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The Right Approach to Outreach in a Time of Social Upheaval

The Right Approach to Outreach in a Time of Social Upheaval

The protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd. The continued outbreaks of a disease that’s seeing Blacks die at more than twice the rate of Whites. Black unemployment numbers reaching new highs. “It’s a perfect storm to unearth the racial inequities that have been happening in our society,” says Maysa Akbar, assistant clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine and author of the forthcoming Beyond Ally: The Pursuit of Racial Justice. “Good leaders right now would consider that their employees of color are going through the most traumatizing time.”

There are, of course, a range of emotional reactions. But as scholars Angelica Leigh and Shimul Melwani reported in a 2019 Academy of Management Review paper (“#BlackEmployeesMatter: Mega-Threats, Identity Fusion, and Enacting Positive Deviance in Organizations”), in moments such as this, “Black Americans describe feeling injured, even personally targeted, when they hear news of unarmed Black Americans being shot by law enforcement.” Feelings like “that could have been me” or “it might have been my kid,” they found, mean that news events can feel personal—including when we’re at work. We asked experts for their thoughts about outreach during these complicated times. Here’s their advice:

Check in. Tina Opie, an associate professor at Babson College who studies diversity, inclusion, and equity, and who has worked with companies on diversity issues, says, “You absolutely should reach out.” Not doing so can leave Black employees feeling isolated. Opie compares it to being there for someone who’s suffered a death in the family.

There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach, says Muriel Maignan Wilkins, co-founder of Paravis Partners and co-author of Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence. She encourages introspection when she’s coaching executives in fields such as management consulting, private equity, biotech, financial services, retail, and nonprofits. She asks them to focus on three things: their actions, the intent behind those actions, and the beliefs that shape their intent.

Different people will want to hear different things. Akbar suggests open, nondirective statements. “Don’t put the onus on the person to express their innermost thoughts and feelings,” she says.

Listen. If an employee wants to talk, don’t rush in with your own emotions. That’s something Angeline Dukes found helpful. Dukes, a Ph.D. student in neuroscience at the University of California at Irvine, wrote on Twitter about telling her adviser that she was having trouble engaging with the work. “I didn’t care about the experiments,” she tweeted. “I care more about Black lives being lost.” Her adviser, she wrote, listened. “As I cried and became upset, she didn’t drown out my thoughts with her own,” Dukes wrote. “She emphasized that my feelings are valid.”

Be concrete. Avoid well-intentioned phrases such as “we’re all in this together,” Opie says. Generalizations can ring hollow and backfire. Wilkins says one of the most powerful messages she’s received recently came from a White colleague who said she’d always thought she’d been an advocate for equity; this moment, however, had helped the colleague realize, “I still have a lot of work to do.”

Concrete help is as important as emotional support. Professors Kendrick Brown and Joan Ostrove studied attitudes about allyship and found that avoiding prejudice is only half the story. The other half is being a good sponsor and mentor or changing policies that have a disparate impact on Black employees.

Dukes emphasized that her adviser did both, writing: “As a white woman who openly admitted that she can’t fully understand how I feel, she heard my frustrations and concerns. But more than that, she offered concrete support. … She didn’t assume she knew what would be best for me. She asked what I needed.” They talked about moving some short-term deadlines and discussed specific ways the adviser could advocate for Black students.

Lead the change. Opie says that too often, “Black people are expected to swallow the trauma and then educate White people on how to stop traumatizing us.” Don’t ask people to fix a problem they didn’t create, she says. If you want to learn more about antiracism, there are articles, podcasts, videos, and lists of recommended books.

Managers should also take responsibility for changing policies and procedures that result in inequities in hiring, assignments, promotions or pay, or an unwelcoming office culture. “The world is changing, and I’m committed to changing” is something many employees want to hear, Akbar says.

She also suggests rethinking the role of employee assistance programs, which are often underutilized. Rather than waiting for workers to be in crisis, can these programs be retooled to offer preventive mental health care?

Don’t overpromise. Akbar and Opie say the statements corporate leaders have issued in recent weeks sound doomed to underdeliver. This is the opposite of how you build trust. Only say what you’re prepared to do. And, Opie emphasizes, “Don’t think you can get this work done with no budget.” Systemic racism is “a 400-plus-year problem,” Wilkins says. “It’s not going to be fixed in three weeks. And it will only ever be fixed if it’s done right.”

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