36%: Embracing Authenticity in Hybrid Work

I’m your host, Elise Hu.

Today we’re tackling a big topic: inclusion in hybrid workplaces. How do you make work a place where people of all backgrounds can show up as their authentic selves? And then, how do you do it when half your team is together in a conference room, and the other half might be at home? Ritu Bhasin knows a lot about it. She is a speaker, consultant, and coach who works on diversity, equity, inclusion, as well as authenticity and empowerment.

McKinsey research shows that companies that are most diverse outperform those that are not, by 36 percent. And in our conversation you’ll learn some helpful tips. How you can uncover your own unconscious biases—and tackle them. How you can show up as a more authentic leader. Later in the episode, how one of Microsoft’s remote employees put those ideas to work. Wangui McKelvey is an executive leader who joined Microsoft as a remote employee during the pandemic. She’ll share her strategies for authentic leadership when you’re not with your team in person. But first, here’s my conversation with Ritu.

ELISE HU: Ritu Bhasin, thank you for joining us.

RITU BHASIN: Thank you so much for having me.

ELISE HU: Ritu, I know you’ve been thinking a lot about what hybrid work might mean for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Where do you see potential [for] bias to emerge?

RITU BHASIN: So, I’m so glad you raised this, Elise, because I am calling this the DEI conundrum, and the conundrum is the following: There is a real career advantage to working in person over working remotely.

ELISE HU: Okay.

RITU BHASIN: There is a lack of equity between in-person and remote working experiences. We know that when you work more in person, and especially when your leaders are working in person as well, it gives you heightened access to power, profile, influence, resources, visibility, proximity in the workplace.

But the mere fact that you run into your leader and your leader sees you, and you get to smile and laugh in person, and they get to see all angles of your face as opposed to a 2D on a video screen, you’ve just literally exchanged emotional energy with the person, with your leader, with another team member, and they’re reminded about how much they like you and they get to then take that away—recency primacy bias—where then, when a project comes in, like, they just saw you and you’re the first to pop into their mind. Plus, proximity bias, like you’re in my midst, I like you more. Plus, the resurgence of the bias that in-person workers are more productive.

There’s scads of research out there that says that people are just as productive, if not more productive, when they work from home. But there’s that resurgence of that bias.

So, the DEI conundrum is that if you work more in person, there are real actual benefits. But here’s the rest of the conundrum: At the same time, we know that many professionals from equity-seeking communities want to work remotely, even though there’s heightened benefits of working in person.

ELISE HU: It is hard. So, taking a step back for a minute, tell us about the path that led you to work in this space, in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

RITU BHASIN: So, my parents are from India. They immigrated to Canada over 50 years ago now, and I grew up in a household where there was a lot of conversation about social justice and experiences with racism, as new immigrants to the country, as you can imagine.

And back then, we’re talking decades ago, there was no such thing as becoming a diversity, equity, inclusion professional. So, I decided to become a lawyer. I practiced law for a few years, really disliked it for myriad reasons, then transitioned to doing HR for an international law firm, which I loved because I loved working with people, and connecting with people, and understanding how workplaces can thrive. I did that for several years, and then transitioned to starting my own DEI consulting practice and speaking career, which I’ve been doing for 11 years now.

So, it was a winding path that brought me to where I am today, but really enabled me to see workplaces and people from myriad angles.

ELISE HU: And you mentioned that you had experiences of race and identity quite young, like many of us, children of immigrants. How did you first come to understand your racial identity and how has that shaped you?

RITU BHASIN: I mentioned my parents are from India. We’re Punjabi by culture, and we are Sikh by faith. And when I say Sikh by faith, so I am a Sikh. It’s spelled S-I-K-H. My faith is called Sikhism. As we are trying to decolonize language and be more inclusive in language, it’s important that we pronounce things correctly. And so, it’s not [ Seek ] and [ Seek -ism], it’s Sikh and Sikhism. I knew I straddled cultures, but I didn’t know how to reconcile the differences. And for many years, I actually didn’t know who I was culturally. I really struggled with that.

ELISE HU: Did you pick a side?

RITU BHASIN: Here’s what I say: I’m a mishmash of cultures. I have Canadian in me, I have Punjabi in me. I am influenced by all of the people that I spend time with from across other cultural backgrounds. I spend a lot of time with people from the Caribbean, West Indian people, people from countries across Africa. I am impacted by all of the cultures around me. I’m a mishmash of identities. The moment I freed myself from having to anchor to a very binary way of viewing my identity, it was liberating because I got to live more authentically.

So, we have myriad elements, aspects to our identity. And if we’re going to live authentically, including in the workplace, it’s about embracing all of those elements.

ELISE HU: And how does this idea of authenticity and showing up authentically intersect with your work on diversity, equity, and inclusion? I think that we hear a lot about DEI, but you emphasize authenticity as well. And so, what does authentic self mean to you?

RITU BHASIN: So, in my book, The Authenticity Principle , I highlight how authenticity is the fundamental ingredient to inclusion. We cannot build an inclusive workplace, we cannot behave in an inclusive way as a leader or team member without embracing authenticity.

