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Develop, support, promote disability leaders

Tag Archive: leadership

  1. Meaning well doesn’t equal inclusion

    This month we are revisiting an article from February 2020:

    Meaning well doesn’t equal inclusion

    Real inclusion takes action as well as good intentions.

    by Christina Ryan DLI CEO

    A group of disabled people in a circle at a conference. Some are in wheelchairs, they are talking together.

    It’s unusual to meet someone who doesn’t think it’s a good idea to employ disabled people, or to be working towards an inclusive workplace.

    So, why is it still so hard to find good workplaces that are inclusive where disabled people feel comfortable and stay for the long haul? Why have the statistics on disability employment stagnated for decades, or gone backwards?

    Because everybody thinks they’re doing something, and very few are.

    Disability Leadership Institute (DLI) members recently shared their experiences of workplace inclusion. They identified that workplaces still aren’t getting inclusion right, with a continuing lack of real action, and despite many workplaces claiming they are inclusive.

    There is no doubt employers mean well, but is meaning well enough to get inclusion over the line? Unfortunately not. Meaning well doesn’t equate to action, and it is real action that is needed.

    DLI members had several comments and suggestions for getting inclusion right across a range of workplace touch points. Many of these suggestions come from managers of teams, CEOs, and highly qualified disabled people struggling to find work. All the suggestions are from disabled people as both practitioners of inclusion and participants in inclusive processes.

    Inclusion needs to start at the beginning, during recruitment, and continue as an ongoing focus for management and leadership every day. Complacency is not an option. Never assume your organisation is fully inclusive, nor that you have no further work to do. There is always more to be done, just as there are always more ways of being inclusive, because diverse people are diverse and each person must be treated as an individual.

    Recruitment:

    • Contacting people before their recruitment interview, or appraisal process, to ask what adjustments need to be made and then making those adjustments
    • Making sure interviewers can respond to questions about workplace adjustments at interview
    • Ensuring interviews are accessible so that people can focus on their interview and not their disability needs
    • Ensuring people are confident and comfortable asking for adjustment during the recruitment phase, this means having an accessible recruitment process
    • Providing questions before interview, meeting interview panel members beforehand, or not even having a formal interview process
    • Openly seeking disabled people for your workforce

    Human Resources:

    • Ensuring there are disabled people working in human resources, and valuing the expert contribution of those staff
    • Asking all staff how they like to work/communicate and then creating shared profiles with that information, so everyone knows that everyone one else has particular strengths and preferences
    • Collecting data on diversity numbers and length of employment, including how many people openly identify as disabled

    Management:

    • Taking organisation level policies and applying them at team level
    • Ongoing conversations amongst team members which may lead to flexible work arrangements on where and how work is done
    • Doing regular things like staff meetings and team gatherings in open reflective ways

    Leadership:

    • Leadership leading by example, making sure all team members are checked on as part of daily routines to avoid exclusion and cliques developing
    • Maintaining an open conversation about gaps in inclusion and openly working to address those gaps
    • Workplaces claiming to be diverse should be planning, providing funding and seeking counsel for success in diversity, just as they would any other part of their business mission

    Finally, and rather obviously: having more than good intentions by actually employing disabled people. Many organisations say that employing disabled people is a good thing to do, yet half of all disabled people remain unemployed.

    Clearly good intentions are not good enough. Workplaces need to mean it and that means action.

    Action starts from recruitment and continues throughout the organisation as part of daily operations. Action means policies, processes and an ongoing conversation about what inclusion looks like for this team.

    Action also means management openly taking responsibility for addressing inclusion gaps as a leadership example.

    Inclusion will look different for every team, because every team is different; however, there are some structural underpinnings that can be considered for any organisation that wishes to be inclusive, as well as being seen to be inclusive.

     

    Thanks to the many DLI members who shared thoughts and experiences for this article.

    Sign up for regular updates from the Disability Leadership Institute. 

    Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person

  2. Launches and more launches

    A rocket launching into space

    By Christina Ryan DLI CEO

    Endlessly starting but never finishing

     

    Most of us enjoy a nice morning tea. The chance to catch up with colleagues, move away from our desks, and celebrate something over tea and cupcakes.

