For more than a decade, Lincoln Financial Group’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion has been steadfast. Throughout this time, the learnings have been countless, and progress has been made. When you’re feeling stuck, coaching for financial advisors can help you see your situation more clearly.
Following the tragic murder of George Floyd, Lincoln Financial, like many companies across corporate America, put actions in place to specifically address racial justice and equity. These specifics are known as our “8 Actions,” and they continue to guide our work. The actions are as follows:
- Increase minority leadership by 50% over three years with a focus on Black officers
- Formally tie leader compensation to diversity, equity and inclusion metrics
- Implement sustainable practices to increase Black population
- Continue conversations on race across the organization
- Grow Lincoln’s professional network of Black financial advisors and planners
- Expand the diversity, equity and inclusion function
- Expand Lincoln Financial Foundation giving to further support Black communities
- Preserve the history of the Black experience via sponsorship of The HistoryMakers
As we implemented our 8 Actions, we learned the key to success was to be specific about what we wanted our results to be. Sharing strategy, initiatives and what needs to happen sometimes comes naturally, and it is needed. The differentiator is specificity regarding the change that needs to happen. Two of the following 8 Actions illustrate this:
Increase minority leadership by 50% over three years with a focus on the Black Officer population.
At Lincoln Financial, we want to see all employees reflected in the leadership of our organization. With our increased focus on specific recruiting, development and retention measures we are on a path toward that vision. In working with our dedicated diversity recruiters, updated search practices and the executive “Balanced Slate” policy, our population has increased. In addition, we created leadership development, mentoring and career development programs targeting minority and Black talent. We specifically inventoried existing talent programs to ensure diversity of people, content and practices were equitable and represented in a meaningful way. It takes a team of people to influence and create this change. The photo accompanying this article features six of Lincoln Financial’s most senior Black executives. These executives along with their peers and our CEO are the village of leaders committed to seeing this measurable change. The end of this year will be three years since we implemented our 8 Actions, and we are on track to meet this goal.
Formally tie leadership compensation to Diversity and Inclusion objectives.
With this action, we set an expectation for accountability. To support and measure the change we want to see, we added a specific diversity, equity and inclusion metric to our executive leadership’s long-term incentive compensation plan. We specifically wanted to formally support our action to increase the minority leadership population to better align with our overall minority population and ensure accountability to do just that.
Please see our proxy statement for more details on our diversity, equity and inclusion compensation goal.
Although the actions shared are only a portion of the work we are doing at Lincoln Financial, they speak to the specific actions we have put in place to drive meaningful, measurable change.
A guiding quote by Abraham Lincoln and referenced several times during Lincoln Financial’s recent all employee Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Conference – “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm” enables our focus to remain steadfast on the 8 Actions and achieving specific results aligned to achieving meaningful and measurable change.
