In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the unrest during the summer of 2020, companies couldn’t make statements about their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion fast enough. They posted on social media. They held meetings. They formed diversity councils and purported to listen closely to the needs of their teams.
And it hasn’t been sufficient.
A recent Catalyst report, “Words Aren’t Enough: The Risks of Performative Policies,” found that three-quarters of employees from four white-majority countries believe their organizations’ racial equity policies are not genuine.
“Performative policies” aren’t just ineffective, however. The report states that they can cause true harm to your organization, contributing to turnover, lack of trust, poor performance, and reduced productivity.
“It’s a wake-up call for leaders that you can’t just make a statement and step into the movement,” says Tara Van Bommel, coauthor of the report and director and statistician in the research department at Catalyst, a global nonprofit that focuses on workplace inclusion. “It’s not just making the statement and then saying, ‘Okay, I’ve checked the box.’ Employees are savvy. They want to see action behind it.”
So, what can your organization and its leaders do to truly foster belief in a commitment to DEI? Here are some of Catalyst’s findings, as well as other expert opinions.
Be ready to have tough conversations
To actually create change, first there needs to be an assessment of the past. And that can lead to difficult and uncomfortable conversations, says DEI consultant Netta Jenkins. “There are so many people, especially within the majority group, who don’t really want to explore the trauma, and those experiences that those from marginalized groups have faced because there’s a level of guilt that comes up,” she says, comparing the situation to a romantic relationship: “If your partner did something to you, and they just want to move on, that’s going to make it hard to move forward.”
So you have to be willing to have difficult conversations, which includes truly listening to the feedback you’re getting about your current workplace and what needs to change so that you can identify the best way to forge a better path ahead.
Create a culture where people can speak out
You can’t have important conversations if people aren’t willing to speak out. Some employees worry that it’s not their place, or that they may cause trouble if they speak up, says Alina Vandenberghe, co-CEO of Chili Piper, a Google-backed sales tech business. It’s up to leaders to create a culture where people feel free to speak out about their concerns and not face consequences.
But that’s a tall order. As written in Fast Company, less than 10% of employees were comfortable voicing their DEI concerns to senior management, according to one report.
Chili Piper recently implemented adjustments that changed the company’s ratio of women in leadership roles to 50%, while closing the gender pay gap and overhauling job descriptions to eliminate unconscious bias. Vandenberghe says these efforts led to the company being a more inclusive place for all 250 employees—not just women.
Engage in consistent and transparent communication
Being clear about what the company is doing and why is critically important as new priorities and initiatives are rolled out, Van Bommel says. In the Catalyst study, respondents indicated that one thing signaling a performative policy was when they heard a new initiative being announced and then never heard about it again.
“This signaled to them that they were left in the dark, never really knowing what came next,” she says. Leaders may want to wait until all the details are finalized, but that may be a mistake. More communication is usually a better alternative.
At Chili Piper, straightforward communication about the company’s expectations helped elevate employees to greater success. Clear career paths were created to show each team member how they could progress in the company. “Everyone knows what they need to do to get to the next level,” Vandenberghe says.
Demand—and support—leadership commitment
Jenkins says that another step companies can take to show their teams that DEI matters is to be clear that there is no tolerance for noninclusive leaders. Give everyone in the company responsibility for DEI and put it in job descriptions for new hires.
“That way, people know as they’re reviewing their job, ‘This is what I’m getting myself into. I must have the DEI lens—it is a requirement for this organization,’” she says. Then, ask questions about DEI and anti-racism commitment in the interview.
Leaders must also hold each other accountable, Jenkins adds. “And it’s not just about saying we’re committed, which is the performative piece. It’s saying, ‘Hey, even as a leader, if another leader is not following this, then they need to leave. There’s no place for them here,’” she says.
Van Bommel says that training is another useful component of shifting behavior and attitudes. Catalyst’s research found that leaders with high levels of empathy were more likely to create genuine racial equity policies, which drove greater inclusion for employees of color.
“I think [empathy is] an important tool for leaders to be able to hear employees where they’re at, and to actually really deeply understand what employees need and what they want and to take an open mind to hearing what’s working and what’s not working,” she says.
