One of the best indicators of an organization’s success around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is leadership accountability for DEI. At our 2022 Women of Color and Their Allies event, DiversityInc’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Anita Ricketts, was joined on stage by leaders who are holding themselves and their contemporaries accountable for the allyship of women of color.
Part of allyship is being open to feedback, so the session began with a question about a time in the panelists allyship journey where feedback helped them become a better ally. Humana’s President of Group, Military and Specialty Businesses, Sue Schick, was the first to answer, recalling a time where she took in several episodes of Humana’s internal podcast titled “This is Us” where people of color share stories about their experience. Schick felt inspired to do more, so she went to the host of the podcast who is also her accountability partner on the economy’s executive diversity council.
“This is a cringeworthy moment, but I went to our next meeting and I was like ‘I can do more, I’m on the council and there’s more that we can do!’” Schick said enthusiastically. “I give him a lot of credit, cause he didn’t call me out and he could have. He calmed me down and he helped me learn. I went away and realized that I’d just shown up all white savior on him. After that I gave him permission to give me real feedback and I realize that I still have a long way to go on my journey.”
