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

by Ruchika T. Malhotra

Oftentimes, people are promoted because they’re seen as good people, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good managers,” Minda Harts, author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table, tells me.

“It’s not enough for white women leaders to send the elevator back down for women of color. Sometimes it will even require you to get back in the elevator and ride with them. That’s active commitment,” observes Harts. She says that more work cultures must explicitly state that allyship and advocacy for women of color is valued, and reward those who practice it. Until then, many will feel psychologically unsupported, operating in an atmosphere where they can’t bring their authentic selves to work.

A: analyze employee engagement data D: develop a code of conduct A: accept failure P: propel and fund ERGs T: team tenets on DEI

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)

Women of color typically feel a significant pressure to prove themselves and outperform, especially if they are tokens (“the only”) or one of the very few at the workplace.

She recommends a rigorous (not necessarily lengthy) process, where everyone who was involved in the incident “goes around and talks about what they saw, what happened from their point of view and their little part in it, with the aim of getting to what really happened. And what we can change to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Edmondson says that normalizing failure and having a process to discuss it are central to creating psychological safety on a team. “A team may be busy, people may feel like they don’t have an hour to discuss a failed incident, and yet the recognition is by doing this particular learning process,” she explains. By taking this action, her research has shown that teams can potentially avoid countless, undesired, and preventable failures.

What people don’t understand is that two things can be true at the same time. Tom can be a good man to you, but he also could be doing these other things that you’re not on the receiving end of.”

Perfect

“That means, truly anyone’s voice might be mission critical, and organizations must be in a place where different perspectives are allowed to be heard,” she says. “Our future depends on psychological safety.”

college. As famous showrunner Shonda Rhimes writes in her book Year of Yes, when you are the first, only, or different in any environment, “you are saddled with that burden of extra responsibility—whether you want it or not” to represent your whole community in every interaction.18

Manaulo knew that while the leader’s behavior was outright racism, the fact that not one of her peers in that restaurant stood up for her was just as painful. It was yet another illustration that she would never be valued as one of the team.

I have found that the term “belonging” often resonates more deeply in non-Western cultures.

When managing a global team or employees in other countries, recognize that professionalism and communication styles are typically Eurocentric, and frequently set nondominant-group women up for failure if they’re measured against those standards. 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

In any society that prides itself on fairness and equality, a woman of color leader is a strength, not a risk.

Centuries of oppression persist throughout our societies, and that has reinforced the exclusion faced by women of color in the modern workforce. To move toward action, I turn to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s saying, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” All the stories of the courageous women of color detailed in these pages capture acute racial trauma—not only because of the bias of their perpetrators, but because of the complicity and silence of their peers.

This is precisely why we need all hands on deck. Inclusion on purpose demands that leaders not stand by passively when they see yet another woman of color overlooked and underestimated.

Be all right with being uncomfortable as this work is not easy. Reflect on what you don’t know and Invite feedback. Know that Defensiveness doesn’t help. Normalize Growing from mistakes, and know that you, like everyone, will likely make errors when working toward greater inclusion and equity. That’s when the most meaningful change can happen. Most of all, Expect that change takes time.

When we solve for the most marginalized in the workplace, everyone rises and benefits. That’s why inclusion on purpose is so powerful—for employees, leaders, and organizations.

People with power get to influence which ideas shape the world. Most often they power the ideas of others who look like them, and the cycle continues. As long as women of color are not given the agency to shine, they face an uphill struggle to succeed. Can power ever be fully shared—not competed for—so that each person in the workplace regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and immigration status has the opportunity to be deemed powerful? I turned to Nilofer Merchant, author of The Power of Onlyness, for an answer.

Merchant urges each of us to connect with the place of power that is only within ourselves; each of us stands in our own spot in the world, and from that vantage point, we each have the agency to create the world we want to live in. This unique power is what she calls “onlyness.”

We can all win when we focus on turning away from perpetually seeking the spotlight, which only has space for one person to be illuminated, and toward the sun, where there is more than enough light for all of us to shine.