     

    For the disability community many of these morning teas are centred on launching Disability Action Plans in one form or another. Months, even years, of work can go into developing a good action plan and celebrating that with a launch is a great thing to do. Acknowledging all the consultation and codesign work, the contributions of many people, and the beginning of a new era for organisations as they turn towards a more inclusive future.

     

    What we don’t see, though, are morning teas to celebrate the outcomes of those plans. What happens at the end of 3 or 5 years when the plan expires? Where are the morning teas that acknowledge the work that has gone into implementing the plan and making the gains that it aspired to?

     

    Sometimes organisations don’t achieve the aspirational goals they have set. Like all plans and goals, this happens. Rather than admitting that the plan was ambitious and using the lessons learned as a way of doing better in the future, some organisations quietly forget that they made a big fuss and stop talking about their plans. Organisations that once proudly and publicly declared their intentions suddenly go quiet. Some remove their plans from their websites or cease reporting gains in their annual reports. There was a period a few years ago when it was almost impossible to find any mention of Disability Action Plans or their outcomes on government websites. Fortunately, those days seem to be over.

     

    Where are the morning teas to acknowledge the end of a plan? A celebration of the lessons that were learned, and ownership of any mistakes made. Why are organisations embarrassed by not achieving lofty goals, or by not exactly hitting a target?

     

    It’s time to start planning end of plan morning teas! While it’s lovely to have a launch and to get excited by what the future might hold, we should also be unafraid of small gains, of not quite reaching big aspirational goals, and of learning from our mistakes. The outcomes that have been achieved should be celebrated. Every small step represents a gain for the disability community, and often gains are few and far between.

     

    Next time you attend a launch morning tea, ask what the plan is for the outcomes celebration. Whatever those outcomes are they are worth it.

     

    Sign up for regular updates from the Disability Leadership Institute. 

    Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person

     

  3. Gaps

    A river flowing through a gap in two steep cliffsGaps

    By Christina Ryan, DLI CEO

     

    Organisations striving to improve their disability diversity want to achieve substantive outcomes. Many are now attempting to measure inclusion.

     

    Unfortunately, inclusion is a highly subjective concept so measuring it is challenging. What exactly might measuring inclusion look like, and how can it be compared to inclusion in other organisations so that benchmarking across industries becomes possible?

     

    Rather than measure ephemeral concepts, organisations could achieve more tangible outcomes by measuring gaps. Disability diversity is either present or it isn’t. Measuring gaps across a range of key areas will indicate what progress an organisation has made towards inclusion, while also indicating specific areas for improvement.

     

    Openly identifying

    Most organisations run an annual staff census to gauge workforce sentiment across a range of areas, including whether people identify as disabled. These surveys are usually anonymous which means people can safely share information that they otherwise would not.

     

    For at least the last decade most of these workforce surveys return results showing a level of people with disability that is around twice that of people who are known as openly disabled in that workplace. In other words, approximately half of the disability workforce in most organisations is not being open about their disability. This gap is a key indicator of inclusion because it points to the level of psychological safety that is, or is not, present.

     

    Comparing anonymous reporting levels to openly known levels is a key gap to monitor. The target outcome is parity between the two figures.

     

    Recruitment

    How many disabled people apply for jobs with an organisation, compared to how many are recruited? This gap speaks to styles of recruitment, advertising, and interview processes; all of which can be adjusted to be more inclusive. Advertising often includes specific requirements which exclude disabled people, and which are often not necessary for the position concerned. Interview processes are held in inaccessible locations or present barriers which do not necessarily produce the most competent person for the job, for example speed writing exercises or rapid problem solving. Adjusting interview processes to reduce barriers has the potential to increase the numbers of disabled people who get recruited.

     

    Measuring the numbers of people who declare their disability prior to interview, with the numbers of disabled people who actually get a job is another key gap that can be measured over time. The outcome to achieve is application and recruitment levels equivalent to population density.

     

    Leadership

    A key workforce diversity building block is diverse leadership. It has long been understood that diverse leadership leads to a more diverse workforce.

     

    Organisations can measure the levels of diversity in their senior leadership teams and on their boards and work to build greater levels across all diversity cohorts. These levels should reflect the population levels of the various diversity cohorts unless the organisation works in a specific diversity area and then the levels would be expected to be much higher for that diversity cohort. The gap between population levels and leadership levels can be addressed through targeted recruitment and career pathway strategies.

