Diversity and Inclusion for a High Performance Organization December 31, 2005
At Duke Energy, diversity and inclusion are mission critical, representing the first objective in our company’s Charter:
Creating a High Performance Culture: Enhance a high performance culture by focusing on safety, inclusion and diversity, employee development, business structure and process simplification.
It’s easy to talk about diversity and inclusion. At Duke Energy, walking the talk is what’s important—and it starts at the top.
At the top of our organization we have made significant progress. We have added a Latino to our board of directors. Two of our major business units are run by women, and another is run by an African American man. In March, our leadership made the potentially controversial move of offering benefits to the domestic partners of Duke Energy employees. Duke Energy is committed to diversity and inclusion, and we’ve taken steps to hard-wire these ideals into our culture.
A Diversity Council, comprised of senior leaders from across the company, develops enterprise-wide diversity and inclusion strategies. In 2005, the Council channeled the company’s efforts into leadership and skill development.
The Council recognized that while our supervisors were great at managing work, they needed more training on how to lead a diverse workforce. The result: “Leading a High Performance Organization,” a leadership development session attended this year by all 2,700 managers and supervisors.
The training reflected our belief that managers must take responsibility for establishing an inclusive environment where—as our charter says—every employee starts each day with a sense of purpose, and ends each day with a sense of accomplishment.
Our senior management team led all 12 of these sessions, from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Fort St. John in Canada. We highlighted the leadership characteristics that contribute to a high performing organization.
We told our managers:
Listen hard. Engage a variety of employees to ensure diversity of thought and input. Actively draw people out and listen to everyone’s honest opinion with an open mind.
Acknowledge differences. Understand that we all have default tendencies from which we make judgments and decisions. Place people in situations where they have to engage in problem solving with others of different cultures. Then, work to develop trust across those differences.
Develop people. Give ongoing and constructive feedback on performance and help employees develop career plans.
Have courage. Have courage to be inclusive and to be included. Be willing to take risks and stretch the capabilities of team members. Have courage as a leader to learn from others.
Arming today’s managers with tools to be good leaders has been a major initiative. We’ve also worked to develop future leaders through resource groups, volunteer projects and mentoring opportunities.
Our commitment to diversity extends beyond the company as we work to assure a diverse supplier base. In recent years we have formed alliances with a growing number of minority and women-owned firms. Our partnerships speak to the quality of the companies we do business with; we choose our suppliers based on the value they bring to our customers and shareholders.
I began by describing the first objective in our Charter, which serves as a guidepost for every employee. It states our purpose and reminds our employees of the company’s objectives for achieving superior value.
As the Charter suggests, I am personally convinced that an inclusive work environment is essential to our success. Only by tapping the perspectives and talents of a diverse workforce can we achieve the superior results that our shareholders, customers and employees depend on.
Source: Diversity Best Practices: CEO Initiatives Magazine