Leadership Tip #19 - Stop Obsessing With Diversity Quotas

Organisations are focusing on diversity quotas - whether that's about sex, race, disability or a number of other elements. This is the right thing to do, but how it is done is often wrong - senior leaders can drive poor behaviours by just focusing on the end result. We have experienced senior leaders deciding to offer roles because the candidate ticks a diversity box therefore the best candidate is rejected. This is wrong (in our view) from every angle.

Imagine knowing that you got the job because of your colour, your sex or your disability rather than your skills and suitability for the job. How gutted would you be? The answer is not in the outputs - it's in the inputs - diversify your decision makers and remove unconscious bias throughout the process - that way your results will be different because you've changed your thinking and therefore behaviours.