     

    Another element of monitoring leadership is to understand the presence of disability in the broader workforce and whether that is reflected in the presence of disability within the leadership of that organisation. Is disability present across all levels of the organisation or is it clustered at more junior levels? For example, if an organisation has 5 per cent disability levels in its workforce, are 5 per cent of its leadership also openly disabled people?

     

    Monitoring gaps can provide substantive measurable indicators of how inclusive an organisation is. Monitoring these gaps over time will also indicate whether an organisation is improving. These indicators are not subjective, rather they are based on specific empirical evidence and can be used across a wide range of organisations and industries.

     

    Sign up for regular updates from the Disability Leadership Institute. 

    Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person.

  4. 2023 Finalists Announced, National Awards for Disability Leadership

    MEDIA RELEASE

    13 November 2023

    Finalists announced!

    National Awards for Disability Leadership.

    An outstanding field of 23 Finalists across 7 categories is announced today in the leadup to the National Awards for Disability Leadership. Recipients will be announced on 3 December 2020, International Day for People with Disabilities.

    The finalists illustrate the breadth of work undertaken by disabled people in pursuing equality and recognition for disabled people.

    The 2023 finalists feature a Walkley Award nominee, an appearance activist, an anti-segregation pioneer, an internationally recognised catwalk model, rights activists, a vaccination lobbyist, anti-violence campaigners, LGBTIQ change makers, educators, and film makers, amongst others.

    These Awards reflect what is important to disabled people and the ways that we are effecting change and pursuing equality for our community. They recognise outstanding achievements by individuals and organisations who have significantly contributed to advancing the status of disabled people.

    The Awards will be delivered across seven categories for outstanding achievement or outcomes by disabled people, reflecting the diversity of our community, and the intersectional nature of our lives, including The Arts, Change Making, Rights Activism, Innovation, Social Impact, Inclusion (for intersectional work), and the Lesley Hall Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    The National Awards for Disability Leadership are owned and run solely by disabled people (following the federal government stepping back in 2018), all nominees are disabled people and all those associated with the Awards are disabled people.

    https://disabilityleaders.com.au/disability-leaders/national-awards/  #DisabilityAwards2023

    https://disabilityleaders.com.au/disability-leaders/national-awards/2023-finalists/

  5. The view from first base

    The view from first base

    By Christina Ryan, DLI CEO

    A gold medal with a windblown red ribbon above it.

     

     

    The Disability Leadership Institute (DLI) has just marked our seventh anniversary. Apart from celebrating our survival as a small social enterprise, this gives us a great opportunity to reflect on what we have come to understand about the practice and development of disability leadership.

     

    Over seven years at the DLI our members have had numerous conversations about the many facets of disability leadership. This has given us an ability to consider what disability leadership is, how it’s done, and how disability leaders are reshaping the understanding of both work and leadership.

     

    Where is disability leadership up to?

     

    We are still near the beginning. Australia’s Disability Strategy mentions leadership once, in passing on page 33, so there are no outcomes under the Strategy attached to leadership.

     

    There remains very little research into the experience of disability leadership; how it evolves, what pathways are most effective, what training and resources are required, what disability leadership looks like and why.

     

    We are still facing an uphill battle to access the same levels of professional development as our non-disabled colleagues, particularly specialist leadership development. When all other diversity areas have specialist development, disabled folks are expected to hack it in the mainstream where disability is poorly understood, and ableism remains widespread. We know mainstream leadership programs aren’t working because we are still waiting for them to produce tangible results.

     

    We are still in a world where over 90% of organisations say that disability diversity is important yet less than 4% of those same organisations have specific mechanisms in place to achieve it.

     

    We still have a push by all governments on entry level employment, when we know that it is diverse leadership which results in a more diverse workforce, not the other way round. There is no such thing as trickle up diversity. This has been understood by diversity practitioners for decades, so why is disability still getting the old treatment?

     

    We need commitments from government and the broader community to building disability leadership so that the cultural shift happens, and inclusion becomes a reality. Disability leadership will require reportable targets and substantive long-term commitment. Otherwise it won’t happen.

