A great article in the February 21, 2020 Cincinnati Business Courier speaks to the value of mentoring to increase gender, ethnic and cultural diversity in corporate leadership. Specifically it stated: “While statistics touting the merits of diverse corporate leadership are plentiful, the business world remains primarily white and male in its top ranks.” It goes on to state: “According to a McKinsey & Co. diversity report released in 2018, McKinsey found that the 346 companies it also surveyed in 2015 increased the gender diversity on their executive teams by only 2% to 14%, while ethnic and cultural diversity increased by only 1% to 13%.”

While the increases are disappointing, I believe the most important thing to take from these statistics is they are being consistently measured. Another great read I finished recently – How to be an AntiRacist by Ibram X. Kendi discusses categorizing and measuring specifically regarding race. On page 54 he writes: “Assimilationists believe in the post racial myth that talking about race constitutes racism, or that if we stop identifying by race, then racism will miraculously go away. They fail to realize that if we stop using racial categories, then we will not be able to identify racial inequity. If we cannot identify racial inequity, then we will not be able to identify racist policies. If we cannot identify racist policies, then we cannot challenge racist policies. If we cannot challenge racist policies, then racist power’s final solution will be achieved: a world of inequity none of us can see, let alone resist. Terminating racial categories is potentially the last, not the first, step in the antiracist struggle.”

As the father of two Hispanic children, I have had to become painfully aware of just how often people are judged by the color of their skin and other physical characteristics. I certainly wish our society was beyond judging people based on gender, race, ethnic and cultural diversity but I am happy we are measuring it and, despite the slow pace, working to improve it. The following quote is attributed to both Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) famous for devising the absolute temperature scale, now called the ‘Kelvin scale’ and Peter Drucker (1909-2005) one of the most widely-known and influential thinkers on management, – “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”