3 Factors that are Organically Driving Board Diversity - Troy Taylor
Companies benefit in numerous ways from having diverse leadership that encompasses gender, ethnicities, and attributes of their teams, their clients, stakeholders, and the community at large. All of 2020, dripping into 2021, organizations around the world have made conscious efforts to make their leadership teams inclusive. Aside from these intentional efforts, it is interesting to see what global and local factors are causing boards to naturally become more diverse and inclusive. I recently read an article published by Yahoo Finance, titled 3 Factors that are Organically Driving Board Diversity.
“The calls to diversify board leadership is justified for many reasons. First, it’s about time corporate leadership started looking like the rest of the employee base and the customers they serve. Second, diverse leadership can have a positive, cascading effect on inclusion and company culture. It has also proven to lead to better decision-making and more profitability.”
“The value companies are seeing from board diversity is not merely from the presence of a woman or person of color. Today’s newest board members bring different skill sets and commit more time to the job. More than any regulations, these needs are going to help improve representation on corporate boards in the years to come.”
As the name suggests, the article highlights the three organic ways in which board diversity is increasing — greater scrutiny, greater time commitment amid change and uncertainty, and greater skill sets needed at the top.
The first reason highlights how board composition and decision-making has now got a lot more attention from the media, along with a public push for organizations to embrace diversity, sustainable habits, and responsible strategies. The second talks about how a more diverse candidate pool is now desired by boards due to wanting the best talent, who don’t have other board commitments. Lastly, a greater skill set is required to stay relevant and up to speed, hence allowing subject matter experts to be strong board candidates.
You can read the original article here.
