More Inclusive In Your Business and Why It Matters

"No, it's OK. I don't need to meet her."

This was in response to an offer I made to connect one of my acquaintances with an influential person, someone who could prove to be a valuable ally.

I was struck silent by his response. Wha?!

When this kind of thing happens, I'm always shocked.

I get it on one level. All some people want is to be at their jobs for the required number of hours and then go home. But that is not you.

You're not just putting in time. You want to have an impact. You want to make a difference.

To do that, you have to open your heart and mind beyond what is familiar, and be curious about what is different.

The bigger issue with my acquaintance was lack of vision. If you only look at what is immediately useful, at how something fits into your existing world, you'll always be limited. And your impact will be limited too.

As an entrepreneur, one of your biggest advantages is your ability to see beyond the obvious, beyond the immediate, to a larger vision.

This goes beyond just networking. It's about what you do within your business too.

Are you being inclusive about the people you hire and choose to do business with? Are you making choices that look beyond gender, race, disability, religion, and sexual orientation? Are you bringing in diversity of experiences and views?

The truth is, your business will do better if you do!

Let's look at the facts. Research on over 20,000 publicly trade companies in 92 countries shows that companies with women in top management have higher profits. Pretty illuminating when you consider that over half of all the companies surveyed had no women in executive positions. None. Close to 60% of the companies in the survey had no female board members and fewer than 5% had female CEOs.

Another study showed that companies with more women on the board significantly outperform their peers over a long period of time.

Even outside of boards and senior management, teams that are inclusive in all ways outperform their peers by 80% in team-based assessments. These teams were able to capitalize on the individuality of the diverse people on the team.

More fun facts: in a study of more than 450 global companies, small companies who were inclusive had 13 times higher cash flow. Regardless of size, a company was almost twice as likely to be change-ready and be innovation leaders in their market if they chose to be inclusive and value diversity.

What this study found was that inclusion and diversity has to be embedded in the business top to bottom. This isn't something you dust off when you write a job ad. It's an integral part of your business' value system.

All the evidence shows that embracing diversity and inclusion in all aspects of business results in significantly better performance.

So what is up? Why aren't we being more inclusive and embracing diversity with open arms?

Economics are not the issue. So what is?

For one thing, it's a hard thing to do. We tend to gravitate to people like us. It helps you like and identify with each other. It's human to be cautious of what is different.

At the very least, it's deeply uncomfortable to allow for a variety of perspectives when you aren't used to it. For some, it's downright fearful, especially when the actions of a few have come to signify and label an entire group.

Posted in: business