     

    However, we may have reached a tipping point. Disability leadership is now firmly on first base. Seven years ago first base was yet to be built.

     

    Mainstream conference organisers have added disability leadership summits to their suite of offerings. Only a couple of years ago this would have been unthinkable. Summits that are run by non-disabled people who have realised that there is something happening in disability leadership, and they want a part of it. Consider the progress that this represents.

     

    When the Disability Leadership Institute first put the 2 words disability and leadership into the same sentence seven years ago, nobody else was saying it. Now it’s a term used by governments, diversity practitioners and increasingly the wider community. Disability is increasingly recognised as a part of the broader diversity equation.

     

    It has also become clear that people will openly identify as disabled if there is something in it for them. When the DLI has run in house disability leadership programs, organisations have been surprised at the numbers of people coming out of the woodwork to participate, when previously those people had not openly identified at work. Why, because only disabled people could express interest in participating. In other words, there was suddenly a benefit to being disabled.

     

    The DLI CEO internship program, which is now expanding into a broader executive internship program, is attracting strong interest from all kinds of organisations. Still in its early stages this program uses a co-CEO model to bring an executive ready disability leader into an organisation right at the top to work alongside an experienced CEO. We have started in the disability services sector but hope to expand it to any organisation that wishes to participate.

     

    A growing number of organisations use the National Register of Disability Leaders to source talent for a wide range of positions, as there is an increasing understanding of the value of real diversity in executive and board rooms.

     

    The National Awards for Disability Leadership are now in their sixth year and acknowledge the outstanding work of disability leaders. It is the first time there have been awards by disabled people for disabled people.

     

    The increasing power of employee disability networks is testament to the increased awareness of major employers of the importance of disability leaders in workplaces and the contributions they are making to cultural reform.

     

    There is some progress, there are glimmers of excitement and hope that we can celebrate. What will disability leadership look like in another seven years? How much closer to equality for disabled people will we be?

     

    Sign up for regular updates from the Disability Leadership Institute. 

    Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person.

  6. No Business Case Required

    No Business Case Required

    An old grey suitcase with  gold coloured snap closures. It is sitting on a luggage rack.

    By Christina Ryan, DLI CEO

     

    When working to improve diversity in board rooms and executive teams disabled people are told to make the “business case” for being in these rarified environments.

     

    Yet, other groups, most notably those who created these spaces, and have been there all along, are not asked to make any business case to be present. Rather, they continue to be appointed to positions based on “merit” – that is, whether they are in the right networks and “fit in” to the existing culture. In other words, people who look like the people who are already there.

     

    If a business case was required our parliaments, board and executive rooms would lose most of their current population. Yet somehow people from preferred networks continue to be appointed without any business case to prove their worth.

     

    Why, then, are disabled people expected to prove our worth before we are allowed admittance?

     

    The “business case” is another gate that disabled people must pass through to get to a world where we are equal. A gate that is kept by non-disabled people. An ableist gate which demands that disabled people prove we can operate in a space created by non-disabled people where they set the rules and can be comfortable, and face no challenges to their status quo.

     

    There is a wealth of research about the benefits of diversity; how it improves bottom lines, decisions made, productivity outcomes, and innovation levels. Yet each diversity group is required to prove its worth before being allowed admittance. Now, apparently, it is the turn of disabled people to prove our worth, to put our business case to pass through this gate.

     

    Business cases are reserved for those on the outside of the right networks, those who are hoping to be allowed in, not those who have the right friends and find themselves already on the inside.

     

    To require an entire diversity group to make a business case is systemic discrimination, otherwise known as ableism.

     

    To exclude an individual person because they are disabled is discrimination, also known as ableism.

     

    There are plenty of highly competent and qualified disabled people who should be appointed to boards and executive teams. It is not the lack of a business case that is preventing these appointments. It is the discomfort of those on the inside, those whose status quo is being challenged. Those who somehow feel that disability equates to incompetence and inexperience.

     

    Some of these people fear being upstaged by a disabled person who is more competent or qualified than they are. Unfortunately, many of these people also hold the keys to the gates of equality and they won’t let us in.

     

    No business case is required to advance equality for disabled people. Rather it is the willingness of those keeping gates to open them.

     

    Sign up for regular updates from the Disability Leadership Institute. 

    Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person.