For us to describe the role of a diversity and inclusion ambassador, we should first fully understand what we mean by “a diversity and inclusion ambassador.”

Diversity and inclusion are defined in different ways depending on the source. Let’s first start with diversity. If you were to look up the definition, you would find it explained as the range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability or attributes, religious or ethical values system, national origin, and political beliefs. Webster’s defines diversity as the condition of having or being composed of differing elements.

In past decades, early models of diversity categorized it as “primary” and “secondary.” Primary dimensions of diversity included age, ethnic heritage, gender, mental/physical abilities and characteristics, race, and sexual orientation. These six differences were termed “core dimensions” of diversity because they outlined a powerful, sustained impact on our experiences, values, assumptions, and expectations throughout every stage of life. Secondary dimensions of diversity included elements that were deemed less visible and contained a greater element of choice.

Today, however, diversity is much more complex and has evolved. How a person identifies includes a variety of different areas and falls under various definitions. Many of these identities were not fully defined or understood when the initial models of diversity were created, but are included in today’s models.

For example, the dimensions of diversity have expanded beyond primary and secondary to consider organizational and cultural dimensions. The organizational dimension includes items such as industry, level in the organization, role, tenure, and management status. The cultural dimension includes items such as body language, conflict resolution preferences, traditional observances, and power or authority views.

Also, we can’t talk about diversity today without talking about intersectionality. The Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Intersectionality follows the premise that each of us cannot be narrowly defined. I am a woman, who is also Black, straight, and non-disabled. My history and culture, both personal and professional, also serve as additional descriptors that contribute to my individuality and how I define myself.

Intersectionality has come to the forefront in the last few years and is a critical aspect of diversity and inclusion strategies.

Oxford defines inclusion as the action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure. It also describes it as the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those who have physical or mental disabilities and members of other minority groups. Webster’s defines inclusion as the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability).

Organizationally, inclusion means that different groups or individuals having different backgrounds are culturally and socially accepted and welcomed and treated equally. Inclusive cultures make people feel respected and valued for who they are as an individual or group.

In recent years, organizations have also raised the issue of equity when talking about diversity and inclusion, and I think it is a very important aspect of the discussion. I’m going to extrapolate from the definitions drawn from global normative guidance.

Equality refers to people of all dimensions of diversity having the same conditions and opportunities to realize their full rights and potential, to contribute to their development, and to benefit from the results. Equality does not mean that every person becomes the same, but that their opportunities and chances are equal and that the differences that do exist in their skills, interests, ideas, and so on will be equally valued.

More than equality of opportunity, equity refers to the different needs, preferences, and interests of people. This may mean that different treatment is needed to ensure equality of opportunity. Equity is often used interchangeably with equality, but the two refer to different, complementary strategies that are needed to reduce inequities.

I try to take a pragmatic approach to how I define diversity, inclusion, equity, and equality. Diversity is simply “differences in how people identify themselves.” Equity is all the actions that need to happen to ensure that everyone experiences equality. Inclusion is how you bring those different people together to create an environment where everyone feels valued.

What Is a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador?

Now that we understand the importance of diversity, equity, equality, and inclusion, let’s explore the last word of the term diversity and inclusion ambassador. What does it mean to be an “ambassador” in this sense?

I tend to agree with Webster’s definition of ambassador, because it applies in our case. Webster’s describes an ambassador as a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity. I like this definition because it starts with someone acting, implying that action is critical to being an ambassador. It doesn’t happen through wishes, hopes, and prayers, but through action. It also says an ambassador as a promoter of a specified activity. This is equally important. A diversity and inclusion ambassador must promote and market diversity and inclusion by influencing others to see its importance and value.

That definition encompasses the model from the Introduction, which we will explore more deeply. Acting as a representative means that you are exemplifying the ideals of diversity and inclusion and being a promoter means that you are promoting those ideals to others.

