The Capstone of Core Values
Ensure that your DEI strategies are authentic and sustainable—not performative—through this fourth and final pillar.
To find success in today’s business world, organizations need to understand and showcase the “why” of what they do.
In a recent Forbes article about core values, Steve Grau, founder and CEO of Royal Ambulance—which was named one of Glassdoor’s 2021 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work For—discussed how values and mission are what ultimately drive a team’s performance.
“When your core values are truly ingrained in your way of doing business,” he said, “every decision will be made with those values in mind. This helps align every decision with your brand and what it hopes to accomplish. It creates accountability to yourself and others - and customers will see that in every interaction you have with them.”
According to Kantar Consulting’s Purpose 2020 report “Inspiring Purpose-Led Growth”, brands with a high sense of purpose have experienced a valuation increase of 175 percent over the past 12 years. “Today employees want to do more than sell cars,” the report said. “And today’s consumers want to do more than just buy a car.”
That includes the majority of millennials and Gen-Z, who want to do business with companies that “have a point of view and stand for something.”
These articles resonated with me—in my work as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) corporate consultant, but also personally. In a world of corporate sameness that feels largely out of control, I want to feel a sense of connection with the products I spend money on and the companies with which I work. If I don’t know what you stand for, how do I know if I want to invest my time, money, and/or energy with you?
Also, in my work with organizations, I’ve come to understand how core values are an integral pillar of Inclusive Leadership.
If as a leader, you do not actively seek out and consider all perspectives in your organization to inform your decisions and collaborate more effectively, then you may need to reflect on how you can expand inclusion in your leadership—and with that, you may also be largely unaware of what makes your organization unique. You may not understand the values or mission—the “why” behind what you do.
Given how crucial core values are to an organization’s success, it makes sense that if we want our diversity and inclusion strategies to be successful, authentic, and sustainable, we should align these strategies with the core values.
Aligning the two ultimately creates safer working environments where everyone is accepted and valued for who they are—and where inclusive leadership can thrive.
Uncovering Your Core Values
When I’m working with clients to develop their inclusive leadership skills, we will sometimes review the core values that their organization has defined. Or, if they have yet to define them, we’ll analyze their practices and shared beliefs as an organization.
Then, we brainstorm ways that we can integrate those values with the inclusive impact they want to make within their organization, as well as with their customer base and the surrounding community at large.
Here are a few examples of core values an organization may adopt:
(Already established) CORE VALUE: TEAMWORK
We focus on creating successful teams through the diversity and authentic inclusion of skills, experience, and background.
CORE VALUE: SAFETY
We believe that psychological safety is just as crucial as physical safety. We work to create an organization where employees, leaders, and clients are safe to speak up on the issues that are important to them.
CORE VALUE: ACCOUNTABILITY
We believe that self-awareness is crucial to accountability in our culture. Self-awareness around bias and prejudice is cultivated at every leadership level and we hold ourselves and others accountable to dispel non-inclusive language and actions.
Once we’ve brainstormed shared values, the teams that I work with will then take these ideas to stakeholders within the organization. Many times, that is the Human Resources team, upper-level management, as well as the leaders of employee resource groups (ERGs). After building consensus among these groups regarding the core values they wish to implement, the leaders of the organization should communicate them to the entire organization as a whole, and also work to uncover concrete ways to best implement these core values.
The reason this pillar of Inclusive Leadership is so effective is because many organizations use their core values as a common language and have integrated them into team meetings and performance reviews. This use of core values as a cornerstone of the organization then creates a path for clarity as we work together to further develop inclusion strategies. It is extremely beneficial to work from an existing base of common language and value concepts that have already been highlighted within the company’s culture.
These core values also serve as an organization’s north star.
No matter how much diversity, equity, and inclusion training a leader engages in, there remains one factor that prevents complete knowledge, preparedness, and adherence to being flawlessly inclusive—we’re all human. And as such, humans have so much nuance and individuality that no amount of training can cover all scenarios.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of challenges in regards to inclusion will not have a cut-and-dry answer. There will not always be a prescribed way forward that will allow one to stay focused on impact, as well as remain authentic in one’s inclusive leadership. But in searching for answers or brainstorming solutions to such challenges, you can always rely on core values as a guide.
