It is no secret that a diverse company is a successful one.
It is no secret that a diverse company is a successful one. Driving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) within an organization builds stronger teams, fosters creativity, improves business growth, and helps attract – and retain – top talent. Nearly 80% of employees report that they expect their leadership to implement DEIB initiatives to create meaningful change. According to a McKinsey study, companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to outperform their respective national industry medians’ financial returns.
And yet: As the macro environment shifts, and many companies are forced to pull back budgets and ‘do more with less,’ DEIB initiatives may be at risk of being pushed aside in favor of short-term projects that seem more closely tied to business growth and stability. DEIB can fall back into the category of ‘nice-to-have,’ more ‘people-centric’ work, and businesses can lose sight of just how vital the work really is.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Abi Williams, founder of Lead Not Lag, to discuss the intersection of people-centric and results-driven DEIB programming and why it’s really not an either-or situation at all – in fact, it is in part because DEIB work is so people-driven that it has such a significant impact on the health of a business.
In this conversation, we delve into the many ways companies and employees define and prioritize DEIB around the globe and the market conditions that are impacting these programs, and we break down some practical advice to help leaders navigate the road ahead.
First things first: Tell us about your background and how you got to where you are. What led you to your current role running Lead not Lag, and what inspired the company’s mission?
Abi: My purpose is to drive positive and sustainable growth in people, businesses, and processes. I’ve spent over 17 years in companies like Oracle, Meta, LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and Udemy, where I’ve excelled in improving bottom- and top-line global performance and growth. I have also coached several startups through Techstars, helping them set go-to-market strategies, improve revenue, and guide responsible growth. As an operating partner, I understand the challenges that exist across large enterprises and startups.
These experiences all culminated in my founding Lead Not Lag, which is entirely dedicated to helping startups grow, and really, to grow the right way – improving their survival rate, and achieving repeatable, scalable, and measurable growth. Our ultimate goal is to help high-growth startups thrive in a dynamic economy with the right people, operations, and strategy.
A big piece of the work we do is focused on developing and hosting leadership workshops and training at the leadership level. These trainings are designed to drive top-down alignment that empowers middle managers to drive progress and change within their organizations – and fostering diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion is a huge part of this.
I’ve known that DEIB was a passion of yours since we worked together at Udemy, so it’s no surprise to see that you’re centering it as a major part of your work now. Can you share more about what drew you to this kind of work, and the impacts you’ve seen in driving successful DEIB programs throughout your career?
Abi: I grew up living in Nigeria, the UK, and Ireland. Coming from such a diverse background, I witnessed firsthand the possibilities that are available to learn and enrich yourself when you are surrounded by many different types of people.
When we think about the driving forces behind teamwork and productivity, it quickly becomes clear why certain environments, where everyone looks and sounds the same, can create disempowering spaces. To foster innovation and generate creative outcomes, different perspectives, whether they are coming from cognitive differences or tied to race, ethnicity, gender, or otherwise, becomes a clear advantage for communities, teams, and businesses. For example, a few years ago, I joined a company where everyone looked and sounded the same – and I knew we needed to fix that. I started by driving changes within my own team, surrounding myself with people who had different sets of skills from different walks of life. And the results spoke for themselves. I ended up with one of the most engaged, highest-performing teams in the organization, and from there we were able to push our changes up throughout the company globally.
As a result of those changes, the business grew 660 percent. It was such a clear example of the power of highly engaged employees– and the bottom-line impact of DEIB when it’s done right.
There are a lot of different ways companies, leaders, and employees define and think about DEIB as a whole. What does DEIB mean to you? What do you think about its importance and impact?
Abi: For me, diversity simply means ‘difference’, and that difference is the edge. You have to move beyond connecting with an individual because you might have similar backgrounds or school experiences. We have to go deeper than that to really understand each other and our differences.
This obviously comes up a lot when you think about the process of interviewing candidates, but it really shows up in so many different ways in the workplace – it’s in the way we navigate meetings, it’s in who we promote and mentor, who we give praise or feedback to and how we do it. At the end of the day, it’s important to question the initial impulse of why you like or respond positively to someone, and if that impulse is being driven simply because there is an experience you have in common.
This trend towards ‘likeness’ leads to flat thinking within leadership, in teams, in departments, and in entire organizations. In my book, I coined the term ‘people learning’: It basically encompasses the ability to understand individuals and tap into their uniqueness in order to discover new ideas and perspectives that can make everyone and everything within a business better. And that is what DEIB means to me at its core: Proactively reaching out for those differences and being able to learn from them.
As a leader working at least part of the time in the UK and Europe, what are some of the differences you see when it comes to DEIB work? What are the opportunities for connection or learning there?Abi: I’m based in the Dublin, Ireland, but I work all over. One thing I’ve noticed is that it can be slightly more complicated, in terms of the sheer quantity of differences to contend with as a DEIB leader or a People leader tasked with running these kinds of programs. Just think of the volume of languages and cultures you might find in a European workplace.
As a leader, it’s really important to understand these differences and to take the time to really process just how nuanced and complex dealing with people from very different cultures can be, and what that means when it comes to leading teams, driving projects forward, setting up benefits and pay schemes – really every aspect of a business.