Embodying the role of ambassador is critical to the work of those who are passionate about diversity and inclusion and who want to help change the environment, culture, and organization.

The Steps to Becoming a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador

Let’s talk about the role of a diversity and inclusion ambassador by exploring the model briefly covered in the book’s Introduction. I’ll walk you through it using my own life examples.

The first step in becoming an ambassador for diversity and inclusion involves focusing on you. You must do a bit of self-reflection and assessment.

My Story

I was born in a small steel-mill town in western Pennsylvania. My father was the first Black teacher, principal, and later superintendent in that part of the state. As a child, I watched him go through much adversity, which he met with steadfast dedication, commitment, and devotion to his belief that we are all created equal and deserve equity in our personal and professional lives. I also watched my mother, who was a stay-at-home mom, support him, counsel him, and get angry with him—and with such passionate strength. It is very much true that my parents informed my fundamental belief system and instilled in me the determination to fight for equity.

As I was growing up, I experienced many challenges as a Black and African American female. I was always in the minority throughout elementary, junior high, and high school. Overcoming adversity was a fact of life and you developed ways to get through each day. This makes a profound impact on how you view situations as you move through your life. My professional path included several positions, but my passion has always been working to advance equity across all the dimensions of diversity.

Self-Assessment

The self-reflection I went through included several different aspects. First, you have to understand what your conscious biases are. Yes, we all have heard about our unconscious biases (which many authors, especially in the past couple of decades, have taken a lot of time talking about and we will talk about that as well), but first if you are truly to do an authentic self-reflection, you have to understand those things that you are conscious of that might inhibit you from truly being the diversity and inclusion ambassador that you desire to be. Bias is often defined as prejudice or unsupported judgments in favor of or against one thing, person, or group as compared to another, in a way that is usually considered unfair.

Examine some of the obvious biases you may have grown up with. This could take the form of stereotypes about groups of people who are different from you and your family. It could be based in entrenched traditions within your culture. This isn’t an exercise where you pass judgement, just one of identification. These biases may have occurred simply because of lack of exposure to others who identify differently. They could have occurred because you only knew one or two individuals from a different culture and you therefore assumed that everyone in that identity or culture acted like them. Your lack of exposure to other identities might have led you to believe the stereotyped or inappropriate portrayal of individuals from different cultures in the media.

You will have to take an assessment of your unconscious biases as well. These biases are not as apparent to you but they exist in every one of us. Unconscious (or implicit) bias is bias we may not even be aware of, as contrasted to deliberate prejudices, which are defined as conscious (or explicit) bias. It can be difficult to identify implicit biases, but if you think about the assumptions you make about people you may find some of your biases.”

For example, you may assume that only women want to stay at home and take care of their children (as opposed to the fathers) or presume that older employees don’t know how to use technology or aren’t open to learning new skills. Another unconscious bias would be assuming that employees who are working virtually are not working as hard as those who are working in the office buildings.

Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford University psychologist, has written that the phrase “they all look alike,” a phrase that has been attributed to racists and bigots, “is actually a function of biology and exposure.” There’s no doubt plenty of overt bigotry exists, Eberhardt says, but she has found that most of us also harbor bias without knowing it. It stems from our brain’s tendency to categorize things—a useful function in a world of infinite stimuli, but one that can lead to discrimination, baseless assumptions, and worse, particularly in times of hurry or stress.

We know that everyone has unconscious biases, and they become a serious problem in the workplace if we make decisions based on those biases. Many workplace conditions involve high stress or pressure to move quickly on making decisions, which can trigger the worst from unconscious bias. That is why we need to examine all our own biases, so we are aware of them and do not allow them to push us to make decisions that might adversely impact some individuals over others. There are many tools to help you examine unconscious bias, understand your own, and perhaps most important ensure that you are not making decisions based on them that would cause inequity or disparate treatment.