While language and behaviors are constantly evolving and may shift and change over time, core values can serve as the foundation that inclusive leaders can refer back to in order to make sure that their decisions align with the values of the organization and its people. Leaders are more effective when they are able to easily recall the foundation on which they are basing decisions. Furthermore, a leader is acting from a place of inclusion when they fully understand their “why”, and stand behind the environment they are trying to create.
I recently held an Inclusive Leadership Skills training for a tech manufacturing company. The majority of the company’s employees work in plants making products for the industry, and it was noted that “Safety” was a top core value due to the numerous potential hazards that are present in these types of environments.
One of the leaders in the room spoke about how they opened every team meeting at the plant with a “Safety Minute.” Interestingly enough, even before our training, the leader had already begun to recognize the need to address psychological safety, in addition to physical safety, in their work environment.
An employee had approached the leader with a potential safety hazard that they had witnessed, but also noted they didn’t feel safe sharing about it during the meeting. The leader was grateful that no one was hurt by the safety hazard, but felt unsure of how to fix the problem of helping team members feel safe enough to bring up issues with one another.
So, as part of the Inclusive Leadership Skills training, I was able to help this leader and their colleagues learn strategies and techniques to establish both the physical and psychological safety their organization needed in support of their core value—Safety.
The training also allowed the leaders at this manufacturing company to understand how integrating inclusion strategies and exercising inclusive leadership paired with their established core values helps to fully align the organization’s mission.
The Authenticity of Core Values
Let’s be real—the public and our employees often view DEI strategies as performative. It is regarded as “a box to be checked” for PR purposes and/or to prevent lawsuits.
And frankly, many times these strategies are performative. No matter how much leaders want their organization to be inclusive of all of its employees, it’s extremely difficult to envision how an organization can communicate real, authentic inclusion. Without a north star, our DEI strategies often end up sounding like buzzwords—no matter how genuinely individual leaders feel about them.
But, I have found that by integrating DEI strategies with already established core values can go a long way in preventing that performative aspect.
One component I truly love about incorporating this technique of aligning core values with DEI strategies is what it communicates to prospective employees. I speak with LGBTQ+ employees on a daily basis, and I frequently ask them how they evaluated the company they decided to work for, either before applying or during the interview process. And nearly every LGBTQ+ employee I’ve spoken with said that they had first searched an organization’s website for its diversity statement.
Sometimes, this statement is easy to find. But sometimes, it doesn’t exist.
Organizations that house their diversity statement within their core values and have made these statements readily available and accessible for anyone looking, send a huge message on the priorities within their organization. This small act shows that not only is diversity, equity, and inclusion important, but that they have mapped out their DEI initiatives in an authentic way by aligning it with their core values. For many employees that I speak with, this pillar of Inclusive Leadership sealed the deal on them accepting an offer with a company.
Core Values Improve Sustainability
No two organizations can create authentic inclusion in exactly the same way. There’s no checklist to follow to make sure people feel safe and have a sense of belonging at work.
Without a north star of having defined core values, the leaders charged with creating inclusion strategies will find themselves looking in every nook and cranny for the “right” way to do DEI work. As we learned in the non-binary thinking pillar, there is no “right” way—and pursuing it can lead to burnout.
If we want an organization’s investment in authentic inclusion to stand the test of time, DEI strategies need to be tied back to the organization in a concrete way. One of the most direct ways to do that is by defining and embedding core values into everything.
If everyone understands the “why” of the organization and stands behind those values in the workplace, it will benefit the organization in a multitude of ways—from attracting potential employees and increasing the company’s profits, to improving employee safety and belonging, and ultimately, building a workplace that showcases true, authentic inclusive leadership.
Core Values is one of the Four Pillars of Inclusive Leadership Skills that makes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives authentic, successful, and sustainable. Information regarding the trainings can be found here.