Five steps for building a diverse network to benefit your business

This article originally appeared on the ICAEW website in September of 2020.

Perhaps you’ve read studies showing that diverse organizations are likely to financially outperform industry medians.

Perhaps you agree with the moral imperative of working toward equitable and inclusive workplaces.

In either case, you may find yourself in agreement in theory, but struggling for how to move from theory to action.

You might wonder whether you have time in your busy schedule to do inclusion work. Here is where we need to reframe this discussion. Equity and inclusion work are not just “nice to have,” tools; they are essential career and business development skills for 2020 and beyond. Diversity, equity, and inclusion work are integral to every area of business, so finding the time to think about should be a business imperative.

You might find it hard to imagine that you, as just one person, can be a force for change. You can! Today I want to focus on one manageable aspect - your network. Intentionally building a diverse network is a skill that benefits everyone from junior

employees to the boardroom. A diverse network is a high value asset that can lead to more clients, resilient relationships, and novel business ideas.

The Problem

Finance is a field where who we know often determines who we work with. Hires, promotions, and new business relationships often come from our networks, or that of our colleagues or employees.

Using our networks is incredibly common; and it’s easy because a higher level of trust is granted to a “friend of a friend” as compared to a stranger. While the system of relying on our networks may be easy it is also limiting. And until we intentionally interrupt the pattern of networking, it can be a circular problem – our non-diverse networks stay non-diverse, and we miss out on all the benefits of diversity.

Non-diverse networks are bounded. If our networks are made up mostly of people with similar life, educational, and work backgrounds, we’ve all likely trained to tackle problems in similar fashions. We hear from the same few voices over and over, don’t get fresh ideas or recommendations, and we all target the same handful of clients. When we stay within our bounded networks, we miss out on novel approaches to problem solving, innovative business ideas, and connections to entire communities of ideas and resources.

A Solution

What if you could broaden your network? What if you could have access to all of the top talent, not just who you know and who they know? What if you could generate fresh business ideas and increase the reach of your work?

Let’s get pragmatic and outline steps you can take today, to diversify our networks.

Diversity comes in many forms- age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, pregnancy and parental status, religion, class, immigration status, and others. Here, I’ll be focusing on gender, racial, and ethnic diversity though I encourage you to expand your networks in as many ways as possible. These suggestions are primarily for white men, since they hold most of the positions of power, though some tips may be helpful for people from ethnic minorities and women.

Step One- Stop

Stop assuming your lived experience is the same as others. To create a diverse and inclusive network, this is a major mindset you will have to notice and control.

Step Two – Listen

Seek out women, Black and other people of colour, and women of color especially, who readily share their experiences with bias and discrimination. Listen to and/ or read their perspectives seeking to understand, not to compare or respond. Please don’t ask or expect people from underrepresented groups to educate you for free about the oppression they’ve experienced.

Step Three – Pause

Pause the urge to respond with your input to everything you see or hear. (This helps with the listening step).
Pause your thoughts to review your reaction when you hear about an underrepresented person’s experience with discrimination or bias.

Step Four – Amplify

Amplify the voices of your underrepresented colleagues. Amplify the voices of women, Black, Asian, Indian, and people of other ethnic minorities on social media by sharing their work.

Step Five – Advocate

Advocate for adding more voices from underrepresented groups to decision making meetings. If people of colour and women are not in the meetings, be the voice in the room that advocates for their needs; or even better, advocate for more seats at the decision making table so women, people of colour, and especially women of colour can speak for themselves.

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Your network will naturally expand using these empathetic techniques. People from underrepresented groups will see you supporting them, advocating on their behalf, and sharing their work. As you build that trust, you’ll get to know more people whose life experiences have been different from yours. When you genuinely connect with people, they may make introductions from their network, and your network further expands.

The Power of Making Introductions

Once you have that diverse network, put it to work for good! The next time someone you know is hiring or looking for new business relationships, consider your diverse network, and see if you know someone you could introduce. If you do, make a personal introduction to extend the trust your colleague places in you, onto the person you are introducing.

Remember, this isn’t a zero-sum game but instead is additive for all parties. Expanding your network helps our profession, our communities, and can help your own business.