Opinion: Hiring a Black leader? Learn from my experience and treat it like it matters
Opinion: Hiring a Black leader? Learn from my experience and treat it like it matters
Opinion: Hiring a Black leader? Learn from my experience and treat it like it matters
By Ivan Joseph
August 04, 2020
Summary
As an educator first and foremost, I want to share what I have learned about institutional racism and what does - and doesn't - work when organizations pursue a designated hire.
What institutional racism looks like Racism in an institution isn't restricted to race-laced insults or colleagues using the N-word.
Institutional racism is people questioning the quality of your ideas whenever you have an opinion they don't agree with, pursue an outcome they don't like or proceed in a way that is unconventional or counter to the established culture.
Institutional racism is colleagues hiding behind the fact that you are a designated hire to attack your decisions and initiatives.
How a designated hire can be set up to succeed I'm an idealist, so I choose to believe that when an organization makes a designated hire from a visibly underrepresented group, it is genuinely saying, "We need to do things differently." In my case, I assume it's not merely an effort to add a non-white face to the leadership group.
Based on my experience, here are three guiding principles for the head of any organization who has decided to pursue a designated hire as one method of addressing institutional racism.
Your new hire will need continuing advice about how to navigate the existing power structures.
It's not enough to give the new hire a mandate and say, "Go." Ensure they have resources, influence, sponsorship and authority.
Eliminating institutional racism is like any other strategic priority My message is simple if you are hiring a racialized leader like me.
Treat a designated hire with the same urgency and importance.
Reference
Joseph, I. (2020, August 03). Opinion: Hiring a Black leader? Learn from my experience and treat it like it matters. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-hiring-a-black-leader-learn-from-my-experience-and-treat-it-like-it/