Tie goals to compensation
Of course, the ultimate form of accountability is to tie DEI performance to compensation, Jenkins says. “Typically, they say, ‘Well, this is hard,’ or ‘We couldn’t do it,’ or come up with all sorts of excuses. But suddenly, when your compensation is tied to it, there are a whole bunch of solutions,” she says.
Integrate accomplishment of DEI responsibilities and goals into performance reviews or other forms of evaluation. Van Bommel says that approach can also be used for fostering leadership and company culture attributes like empathy.
As companies make the shifts to address DEI issues directly, it’s likely that they’ll make a misstep or two. In those cases, be humble and make it right, Van Bommel recommends. “Employees [aren’t] seeking perfection,” she says. “They’re seeking people to be honest, and to demonstrate that humility, which is one of the core inclusive leadership behaviors that we identify in our research.”
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When you go into a negotiation, it’s natural to want to win. It can be uncomfortable to back down or give up something, but having an either/or mentality can hinder what’s possible, says Wendy Smith, coauthor of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. Humans default to either/or psychologically because we want a clear choice, she explains.
“An open decision can leave you feeling anxious and uncertain,” she says. “Uncertainty raises fears, and by making a clear choice, you quell those fears.”
There’s also a lot of ego in choices. “In either/or thinking, we want to be right,” says Smith. “If I’m right, somebody else must be wrong. We look at what’s good about our point of view, we surround ourselves with others who agree with us, and then we diminish the other side. It’s a very defensive reaction, and we fail to see that there could be multiple pieces that are right, even if they conflict in what they’re saying.”
Both/And Approach
Getting to broader truth requires listening to one another, putting the pieces together, and realizing that there are different ways to see a situation and value the differences. Smith calls it a “both/and” approach and getting to this place is a lifelong practice of pausing and shifting.
“Either/or might lead to some good short-term decisions, but in the long term, it’s limited at best and detrimental at worst,” says Smith. “‘Both/anding’ is a better alternative. It’s not easy to do, but it creates more creative and sustainable solutions.”
The first step is noticing our either/or questions or situations. Next, pause, shift, and invite them both to be right. For example, a question may be, “Do we spend money on this project or that project?”
“Pause and ask, ‘How can we address and enable both this and that together?’” says Smith. “That opens up new ways of just engaging with the question. Psychologist Paul Watson once said, ‘The problem is not the problem. The problem is how we think about the problem.’ If we frame an either/or, we will go down the road of trying to make a choice. If we frame both/and, we will expand the possible solution set.”
Getting to a Trade-off
With a both/and approach, you still have to make choices, says Smith.
“Some people will say, ‘Both/anding is all about the win/win.’ We actually don’t find that,” she says. “What we find is that sometimes both/anding is making small choices over time that allow you to accommodate both. It’s about accommodating trade-offs.”
Making effective trade-offs requires an ability to look at the big picture, managing for today and for tomorrow.
“The metaphor we use is tightrope walking,” says Smith. “If you look off into the horizon, you’re going to want to move forward. But to get there, you have to make micro shifts between left and right to balance. You’re also not overemphasizing one side and [underemphasizing] the other, because if you do you fall over. These micro trade-offs you’re making are in service of the broader, integrated, more holistic vision.”
Smith says trade-offs are dilemmas. “By shifting to think about underlying paradoxes and the potential for both/and, it shifts how we can then go back and respond to those dilemmas or trade-offs. Those dilemmas are chosen,” she says. “For example, if you think about political trade-offs, right now we’re stuck in an either/or world of polarization where everybody’s fighting for their position. But we’re not getting to a better point in the big picture.”
Taking a both/and approach can be applied to any part of your life when you stop to recognize the either/or questions and the situations you encounter, she adds.
“Let’s stop thinking about ‘I’m right and you’re wrong,’ and pause and listen,” Smith says. “It doesn’t mean we have to agree with the other person. But by stopping and listening, maybe we can learn something and work together to come up with something better.”
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If you’re feeling stressed about work, a nice vacation could be just what you need. Unplugging from the day-to-day pressures to unwind can help you recharge and refresh so that you’re ready to get back to work . . . right? Not always, finds a survey by Visier.