However, there's a huge opportunity here that leaders can lean into, and it comes back to something I always advise in my workshops: You need to stay curious. Take the time to understand how people from different backgrounds, cultures, etc. work and communicate and how that might impact performance.
For example, I had a German employee on my team who was an incredibly direct communicator. This is fairly common to German culture and is simply a different kind of communication style – if you’re cognizant of this behavior, you are less likely to interpret it as a negative characteristic as opposed to an individual’s authentic self. It’s critical to understand the complex cultural dynamics in play in order to lead in a non-biased way.
Often we see conflicting data points on where exactly DEIB is falling on priority lists every year. Lattice’s own research found that DEIB as an HR priority dipped for People leaders in 2021, but experienced a resurgence in importance into 2023. What is consistently clear is many organizations are not doing enough, or not doing the right things, to drive results. Where do you see DEIB falling in the priority lists of those in your network and the companies and leaders you work with, and how does that relate to impact?
Abi: Many organizations still aren’t realizing that DEIB is a must-do. When it’s zoned as a ‘nice-to-do’, it falls off the track far too easily. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of improvement on gender issues, driven in part by a heightened focus on male/female workplace parity, including pay equity. We saw a lot of reporting on pay gaps in particular, and companies responding to that and holding themselves accountable to change.
The reality is that there are many other areas of inequity that require the same level of focus and deserve the same effort to drive real change. Yet many leaders have yet to drive accountability in these other areas.
In some cases, it’s a matter of framing the discussion in the same way businesses set revenue or product goals. We see this all the time: Businesses set strict revenue goals and strict product goals, but where are the diversity goals? Where is the goal to ensure a diverse team? And if goals are set, they often come without the accountability that follows a missed revenue goal.
Gaps persist because consequences for missing these targets aren’t assigned. There are consequences for not hitting revenue numbers or for not shipping products in time, so why not for teams or leaders that aren’t driving inclusion efforts?
It’s time to start holding ourselves accountable. Without diverse teams, we miss different perspectives, we miss diverse insights, and that affects everyone. If the decision-makers aren’t diverse, it’s hard to bring about change. Accountability and the prioritization of DEIB need to happen both top-down as well as bottom-up.
Something we’re all dealing with as People leaders right now is navigating the impact volatile market conditions are having across industries. For many, this means tightening budgets and figuring out how to do more with less, and sometimes this can lead to DEIB initiatives being deprioritized as a ‘softer,’ more people-centric effort – one that can be picked up another time, when we have more resources or more time. How do you think about the connection between business success (the ‘hard’ numbers) and results and the more people-centric work?
Abi: Great people and great products enable a company to win. Many businesses invest heavily in product to ensure it passes the bar. However, when it comes to people – meaning employees, customers, and partners – those who actually bring the revenue – companies are hesitant to spend. If we really want to try to drive revenue, then focus on the people.
One striking example of this: A recent Deloitte study in the UK showed that for every £1 spent on employee wellbeing, a business received £5 pounds back attributed to a reduction in absenteeism and turnover. Happy people do their best work, which boosts productivity and helps a company win. A shift in mindset to manage the whole employee – including physical and mental well-being – creates engaged employees and engaged employees perform better.
What advice do you have for DEIB leaders and their teams who are trying to illustrate the importance of these kinds of initiatives back to stakeholders within their organizations?
Abi: We all want the same thing. A positive and engaging work environment, happy customers, and excellent revenue numbers. Investors want ROI on their investments. And ultimately, really investing in your DEIB goals is going to get you to all of these goals.
What are some of the practical ways businesses and leaders can see more tangible results from their DEIB programming? Are there common missteps you see in the course of your work that companies can address? Abi: So much research shows that a more diverse team is more productive. If that is not a universally accepted concept, then we must go back to tether it to proof.
To really break down what I think is the right approach, I would recommend leaders consider the following steps:
- Create and communicate a strategic use case that highlights the financial benefits of increased employee engagement and retention as well as improved customer satisfaction, which leads to increased market share and thus better revenue numbers. This data will demonstrate the impact DEIB work can have on the organization's bottom line.
- Move away from theory to the practical application using success stories that can showcase the tangible benefits of the model, as well as why it matters.
- Show the competitive advantage a successful DEIB strategy can provide by highlighting how initiatives can give companies a competitive edge in the marketplace today.
- Involve your stakeholders from day one and on. From initial planning to the implementation of processes, involvement drives accountability and buy-in. From the CEO to the CRO, if everyone believes in it, then it’s not just left to managers to handle.
- Educate, educate, educate. Continuous education will drive maximum understanding of the impact of the work being done as DEIB initiatives evolve.
- Emphasize accountability! Being transparent in communications to all stakeholders allows everyone a seat at the table of accountability. It’s how you can drive impact and follow-through.
Where do you think the DEIB space is headed in 2023 and beyond? What do you hope to see and what do you think could surprise us?
Abi: I think the DEIB space will become more data-driven as organizations strive to better measure and track the outcomes of their programming. Additionally, DEIB will become more global in scope as companies recognize the growing need to address cross-cultural context and integrate it better into overall business strategy. As it becomes more difficult for businesses to be competitive in a tougher market, DEIB will emerge as an important connection to business success.
The companies that thrive, now more than ever, will be those that understand that diverse people help a business win. And with so much work done around DEIB over the past few years, we are going to start to see that differentiation emerge more and more in the market.