Your personal experiences contribute to the type of person you have become. Take a hard look at your biases, your upbringing, and your cultural paradigms. This focus inward will help you to understand how you need to grow and expand your own horizons as a diversity and inclusion ambassador. It will help you to recognize your biases and understand how they might impact the decisions you make every day. It will explain your reactions to issues that are happening both inside the company and out in the world. Blind spots can be very detrimental to diversity and inclusion ambassadors.

These self-reflections and personal assessments are not evaluations to be done once. As you go through your professional (and personal) journey, you will encounter situations where you will have to do these self-reflections many times. This is a part of your evolution and growth as a person.

As much as I thought I was a mature diversity and inclusion leader, I found myself having to take many self-assessments to understand my reaction to a situation so I could provide assistance to another person. During the heat of the MeToo movement, I was explaining to a senior male leader why the movement was so important. It originated among women, advocating for survivors of sexual harassment or violence to speak out about their experiences in order to expose and combat various forms of sexual misconduct. The leader was concerned that this movement was going to cause a rise in false complaints against men in the workplace. He said it was going to cause men to not want to mentor women and this would mean a decrease in advancement of women in the workplace.

The younger version of me would not have had the patience for such an archaic and defensive comment, but I had to quickly get hold of my emotions, assess the situation, and treat this as a teaching moment. I very calmly explained that the percentage of false claims is very low, and I also said that for centuries women have had no voice in how they have been treated and taken advantage of. For those thousands of women who have not been able to speak, the time is finally here for their voices to be heard.

Now that you’ve read my story, ask yourself what are some skills you already have pertaining to diversity and inclusion? What are you missing? What are some of your unconscious biases and blind spots? Understanding your own deficiencies in this area will help you to build and increase your skill sets.

Determine What Type of Ambassador You Aspire to Be

Once you have done your own personal assessment, you can begin to put together your development plan. Consider the whole the spectrum of business, leadership, and diversity and inclusion capabilities in your plan.

Approach this as you would any other developmental plan associated with your professional career aspirations. You’ve already conducted a personal assessment of where you are now, so next you need to identify where you want to be on your professional journey or what type of ambassador you aspire to be.

It is important that you take your time to answer this question. Really examine your aspirations and ask yourself a few questions. What does a successful diversity and inclusion ambassador look like in your eyes?

When I first entered the workforce, I already had a passion for diversity and inclusion, but I didn’t fully understand how I could demonstrate that in a work setting. So, I started watching others. I looked to leaders who demonstrated inclusive behaviors. These weren’t necessarily senior leaders within the organization, they were also middle managers and peers. I listened to them to fully understand their words regarding diversity and inclusion. But I also very closely watched their actions to see if their behaviors matched up to the words they were saying.

When you look at others, you will see their behaviors, and you can also learn from those who aren’t demonstrating the behaviors you want to see. If you treat each moment and encounter as an opportunity to learn, you can outline the type of diversity ambassador you would like to be as well as defining what you don’t want to be. It is very important to “walking the talk.” You can’t simply say words of solidarity, you have to demonstrate it through your everyday actions. If you don’t, you run the risk of seeming disingenuous with your colleagues and co-workers.

As I was starting out my professional career, I vividly remember an encounter that I had with one of the leaders within my department. I was the only woman in the meeting. I was asked by my immediate manager to accompany him to the meeting. The leader proceeded to speak only to my manager and would not make eye contact with me when I spoke. I was so frustrated that I moved my chair, so the leader had to look at me in order to talk with my manager. This same leader fancied himself as someone who treated people with dignity and respect, but his behavior did not align with how he viewed himself. And his view was not how others viewed him, as I found out when I told my story and heard similar stories from others.

We each make an individual journey to become a true ambassador and each path will be different. Defining what type of diversity and inclusion ambassador you would like to be also means understanding where you would like to be and defining what that would look like for you. Do you want to be a leader within your department? Do you want to lead an employee resource group? Do you want to be a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer? Whatever your aspiration is, visualizing that outcome will help you to put your plan together.

