I Was a Victim of Stereotyping . . . and It Hurt!

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I don’t often share personal experiences in my blogs but this time I will.

I often provide workshops on diversity and sensitivity training, and one of the modules explores stereotyping. I use an exercise called “Release the Stereotype You Have of Others” from Clyde W. Ford’s Book, “We Can All Get Along.”

"We Can All Get Along, 50 Steps You Can Take To End Raciscm" is an excellent resource by author / speaker Clyde W. Ford

Webster’s dictionary defines stereotyping as “forming a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion.” That includes denying the individuality of a person and jumping to conclusions about them.

Admittedly, as a white male in the US, I rarely am a personal victim of stereotyping. That does sometimes make it hard to teach about something painful that I may not experience often myself. But very recently I was a victim of being stereotyped, and it hurt.

I will speak in generalities since I do not wish to divulge the identity of the offending party. It began as I was trying to reach out to a regional leader of an organization I am involved with and a member of. One of the concerns I wanted to express is that a number of simple questions that I had called in or e-mailed to the organizational headquarters had gone unanswered.

When my request for contact got to the correct person, their initial reply to me was a curtly worded e-mail about how the organization is unable to promote the services of one consultant over another. When I received the e-mail, I was shocked! The person assumed that because I was a private consultant, that I was a cut-throat, aggressive operative who was only interested in how the organization could promote my business. And this was an organization I pay dues to and had performed community service with on multiple occasions. No “thank you,” no “how are you;” instead just an attack based upon a stereotypical view of me as a consultant. I truly felt insulted and minimalized as a person and as a professional.

The good news is that I shared my feelings with the offending party and we cleared up the misunderstanding.

Two recommendations:
• Do not stereotype. View each person you interact with as a unique individual.
• Don’t jump to conclusions about someone’s agenda based on their demographics. Ask first before responding or interacting.

The Business Case for Diversity

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One of the three core expertise areas I offer in my consulting practice is diversity management with a specialization in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) workplace and marketplace. Earlier this week I published a similar blog on another area of expertise titled “The Business Case for Career Road Mapping / Skills Development.” Click on that title to link to the article.

Senior corporate leaders and stockholders expect to see a financially based business case for practically any business initiative, and this of course would include corporate diversity programs. Can I show with actual dollars how investing in diversity initiatives (for example, targeted constituency marketing, benefits programs, management training, sponsoring employee network groups, supporting community organizations, targeted recruiting…) can add to a company’s bottom line? Absolutely yes! I agree this is important and can be done.

Many studies on diversity management highlight that robust diversity initiatives positively impact employee engagement / employee productivity, employee retention, and constituency sales. As an example, I will use LGBT diversity programs since that is my area of specialization within diversity management, though the methodology could easily be used for any other constituency (Women, Black, Hispanic, Asian …) or even for cross-constituency programs.

For this example, I will use a 2,000 person business with an average employee salary of $40,000 and annual revenue of $250M. And I will conservatively estimate that 6% of employees and business revenue is from the LGBT constituency.

PRODUCTIVITY CALCULATION: number of employees x constituency percentage x average salary x percent productivity gain = productivity gain in $. For example, with 2000 employees with 6% being LGBT, salaries of $40,000 per year, a 5% productivity gain nets 2000 x .06 x $40,000 x .05 or $240,000.

ATTRITION SAVINGS: number of employees x constituency percentage x average salary x time for fully onboarding new employees x decrease in attrition percentage = saving in attrition $. For example, again using 2000 employees at $40,000, if it take 2/3rds of a year for onboarding and you can avoid 5% of the LGBT population from departing, the savings is 2000 x .06 x $40,000 x 2/3 x .05 or $160,000.

REVENUE GAIN: annual revenue x constituency percentage x percent increase in constituency sales = potential revenue gain. For this example with $250M in revenue, the potential net new revenue from a 5% increase in LGBT market share would be $250M x .06 x .05 = $750,000.

So overall in this case, bottom line we are looking at executing LGBT diversity programs providing a net expense savings of $400,000 and net new revenue of $750,000 to the business.

In addition you would get the “soft” benefits of overall higher employee morale, being able to attract the best talent as word spreads and your enterprise is viewed as an “employer of choice,” and overall community good will.