Is Your Team Determined to Fight for Diversity?
Never before in the history of our nation has diversity been more of an issue than it is now. It is time for change, but it takes an active mindset to change the corporate vision. Are you determined to help in that fight?
Dollars and (Common) Sense
Business writer Caroline Forsey in her online November 2018 article “5 Awesome Benefits of Diversity at Work” raised several important points as to what a diverse team can do to benefit a company. These measurable effects include fostering innovation, development of better ideas, elevating a company’s culture, and improving customer service. Forsey went on to cite several impressive sales and performance statistics of diverse teams, among them:
- Companies in the top quartile for being gender diverse are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above the median.
- Companies with the highest levels of racial diversity brought in 15 times more revenue than those with the lowest levels of diversity.
- Diverse companies are 70%more likely to capture a new market.
Want to hire the best and brightest sales people? Statistics also show the 83 percent of Millennials want to work for more diverse companies, and overall close to 60 percent of employees want their workplaces to be more diverse.
If employees want more diversity, and it’s been proven that diversity improves sales, why isn’t it happening at a faster rate? It comes down to intention, and the determination, the daily grit to make it happen.
Sally Duby, writing for Forbes magazine (July 8, 2020) in “Walk The Talk To Create Diversity In Sales, Part One” raises four important points where corporations must have the vision to bring about the changes needed to be more diverse.
Leaders within a company should identify functional areas that need diversity; HR and the functional leaders should set concrete goals and steps to improving diversity; train the entire management team on the hiring and interview process to remove unconscious bias; and, in my view, the most important, encourage team members to refer diverse people.
When team members in the field are invested, when team members see how diverse sales efforts yield positive results, they will push for more diversity in their own workplace.
Duby concluded:
“Hiring a diverse workforce requires intentionality. It involves truly assessing where your company is at with its current hiring policies and having difficult conversations.”
Are You Determined to Fight?
Many factors made me a successful sales person and a champion of diversity. My accident took me from being a martial artist and football player to being a bedridden quadriplegic.
It was in that hospital bed that I saw myself with the mindset of being well. To rise up from that bed took every fiber of determination and daily grit to move again. That philosophy of Mindset-Resilience-Grit shaped my life and my sales abilities.
However, I did not get well by myself. I had a team of healthcare professionals who fought beside me. They were as diverse as you can imagine, but to my mind they had no race or religion. They were my friends. They fought with me and for me. I dearly came to love them.
When we pull together, we are all made stronger. When we believe in each other, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
To book Scott Burrows, Corporate Diversity Speaker, for a virtual or live presentation contact us through this website or by calling: (520) 548-1169