The people analytics platform polled 1,000 full-time U.S. employees about vacation time and overall job satisfaction. While 89% of employees did feel refreshed after taking PTO, the reset didn’t make them ready to return to work; 42% even said they dreaded getting back to work.
And it gets worse: Some 44% of respondents thought about quitting their jobs while on a vacation, and of this group, 44% followed through and resigned.
A contributing factor to wanting to quit, according to those polled, was bringing work on vacation instead of totally disconnecting. Visier found that 95% of employees worked by choice because they were worried about missing something important or having to catch up when they got back.
But in the group that thought about quitting, those who stayed very connected to work while on vacation were 36% more likely to actually do it. For those who were actually required to stay connected while taking time away, more than 70% thought about quitting.
So should managers be afraid of PTO? Not if they are aware of some of the dynamics in play, says Yustina Saleh, VP of research and value at Visier, noting that it’s imperative for employers to provide employees with a better sense of balance.
“If your work-life balance is not strong and you have time to pause, you may start to think there must be something better out there,” she says.
If an employee hasn’t taken five days off in a row for more than 18 months, it should sound an alarm, Saleh says. Employers should encourage employees to take time off and give them permission to disconnect completely when they’re away. Managers should make arrangements before the employee leaves so they won’t be worried that things will fall apart when they’re gone.
“Encouraging employees to take time off says ‘I care about you. I care that you are healthy,’” Saleh says. “Have some level of redundancy when planning for employee vacation time. Take into account your deliverables. It’s summer. People will take time off, and that means you may have to adjust your plans instead of expecting the same KPIs. Doing that will change the dynamics quite a bit.”
For example, adjust delivery schedules on projects, or cross-train employees so that the work can be covered. Managers should also create a safe environment where employees can speak up and share if they’re feeling stressed and need to unplug.
“If the manager is only about the deliverables, it won’t be good,” Saleh says. “It’s doesn’t mean that you’re not meeting your KPIs. It just means that people have feelings and families. If you don’t build redundancy, people don’t see a way out. They will meet your deliverable but quit later. Absenteeism and vacation need to be part of your operational planning.”
It’s also important for managers to lead by example. “If you know that your boss is off on vacation and is working nonstop, that guilt of not working becomes real for their employees,” Saleh says.
The bottom line is that vacations won’t fix bad culture. “People are not robots,” Saleh says. “If everything was messed up before their vacation, time off won’t fix that.”
With so many people contemplating a career change, it can be tempting to take a leap of faith. Quitting your day job and going all in can feel empowering, but it may be smarter to slow down and take small steps toward uncertain goals instead, say Nathan and Susannah Furr, authors of The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown. The Furrs call this approach having “personal real options.”
“There’s this myth that you have to go all in on a project or initiative to be successful, when it’s actually better to do a personal real options approach,” says Nathan Furr.
The Furrs were introduced to the concept after interviewing Ben Feringa, recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on molecular machines. The Furrs asked Feringa if he faced uncertainty on his road to a scientific breakthrough.
“He laughed and said, ‘It was all uncertainty,’” recalls Nathan Furr.
Feringa told the Furrs that he encourages his students to have at least two projects going, one certain and one uncertain. “Striving for certainty will lead you down false paths or lead you to commit too long to projects that won’t work, or to uninteresting projects that will work,” he explained.
Research from the Academy of Management found that hybrid entrepreneurs—entrepreneurs who keep their day job while they try their new venture on the side until it shows it has legs—are more successful than entrepreneurs who quit their job to do their venture.
“Why? Because they have more time and less stress, less anxiety from the uncertainty, and they’re able to figure out the right way to go forward,” says Nathan Furr.
Defining Your Steps
Instead of quitting your day job and taking an all-in approach, the Furrs recommend defining the actions you can take towards the uncertain goal in a day, week, month, or three months. Set up in a series of tests, breaking things down into small experiments, learning and changing course as you go. Start with what feels the most important.
“It’s asking, ‘What has the greatest curiosity for me?’” says Nathan Furr. “That’s the source of energy that you want to tap into. The more successful people were the ones who focused on the thing that was most important instead of thinking they had to do everything at once.”
