Diversity simply addresses differences. It doesn’t specify what is different, how it’s different, or why it matters that it is different, it just simply is different. These differences can come in the form of religion, sexual orientation, language, age, race, communications styles, gender identification, social class, mental abilities, or even looks.
Senior leadership and a company’s employees bring these qualities and characteristics to work every day—whether you want them to or not. These are things that you can’t just “check at the door.” The challenge with all of these differences is that they create barriers in trying to accomplish the ultimate goal; they affect a business’s productivity, employee’s problem-solving skills, and even employee retention just to name a few. If the goal is to help businesses be more profitable and successful then we need to better understand the power of diversity and understand how to track it.