You might start to get overwhelmed by the enormity of all the decisions, but that’s all right. It is okay to dream big because with a proper plan and strategy, anything is possible. Don’t stifle your desires and aspirations.

As part of defining your future as a diversity and inclusion ambassador, you should set personal goals. We know from many training courses that our goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Specific in that you should have a clear understanding of the type of role you want to play as a diversity and inclusion ambassador. It should be measurable, meaning you should have ways to quantify your achievements. Ensure that it is achievable and realistic, so you don’t get discouraged. Your goals should be timely, in other words, when do you see yourself playing this role?

Develop Your Personal Plan

Once you have assessed where you are and have outlined your desired state as a diversity and inclusion ambassador, you must put a plan together to achieve your goals. After you have identified your goals, researching what you need to achieve them is the next step.

Gather information and put together a strategy for the journey. What specific skills are needed to get where you want to go? Which of the skills and capabilities that you already have will help you to be a diversity and inclusion ambassador? Diversity skills are those necessary to be flexible and accommodating of multiple lifestyles and needs, and to accept the viewpoints and expertise that different people bring to the work environment.

Several skills are important in order to be an impactful diversity and inclusion ambassador, including self-awareness, effective communications skills, and cultural competence.

Talk with diversity leaders you know and ask them what skills and capabilities they think are needed. Most diversity and inclusion professionals are more than happy to talk about the skills needed to drive change through organizations and the role that you can play.

Another aspect of putting together your strategy is to break it down into manageable steps for achieving your goal.

For example, if your goal is to be a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for a company, identify what individual steps are required to reach that position. You may want to start by leading an employee resource group or affinity group, then progress to take on special assignments within your organization’s Diversity and Inclusion department. If your company doesn’t have affinity groups, then start one or another grass-roots group with your co-workers and peers. If your company does not have a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, you can still aspire to become one in a company that does have that role.

You could talk with your manager about acting as a diversity and inclusion “champion,” responsible for raising topics at department staff meetings or looking for ways to help your manager create a more inclusive environment for the team. Each of these responsibilities have different skill requirements and breaking them down into individual steps will allow you to create a better strategy.

A good place to start is meeting with your immediate manager or someone from human resources. They can help you identify other areas for development or offer suggestions about training opportunities you may not be aware of that are provided by the company. Don’t limit yourself to learning opportunities within your company, you can also attend external diversity conferences, workshops, and roundtable discussions that target the key skills you need to be a strong ambassador.

When I was first promoted to a people manager, I felt there were certain skills and capabilities that I needed to help me in my new role. I asked my manager if I could attend some of the management training programs within the company. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a manager who aspired to be a strong, inclusive leader. He said that he didn’t think it was necessary and I could simply “figure it out.” So I didn’t limit myself to the learning opportunities within the department. I reached out to a friend and asked her how I could develop my management skills and she connected me to an external organization that specialized in leadership development programs. I took a couple of days off work, paid out of my own pocket, and went to the program. I am not saying that this was the right answer from my manager, because it wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way to becoming a better manager.

In order to be effective, your strategy should be continuous and ongoing. There are many ways to develop the skills you need to accomplish your goals. Take small steps, integrate all the learning experiences together to help you to continually grow. Remember, this is a process of continual development, the journey to become proficient in the necessary skills and competencies takes time.

It is important to decide when you want to achieve your goals and laying out a time frame will help you stay consistent during your journey. Knowing you have given yourself a deadline means that you will continually strive to achieve your plans.

