“透視領導力”是一個在線社區，最睿智、最有影響力的商界人物會在此回答一些有關職業生涯和領導力的問題。今天的問題是:“你如何在促進職場平等方面發揮作用?”回答者是SAP首席多元化和包容性推廣官安卡·維滕伯格。

當談到企業多元化時，我們不僅會面臨隱藏的外部障礙，而且面臨著來自于我們自身的障礙。我最近乘飛機出席了在舊金山召開的一場會議，一上飛機就有一名女飛行員向我問候。我記得我自己當時想的是，“哇，女飛行員,這下糟了！

在長達12小時的飛行中，我們一度遇到了氣流，我記得自己當時在想，“我希望她能夠掌控這架飛機。”當我們安全地降落在舊金山時，我意識到，如果駕駛艙里坐著的是一名男飛行員，我便不會產生這種想法。

盡管我對多元化和包容性的積極影響有著自己的認識、教育和理解，但我仍無意識地對這個女飛行員產生了偏見。這讓我想到我如何能夠幫助我的公司建立一個兼具多元化和包容性的員工隊伍。

雖然在過去三年中，普通工作人員的多元化大幅增加，但根據SAP和牛津經濟研究院的進行“2020年領導者”研究，中層管理層的變化一直較慢，而高級管理層和企業董事會的變化更加微不足道。

今天，多元化和包容性承諾不僅僅是為了方便，它同時也是一種商業需要。那么，我們每個人在促進職場平等方面能發揮什么樣的作用呢？

為多元化提供商業案例

得到最高管理層的支持當然是組織變革的關鍵組成部分。要想實現這一目標，重要的是要展示多元化和包容性如何能夠節省資金并提高營業收入，同時還要強調這些舉措的長期價值。麥肯錫的最近一項研究表明，“在種族和民族多元化四分位數最高的公司，其財務回報可能比其各自國家行業中位數高出35％。”此外，德勤人才發展調查在2015年進行的一項研究表明，多元化公司中每個員工的三年期現金流比非多元化公司高出2.3倍。

面對無意識的偏見

每個人都會產生無意識的偏見。在今天的職場中，每個人都應該停下腳步來解決這個問題。這些偏見來自于我們的個人經驗和我們看待世界的方式。了解無意識偏見的現實情況是工作中的一個重要組成部分，以減少在職場中產生無意識的偏見。提供多元化和包容性培訓，使用技術來識別和消除工作中有偏見的言語，確保被忽視的同事有發言權，并為組織的各級人員開拓機會，這些都有助于建立一個更具包容性的、且無偏見的工作環境。

團結起來

若想切實發生改變，需要在你的組織中灌輸團隊合作精神。您可以安排團體午餐或召開電話會議，以討論常見的專業經驗，分享最佳做法，并建立關系。這都有助于創造更強的社區意識。

例如，SAP每月舉辦“女性職業發展”網絡廣播，受眾已超過11,000人，遍及40多個國家。這個計劃和類似的舉措已經讓員工感受到與面臨類似挑戰和障礙的世界各地的同事建立了更為緊密的聯系，并創造了一個空間，讓他們來分享和聆聽鼓舞人心的故事。這種社區意識創造了更好的同伴關系，建立了文化理解，并打開了真誠的對話渠道。

努力發展業務而不帶任何偏見，對于促進職場平等至關重要——更具包容性的員工隊伍更具創新性，能更好地了解客戶，并能超越競爭對手。通向更具多元化的道路可從任何級別的任何人開始，并最終將形成一個更具包容性的環境，員工更加快樂，工作效率也更高。而你個人的回報在于，它將幫你改善你的職業文化。 （財富中文網）

作者：Anka Wittenberg

譯者：司慧杰/汪皓

The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question, “How can you play a role in advancing workplace equality?” is written by Anka Wittenberg, chief diversity and inclusion officer at SAP.

When it comes to corporate diversity, we face hidden obstacles not only externally, but also inside ourselves. I was recently boarding a plane to speak at a conference in San Francisco and was immediately greeted by a female pilot. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this is great—a female pilot!”

At one point during the 12-hour flight, we experienced turbulence, and I remember vividly thinking to myself, “I hope she has it under control.” Once we safely landed in San Francisco, I realized that if a man had been in the cockpit, that thought would not have crossed my mind.

Despite my own knowledge, education, and understanding of the positive impact of diversity and inclusion, I still held an unconscious bias toward this female pilot. This led me to think about how I could help build a diverse and inclusive workforce at my company.

While diversity has increased substantially within the general workforce over the past three years, change has been slower to come to mid-level management, and is even less evident among senior executives and corporate boards, according to the Leaders 2020 study conducted by SAP and Oxford Economics.

Today, a commitment to diversity and inclusion is much more than a convenience—it is a business imperative. So what role can each of us play in advancing workplace equality?

Make the business case for diversity

Receiving buy-in from the C-suite is certainly a key component for organizational change. To get that buy-in, it’s important to show how diversity and inclusion save money and boost revenue, while also highlighting the long-term value of these initiatives. As a recent McKinsey study shows, “Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” Additionally, a 2015 study from Bersin by Deloitte showed that diverse companies had 2.3 times higher cash flow per employee over a three-year period than non-diverse companies did.

Confront unconscious bias

Everyone has unconscious bias. In today’s workplace, it is time for everyone to stop tiptoeing around the issue. These biases are based on our personal experiences and how we see the world. Understanding the reality of unconscious bias is an important component of working to reduce it in the workplace. Providing diversity and inclusion training, using technology to identify and eliminate biased language in job listings, ensuring that underrepresented colleagues have a voice, and opening up opportunities at all levels of your organization are all ways to build a more inclusive, bias-free work environment.

Band together

To create real change, instill a sense of teamwork at your organization. You can arrange group lunches or host conference calls to discuss common professional experiences, share best practices, and build relationships. These will help create a stronger sense of community.

For example, SAP hosts a monthly “Women’s Professional Growth” webcast series, which has reached over 11,000 people in more than 40 countries. This program and similar initiatives have helped employees feel more connected to colleagues around the globe who are often facing similar challenges and obstacles, and creates a space to share and listen to inspirational stories. This sense of community creates better peer relationships, builds cultural understanding, and opens up honest dialogue.

Working to move your business beyond bias is critical to advancing workplace equality—and a more inclusive workforce is more innovative, better understands its customers, and outperforms the competition. The road to greater diversity can start with anyone at any level, and will ultimately lead to a more inclusive environment with happier and more productive employees. And it’s personally rewarding to know that you’ve transformed your professional culture for the better.