For example, if you want to write a book, carve out time before or after work to work on chapters. Roald Dahl worked for Shell Oil and Margaret Atwood was a barista in a Toronto coffee shop until their writing careers took off.
From there, take an uncertain project step by step, moving forward. The Furrs say it’s important to take stock every few months to make sure the project is still providing enough value for the effort you’re putting into it. Ask yourself, “Am I still excited about this project, or has it become a chore? Am I still learning enough to make it worth it?”
Schedule check-ins and deadlines, holding yourself to them. And, perhaps most importantly, avoid doing nothing. Susannah Furr calls this regret minimization. “What are the things that keep needling you?” she asks. “The things that you really want to be a part of and you’re just not taking time for? How could you plan to make it happen?”
Uncertain goals can feel challenging when you take them step by step. Failure is a possibility, but the lessons it brings can lead to new opportunities that are even better, says Susannah Furr. “Reframe uncertainty to being the portal to possibility,” she says.
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At the end of most interviews, hiring managers ask candidates, “Do you have any questions for me?” This is the time to find out what it’s like to work for the company. Some job seekers may be afraid to ask what they really want to know, or they simply may not know what to ask.
“Interviews are like dating and you might as well be honest at the outset,” says Kelli Mason, chief operating officer of JobSage, an employee transparency platform. “We also know that people are scared, and they’re scared for good reason. There are questions that hiring managers don’t like, and if the hiring manager doesn’t like a line of questioning, they might consciously or subconsciously penalize the candidate for asking. In an ideal world, a candidate should not be afraid to ask a question, but we don’t live in an ideal world.”
JobSage surveyed 700 full-time employees and 300 hiring managers and found that there are three questions hiring managers want you to ask:
Questions to Ask
1. Is there a formal training process? “Hiring managers want to see that people are ambitious, driven, and growth minded,” says Mason. “When a candidate asks about formal training process, likely they’re asking because they’re excited about learning and upskilling and growing in their career. I think that asking this question paints you in a more favorable light for hiring managers.”
2. Does the company invest in upskilling employees? While this question is similar to asking about training, it takes learning and development one step further, says Mason. “When I see ‘invest,’ it signals that the employee wants to know if the company will pay for continuing education courses or attending a conference,” says Mason. “This shows an interest in external investments that go beyond the company’s own formal training process for professional development.”
3. Are promotions merit-based and fair? Asking this question shows that candidates care about being promoted and doing a good job, says Mason. “Hiring managers like to see that someone’s ambitious and driven and wants to grow and advance,” she says. “They want to know they aren’t going to do the least they can do to skate by with their current title. Asking about taking on more responsibility tells hiring managers that candidates are interested in growing in general.”
Questions to Avoid
The JobSage survey also found three questions hiring managers hope you avoid asking.
1. Is anyone in the organization a jerk? This subjective question puts the interviewer in an uncomfortable position. One person may perceive some behaviors as being jerk-like, while the same situations may not bother someone else.
“There’s not an easy ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to that,” says Mason. “Saying ‘yes’ means someone is injured, and you’re bad-mouthing one of your colleagues and perhaps turning away a candidate. It can get into office politics and is the murkier way to ask, ‘What’s it like to work here?’ Or ‘What are the negative parts of working here?’”
2. Does the company have a lot of unnecessary meetings? While this is a valid question to ask, especially in this day of endless Zoom meetings, it, too, is subjective, says Mason. “What’s necessary and what’s unnecessary?” she asks. “It puts hiring managers in an awkward position where they don’t want to badmouth the company by saying, ‘Yes, we do.’”
3. Is anyone in the organization inappropriately flirtatious? This question is similar to asking if anyone in the company is a jerk. “Flirtatious means different things to different people,” says Mason. “It’s hard for the hiring manager to answer that. What’s inappropriate to one person might not be to someone else.”
The Best Way to Approach Your Questions
Instead of asking questions that put the hiring manager in an uncomfortable spot, consider what information you’re after, says Mason. Then rethink how you phrase your questions. Often, what you’re trying to get at is finding out if the organization has a healthy culture.