I have counseled many different individuals about their career aspirations in many organizations. I always spend the first meeting asking them questions about their aspirations and the time frame in which they want to achieve those aspirations. I then spend time with them talking about a framework to put their plans together. One particular individual met with me four times over the course of about 18 months. Each time she came back, she had a different excuse for why she hadn’t put her plan together. Meanwhile, she felt she was being passed over by others in her department for promotions. I asked her who was getting some of the jobs. She named one or two. I told her that I had talked with those individuals as well during the time frame that she had been meeting with me. She asked me if they were more qualified. I told her that they didn’t possess any additional skills or competencies. The only difference between her and them was they had a plan in place and were acting on it.

Providing annual goals is a good way to ensure that you are making continuous improvement and taking strides in your strategy. It provides you with some “wiggle room” in achieving your goals. It can be discouraging if you make a goal to complete some aspect of your training every month and sometimes you aren’t able to achieve it. You miss one month, and then it carries into the following month and at some point, you find yourself discouraged and wanting to give up. That’s why I think it’s important to set goals on an annual basis so you have ample time to complete them and you will build confidence over time. We know that sometimes things don’t go as we plan them, so you should schedule your steps towards goals you’d like to achieve. By following your plan you’ll be the ideal candidate for opportunities that make themselves available.

Keep detailed notes of your strategic plan that you update and change as you continue your journey. Writing it down will help you to remember your overall goal and all the steps you have laid out for yourself. Your strategic plan should not be something that you put on a shelf and don’t take out again for months at a time. It is a tool that you should refer to regularly. Writing it down will also help you prepare for a specific assignment, position, or project that you want to discuss with your manager or colleagues. You will have a detailed list of all the professional skills you have been working on, as well as examples of just how you have gone about growing your diversity and inclusion skills and capabilities.

You should evaluate your plan before you commit to it. Walk away from it for a day or so and then come back to it with a fresh set of eyes. Look it over and make sure that the goals are smart, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely and that they really will help you along your journey. Set big dreams, but also set reasonable goals because that will make the experience less stressful and discouraging. It’s important to evaluate your plan to make sure that you can meet your goals.

Make sure you are measuring your progress along the journey. Assessing your progress regularly is important. Even though you are very passionate about wanting to become a diversity and inclusion ambassador, life has a way of throwing challenges, obstacles, and complications in the way. When those hurdles arise, sometimes development plans and goals fall in priority. Measuring your progress will help you know if you are reaching the individual short-term plans you’ve put in place. That will keep you on track for meeting your ultimate goals. You may need to set more manageable steps, make new, temporary plans, or even set new goals as a result of those obstacles.

Remember that as you go on your journey to become a diversity and inclusion ambassador, plans change at times but as you continue with your plans, your goals will progress with you. Learning is a lifelong process and it’s important to persevere to achieve success.

Summary

A few years ago, I was facilitating a focus group of employees to understand how we could progress in work we were doing to drive our diversity and inclusion strategy. There was one participant who was very quiet throughout the session and I asked him if there was anything he wanted to contribute to the conversation. He said that he felt uncomfortable and didn’t feel he could contribute to the discussion because he was a white male. He felt his opinion didn’t matter. That was definitely not what I wanted in the focus group. The work we were doing was about inclusion and that meant everyone.

As a result of that one statement, I looked for training that would bring everyone into the conversation regardless of how they identify. Inclusion is about how everyone feels included. Yes, we have differences as a result of different aspects of our identity, but there are many things that we all share. For example, we know that we all have unconscious biases. We all know that we want an environment where everyone can feel valued. There is strength in our differences, but there is also power in our inclusion. If we can’t get to a place of inclusion, then we will not be successful in creating a diverse and inclusive work environment.

As a diversity and inclusion leader within a company, I can tell you that I have taken many alternative roads to where I am today. It was not easy. Becoming an ambassador for diversity and inclusion involves knowing yourself, your blind spots, your challenges, and your passions. It involves understanding what your skills and capabilities are and how they align to what is required for the role of ambassador. Lastly, it involves putting your personal strategic plan in place to help guide you along your journey. If you can do this, then you will be well on your way to becoming a successful diversity and inclusion ambassador.