So, authenticity, I define it as the consistent practice of knowing who we are, of embracing who we are and being who we are as much as possible so that we feel better connected to ourselves. All the research around being authentic says that when we do this, we feel happier, more connected, more joyful. We bring this spirit into our interactions with others.

And then you can imagine in the workplace, if we’re living and leading and working with this spirit, this is what helps us to unlock inclusion experiences of belonging, innovation, creativity, and more amongst our team members. I actually define the authentic self as if there were no negative consequences to your actions, how would you speak? How would you dress? What would you say? Who would you love, and more.

ELISE HU: And then on diversity and inclusion, those ideas are often paired together, but they’re not quite the same, they are actually quite different. Could you talk us through those differences, especially as they relate to the workplace?

RITU BHASIN: In this moment, all three of these terms are being thrown around quite loosely and being used interchangeably. They are not interchangeable. They are very different concepts. Diversity is about the quantitative representation of difference. It’s about, what’s the mix of people that you have in your midst. Like, how many women do you have? How many indigenous peoples? How many people from the LGBTQ+ communities.

Inclusion is about the extent to which you feel like you can bring your whole, true, authentic self to work and still have equal access to opportunities. So, inclusion is about the mix that we have, like how many women do we have, for example, in the leadership roles, but it’s also about the extent to which people can be who they really are, speak the way they want to speak, dress the way they want to dress, share their ideas, descent and more. So, this is why I’ve connected authenticity to inclusion.

But the mother lode, the foundational building block really is equity, because you can’t have diversity and inclusion without having equity. Equity is defined, essentially, as recognizing the historical legacies like enslavement, colonization, imperialism, capitalism, not recognizing women as people under the law, stigmatizing the lived experience of having mental health challenges and more. So, equity is about recognizing these historical legacies and the current day realities that people have with bias, prejudice, discrimination and more.

So, equity is about understanding that in the workplace, in society, we don’t have a level playing field. The starting point isn’t equal for everyone because of these historical legacies and current day experiences. And because of this, we need to be doing more to interrupt, address the structural imbalances and inequities in our midst.

ELISE HU: Businesses have been going through the work of embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion. And the pandemic brought us so many shifts, like the Great Reshuffle and the move toward hybrid work. There’s a lot going on in the business world right now. What opportunities have you seen for people to be more included in the workplace and better explore their authentic selves?

RITU BHASIN: We’ve seen tremendous movement away from just talk in the workplace to actions. Over the last 18 months or so, we’ve seen everything from targeted programs in workplaces around interrupting anti-Black racism, anti-racism on a whole, to in-depth programming on mental health inclusion. Like, we know the studies around mental health inclusion. So many more people are experiencing heightened mental health challenges connected to the pandemic.

Before a workplace may have talked about mental health inclusion, but maybe not offered as many resources. We’re seeing a proliferation of training, support services, emphasis on different ways of working to help address these mental health challenges, to experiences around caregiving. We know that the pandemic and remote working has had a profoundly adverse impact on caregivers. I’m thinking women in particular.

ELISE HU: Oh boy, has it. (laughter)

RITU BHASIN: Right?

ELISE HU: I feel that.

RITU BHASIN: Right?

ELISE HU: Looking at the big picture, what do you see as the best way forward right now for someone in leadership?

RITU BHASIN: We have been shaken to our cores around how are you going to lead. And so, being intentional, being mindful, being vulnerable, being authentic, being flexible, cultivating a mindset of growth and agility over constantly aiming for perfection, which doesn’t exist, doing your best takes on a whole heightened level.

And so, as a leader, as a team member, your imperative is to be as intentional as possible in how you lead, offer team members choice and flexibility. And then, perhaps the most important piece for me, as it relates to DEI, is that ensuring that you are taking proactive measures to integrate and support those who choose to work primarily in a remote way.

ELISE HU: And what about the flip side of this? How do you, as an employee, as a team member, show up as your most authentic self when your managers aren’t getting the 360-degree view of you and the sense of your energy?

RITU BHASIN: Oftentimes in corporate culture, we look at the employee base, the team member base, and we’re like, you should be more authentic. Like, please bring more of your whole true selves to work.

And what we don’t realize is that the reason why our team members suppress their authenticity or push down their authenticity, or put another way, I call it perform or your performing self—I don’t mean like high performance, I mean, life is a stage and you’re acting out a curated image—the reason why people perform, they mask aspects of their identity, they change who they are at work, is because of a fear of bias and judgment.

It’s the “you’re going to judge me if I dress the way I want to dress, I speak the way I want to speak, I tell you about what it’s really like to be a Black employee in this workplace, or I tell you what it’s like to live with depression, anxiety, or as someone who’s trans, this is what my life is like.” We worry that if I share with you who I am, you’re going to take opportunities away. You’re going to take your love and affection, your respect for me away.

Even though we want to put the onus on our team members to show up more authentically, the starting point really is with leaders. Leaders go first. Leaders lead. There’s two key things leaders need to do in order to cultivate more authentic, inclusive, psychologically safe environments.

