Yesterday I spoke at a conference about inclusion. Yet again, the issue of fear as a barrier to change came up. Fear of doing or saying the wrong thing. Fear of the criticism and ire of others. Fear of being vulnerable as you move towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Leaders regularly need to lean into scary things. That is just a fact of leadership life. It could be anything from media and reputational crises, financial crises, competition eating up a market they thought was theirs and so much more. If leaders can lean into these issues, they have to ability to lean into DEI.
Fear is a staple of leadership. Its only antidote is courage.
Courage is like a muscle. The less you use it, the more daunting it feels when you need to, and the more it costs you to exercise that muscle.
So how do you build your courage muscle, particularly when it comes to DEI? Below are four ways.
1. Fill the knowledge gap
Many people say they are fearful of DEI because they feel they don’t know enough about it. I always find this a bit puzzling. We live in an age where we are awash with advice on DEI.
In writing this article, I put “diversity” in the books tab of Amazon. 75 PAGES of books came up. At the risk of sounding simplistic, just pick one and read it. If you don’t know how to choose, either go where your interest takes you or pick one with more than 100 four or five star reviews and take it from there.
Don’t have time to read? You-tube is your friend. Find something that interests you or someone you admire in the DEI field and see what they have to say. Everyone can find 30 minutes a few times a week – even once a week – to watch a you-tube video.
Don’t even have time for that? Find one of those apps that summarise books and/or turn them into audio. I use one of these regularly to listen and learn while I’m cleaning the house or cooking. You could listen while you exercise or mow the lawn or drive somewhere.
When you approach learning with curiosity and see it as an adventure, finding out about DEI can feel like fun. And increasing your knowledge on DEI is like turning on the light in a dark room. The shadows disappear and what seems scary in the dark reveals itself as anything but.
2. Map your zones of comfort and fear
Below is a model I created for my 1:1 coaching clients. When people say they are scared, they usually lump everything into one box labelled “fear”. The reality is that there are gradations of fear, and doing the exercise below helps you get precise about where different actions sit in your zones of comfort and fear.
