Supporting a truly diverse C-suite

Organizations that want to champion diversity can’t be content with appointing just one person to the C-suite from an underrepresented background, say women leaders.

“One of anything is a token,” said Tanya Blackmon, president and founder of Auspen Consulting. “Two is support. Three is a game-changer.”

Research suggests teams with a variety of perspectives can solve problems more effectively. But executives must think critically about how they define and measure diversity, along with putting processes in place to recruit, hire and retain a wide range of leaders.

Often when people hear the word “diversity,” they assume the conversation is about race—and primarily think in terms of Black and white, Blackmon said. But diversity encompasses a range of identities, including gender, sexual orientation, geography and disability, to name a few.

“I’ve really gotten to the point where when someone says, ‘I want more diversity on my team,’ I’ll say, ‘Which dimension?’ ” Blackmon said.

Unconscious bias can lead people to overlook those who could bring value to their organizations. To encourage diverse hiring and diminish any inadvertent prejudice, Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic Health System redacts some information on curricula vitae and other application materials when hiring for leadership roles.

The interview panel doesn’t even know an applicant’s name, said Dr. Prathibha Varkey, the health system’s president.

After an interview, each interviewer gives the candidate a score before having a group discussion, in an effort to avoid “group think,” Varkey said. Otherwise, those with less seniority could unintentionally default to supporting a candidate favored by others.

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Varkey added that the panel must include multiple people from diverse backgrounds.

Carladenise Edwards, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, pointed out that anonymizing applications only enables diversity if the candidate pool itself is diverse. She said executives should take an “intentional step” to ensure people who have historically been left out are given the opportunity to succeed.

“There’s a lot of work for us to do to build a pipeline,” she said. “We should all be very intentionally reaching back to help push and bring people forward.”