By Monica Poindexter, Head of Inclusion & Diversity/Employee Relations, Lyft
Surviving 2020 and making it to 2021 when over 400,000+ people in the US did not, I developed an attitude of gratitude, increased resilience, and a sense of urgency to lead from the position I am in by influencing key stakeholders to drive collective impact. While 2020 was a painful and disruptive year, it was also a year of growth—I managed through unprecedented personal loss, juggled new caretaker responsibilities, and navigated through corporate headwinds brought on by the COVID pandemic. 2020 called for us to lead from the front as we responded to the racial reckoning resulting from the senseless killings of unarmed Black people while not allowing willful blindness to dilute the reality of systemic racism across this country.
Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) practitioners across the country quickly found themselves collaborating with internal stakeholders to help their organizations traverse the I&D landscape, thoughtfully navigating the racial, civic, and sociopolitical nuances. Companies that did not have access to I&D resources struggled to meet the real time needs of their workforce while leaning into the uncomfortable and horrifying public injustices.
As I&D practitioners, we often carry a personal stake in these issues, but must coach our stakeholders on how to model empathy, allyship, and workplace inclusiveness, while emphasizing the importance of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, communicating I&D/racial equity/corporate social responsibility commitments, and taking action to move this work forward. Based on my 20+ years of I&D and Talent Management experience, I can boldly state that 2020 tested, revalidated the need, and expanded the breadth & depth of the I&D scope of responsibilities everywhere.
While we do not know how the rest of 2021 will unfold, I remain optimistic and grateful that:
- Companies are investing more resources into I&D and racial equity work/initiatives
- We are all in a position where we can speak truth to power and can collaborate with stakeholders to quickly align on collective commitments and next steps
- More leaders are increasing their accountability to drive greater impact from the position they hold
Challenging the status quo is never easy, and doing so in a sustainable way can be even harder, but by leading from the position you’re in now, we can create a collective movement towards large-scale, systemic change.