For example, you could ask, “How will the company handle a situation where someone’s inappropriately flirtatious?” Or “How would a company handle a situation where someone was being a jerk?”
“That’s fair game and more comfortable for the hiring manager to answer,” says Mason. “It’s a more tactful way to frame the question and still get a relevant response. Candidates should be asking as many questions as come to mind. Just think about ways to tactfully frame them.”
No one wants a boss who is a bully. One of the main reasons people leave a job is because they have a bad manager. Unfortunately, the drastic changes that happened in the workplace during the pandemic may have created more toxic bosses.
“Bullying behaviors often stem from stress and anxiety and the desire for leaders to solve a problem,” says Bonnie Low-Kramen, author of Be the Ultimate Assistant. “What the pandemic did is heighten stress and anxiety in the workplace, especially among leaders who didn’t get training on how to manage a team. … All of that is causing leaders to not necessarily act in a respectful way to the team.”
Instead of finding out too late that you’re working for a toxic leader, look for these five signs during your interview:
1. Observe How They Interact with Others
One way to spot a bully is to listen to how they speak with others. Do they do they say “please” and “thank you”? Do they call people by their first names? Do they interrupt?
“Interruptions send a message that ‘what I have to say is way more important than what you’re saying,’” says Low-Kramen. “Those are those are strong clues.”
In an interview panel with more than one interviewer, candidates can also observe how managers react to their coworkers and vice versa, adds Jill Chapman, a senior performance consultant with HR provider Insperity.
“For instance, a manager who dominates the interview without allowing for others’ questions may indicate a domineering management style,” she says. “If signs seem murky, candidates can ask about how managers maintain a positive work environment… with a dismissive or rude answer pointing toward a workplace bully.”
2. Determine Their Expectations for the Role
During the interview, ask the manager, “What differentiates a successful employee in this role from an unsuccessful one?” suggests Eileen Linnaberry, Ph.D., practice leader and consultant for professional services firm Vantage Leadership Consulting. “Look for clues that the hiring manager expects compliance, always-on availability, and exerting their authority for the sake of power,” she says. “For example, if the hiring manager considers successful employees to be the people who put in midnight hours and work weekends, you may find yourself bullied into doing so as well.”
3. Notice If They Try to Put You at Ease
Interviews can be stressful. Linnaberry suggests paying attention to what the hiring manager does to put you at ease.
“If they do things to create a stressful environment in the interview, they are likely to do so on the job, as well,” she says. “The hiring manager who is late for the interview and does not give you time to represent your capabilities is likely continue showing little respect for your time and skillset going forward.”
4. Watch How They Handle Discomfort
The key to spotting toxic people is to get them to confront situations where they might fail or look bad. A lack of concern for others while responding to that ego threat is a sure sign of a potential bully, says Dr. Kenneth Matos, global director of people science for Culture Amp, an employee experience platform.
“A question you could ask would be ‘What is your opinion on your company’s chief rivals’ strengths and vulnerabilities and how they compare to your company?’” he suggests. “A good answer is one where the respondent can provide feedback with respect for the rival. Are they able to acknowledge where the rival is more effective? Do they speak of the rival with respect or disdain? Would you want your boss speaking to or about you the same way?”
Low-Kramen, who worked as the personal assistant for actor Olympia Dukakis for 25 years, likes asking leaders, “How are you on your worst day?” The answer to that question will tell a lot, especially if you watch their body language after posing the question.
“Olympia Dukakis would often say, ‘Bonnie, the body goes first,’ meaning before anybody says anything, the body telegraphs what they’re feeling,” says Low-Kramen. “You can see a tenseness and discomfort.’”
5. Talk to References
“It is becoming increasingly popular for applicants to ask to speak to organizational references, such as others on the team or previous employees who have worked on the team in the past,” says Linnaberry.
Speak to people who work for this leader and ask specifically how they are being managed and developed. When managers are investing in their staff and creating a psychologically safe environment, the team will have no problem sharing that information with new applicants.
“Bullying managers are likely to create an environment of vague secrecy—team members may not come out and tell you the boss is a bully, so read between the lines and probe deeper, if possible,” says Linnaberry.
