees to propagate liabilities that undermine the overall DE&I mission.
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