Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work

by Ruchika T. Malhotra

“The problem isn’t men, it’s patriarchy. The problem isn’t white people, it’s white supremacy. The problem isn’t straight people, it’s homophobia. Recognize systems of oppression before letting individual defensiveness stop you from dismantling them.”

Oswald Yeo, who says that a company’s culture relies on “who you reward, punish, and tolerate.”

Be uncomfortable Reflect (on what you don’t know) Invite feedback Defensiveness doesn’t help Grow from your mistakes Expect that change takes time

Do you feel like you belong here? Why or why not? Was there a time when I made you feel included? What did I do to foster that? Was there a time when I could have done more to make you feel included? How? How can I create a more inclusive environment on this team? What would you like to see me committing to in order to create a more inclusive team environment? What could I do differently now and in the future?

amplification can be an effective tool to include women of color. Some useful prompts are: “I want to pause and acknowledge this great idea that Priya just brought up” “Keisha, that’s a great idea to …” “I love Miriam’s suggestion to …” “Building on Tania’s excellent suggestion to …, I propose …”

finding that men—compared with women—consistently received feedback related to business outcomes. Across their research, they found that women received vague feedback that they were doing good work generally, but the feedback didn’t specify which actions were valuable or how their accomplishments were positive.

Ironically, because of the heightened awareness of workplace racism and bias, sometimes managers don’t want to say the wrong thing. So they engage in what the Stanford scholars call “protective hesitation” when delivering effective feedback.4 In essence, reviewers don’t deliver the critical feedback needed to advance a woman’s career—ironically—for fear of hurting their feelings, or that they will be perceived as sexist or racist (or both).

Effective feedback would instead be, “Here’s exactly what you did and here’s exactly the impact it had.” In this way, they would know exactly which actions to repeat or avoid.

biased feedback, where women of color receive comments on the style in which their work was delivered rather than the substance of the work completed.

consider your intention in delivering feedback in the first place, says Amy Gallo, workplace conflict expert and author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. “To give helpful and fair feedback, get real clear on the ‘why.’ Oftentimes we give feedback because we believe it’s our job as managers and we think it’s the right thing to do,” she says. But before you even utter the feedback, take a moment to ask yourself, What is my intention here? “And if your intention is not focused on that person’s development and growth, then reconsider giving the feedback.”

initiating a conversation with, “My intention by sharing this feedback is …” can make all the difference.

The Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) feedback framework is well known and effective.6 It was developed to deliver on-the-spot feedback. SBI safeguards against vague feedback by establishing the situation that you’re referring to clearly and specifically, the precise behavior that you’re addressing, and the impact of the person’s behavior on you, the team, or the organization.

Therefore I recommend adding one positive reinforcement to the SBI framework when delivering critical feedback.

Round out the SBI framework by asking the recipient to repeat back the feedback that you just delivered, especially how they heard it.

The code of workplace professionalism, as it stands, only rewards women of color when they are able to code-switch to fit in. Biased feedback about professionalism is usually the first marker of rejection when they don’t. Once again, focus on substance of their work, not style, when delivering feedback to safeguard against this.

Think of words that we frequently use to provide critical feedback to women: emotional, angry, and submissive. Would we use the same words to describe men? Mentally flip whomever or whatever you’re talking about to test it.

“Managers must investigate, ‘Would I give this feedback if I saw the same behavior in someone who looked like me?’ If you’re about to give feedback to a Black woman that she’s aggressive, you have to ask yourself whether you’d say the same thing to a white man? Would you still use that word?” Taking a moment to flip it can help think through and hopefully catch your own biases.

Awareness about racial bias is necessary because flip it to test it isn’t foolproof. For example, a white Western woman could be described as “articulate” and that’s not an exclusionary comment because white people are expected to be articulate. When people of color are called articulate, however, this perpetuates the biased narrative that people of color generally aren’t articulate—and therefore this one individual is the exception versus the norm.

Bias Interrupters lays out the four most common types of biases that show up in performance review feedback.10

Prove-it-again bias: Women of color are expected to constantly prove their competence and ability to perform their jobs, but the same is not expected from employees from dominant groups.

Tightrope bias: A far narrower range of acceptable workplace behavior is allowed for women, especially women of color, compared with men and white people.

Maternal wall: Mothers or caregivers are penalized for their role outside work, particularly in terms of experiencing pay, promotion, and opportunity gaps. I haven’t spent much time on the role of women of color as caregivers, but even women of color who are not parents usually take an outsize responsibility in caregiving for their community. Beware the maternal/parental wall that often appears in feedback with phrases like “distracted,” “priorities lay elsewhere,” “is not ready for a promotion,” or “never stays late.” Tug-of-war bias: When there’s limited opportunity for women of color to progress, they may feel like they have to be pitted against each other to succeed. Feedback from a woman of color manager to a woman of color employee may be biased because there’s a perceived threat due to this scarcity of opportunities.

What would you have liked to see this employee do? What are key areas or deliverables you recommend that the employee focus on? What actions or behaviors have you seen this employee take to improve their skills?

“We evaluated skills and growth in a different way from before, accounting for behaviors such as remote work effectiveness, [employees] building their own resilience, supporting others, adapting their way of working. We explicitly gave managers this guidance ahead of their reviews to count these behaviors from employees as growth.”

Culture Amp, the software platform for employee engagement, shared the five questions that elicited the most insight into inclusion. I identify the specific area of culture that each question addresses: I feel like I belong at this company (inclusion) I can voice a contrary opinion without fear of negative consequences (psychological safety) Perspectives like mine are included in decision-making (psychological safety) My company believes that people can greatly improve their talents and abilities (growth mindset) Administrative tasks that don’t have a specific owner are fairly divided (fair distribution of office housework) As always, ensure that you disaggregate the data by gender and race.

A code of conduct must spell out that not only egregious forms of discrimination (such as racial slurs or sexual harassment) won’t be tolerated but what exclusionary behaviors look like instead.

started having an annual “fail fest” during which it would gather at the end of the year to discuss and even celebrate mistakes. This exercise allowed the team to bond over errors—large or small—and started normalizing failure, given that failure is normal! Later, when I informally checked in with members of the team, a number of employees from a variety of backgrounds reported feeling relief that mistakes could be aired more freely and a greater sense of belonging on the team.

As a team of Stanford researchers advise in a Fast Company article, “Whenever you feel the urge to correct a behavior or appearance as ‘nonprofessional,’ pause. Ask yourself, ‘Is this ineffective or different?’ and ‘Can I expand my expectations to include this?’ Instead of dismissing what you see, try to understand why you are having the reaction and learn to make room for it.”12

Whose perspectives should be here but aren’t? Am I always the right person to lead an initiative, or are there women who are often overlooked yet eminently qualified to lead? Could I better support this not from the front but instead by taking a learning and support role?