First of all, they must, must, must, or let me put this—let’s own this. We must, as leaders, interrupt our individual biases like our racial biases, gender-based biases, age-based, class-based, our personality-based biases, our preferences for extroverted people over introverted people, for example, which runs rampant in corporate culture. We must actively work to interrupt our biases and judgments because that’s what causes our team members from across cultural communities to mask, to conform, to show up as their performing selves.

So, that’s the first thing. Bias is the culprit. It’s the problem.

The second thing that we can do as leaders that can really help to cultivate environments where team members can be more authentic in the workplace, is we go first. So, we be more vulnerable, we lead, we show and display, put a spotlight on our own authenticity.

ELISE HU: I love that advice. To get into how that is put into practice, our correspondent Desmond Dickerson talked with a Microsoft executive who’s modeling exactly that kind of leadership for her team. Here’s Desmond with Wangui McKelvey.

[Music]

DESMOND DICKERSON: I’m checking in today with Wangui McKelvey, a general manager at Microsoft. Thanks for speaking to us.

WANGUI MCKELVEY: Thanks so much for having me.

DESMOND DICKERSON: So we’re both based in Atlanta, and you joined Microsoft during the pandemic as a remote executive leader. What are some of the things you’ve learned about how to manage your team remotely?

WANGUI MCKELVEY: I just really try to just be myself and bring my whole self. You’ll hear me talking about my kids interrupting my meetings, and my team already knows this, as well, because they, especially my five-year-old, she doesn’t really respect the closed door. (laughter) And so, she’ll just walk right in on me in a meeting and then, like, they hear me having a discussion with her. It just makes it like, hey, this is the life that we’re living.

But yeah, it takes intentional effort, and it is something that you just have to work on. But I think it starts with just showing up as yourself and not taking yourself so seriously.

DESMOND DICKERSON: So, you went to Florida A&M, a historically Black college. Was diversity and inclusion, was that something that was on your mind even before you reached college?

WANGUI MCKELVEY: Yeah, it’s a great question. I grew up in Washington, D.C., so it was a predominantly Black community when I grew up there. And so, my first exposure to people that were non-Black was really as part of a program called Inroads that allowed me to have experience and exposure to different groups in different communities. And as a result of my involvement with Inroads, I was an intern at The Washington Post from my senior year in high school all the way through college.

And so, that was really when I got my first sort of exposure to, like, Oh, right, this is like a whole new world for me. This is going to be part of my life, moving forward, if I want to be in any type of corporate setting, and how to navigate this effectively, how to have sponsors and mentors. All of that, I learned very early on.

DESMOND DICKERSON: Right. And based on your own experience, or folks you’re talking to in your network, what do you think leaders most often get wrong about recruiting and retaining a more diverse pool of employees?

WANGUI MCKELVEY: They oftentimes go to the underrepresented groups in their organizations and expect them to go find all their friends, right? Like, it puts the onus on the groups internally to go and find people, whereas it’s not a systemic sort of, like, change in how we do things in order to increase the odds of getting more diverse talent into your organization. It’s also not just HR’s job, and it’s not also just the hiring manager’s job. It’s everybody’s job to be recruiters of the company.

DESMOND DICKERSON: Remote and hybrid work, it’s been a game changer for all workers and all businesses across industries. But it’s impacted different groups in different ways. So, based on your own network, your own observations, what is it that you’ve observed about why women or why Black people are really embracing this new way of working?

WANGUI MCKELVEY: I think it levels the playing field, Desmond. You’re not worrying right now about missing out on, like, the group lunch or the water cooler discussion, or being invited into a room.

It has allowed relationships to flourish, in a way, because everybody is looking for a connection now. You’re not just going to your safety net of friends that sit next to you in the office. Now, you have to be intentional about actually establishing relationships with people.

Now, I think with hybrid, you’re going to see more and more people wanting to come together and maybe not so much in these sort of siloed ways, right? It’s going to be very intentional about how you bring people together in very intentional ways. It’s opened up a great opportunity for people to have some of these connections that they probably wouldn’t have had before.

DESMOND DICKERSON: Yeah, lots of really great ideas there. Thank you so much for joining us today, Wangui.

[Music]

ELISE HU: That was Wangui McKelvey, an executive leader at Microsoft, talking about being intentional in the shift to hybrid work.

[Music]

Ritu, to build on that, what else can leaders be doing to make sure they create a psychologically safe space and disrupt their biases? Are there practical strategies people can use?

RITU BHASIN: Absolutely. So, there’s a few things that leaders can be doing here. There is an excellent tool called Harvard’s Implicit Association Test, or IAT, or the IATs for short. There are multiple tests that you can take tied back to gender identity, even appearance, racial identity, age and more. And by taking Harvard’s IATs, they’re free, they’re confidential, like, you don’t even need to put your email address in to get the results. It’s the safest, easiest, fastest way for you to learn about what your unconscious biases are, tied back to a range of cultural identities.

Another thing that’s really important is to become more aware of specific types of decision-making biases. So, for example, actually learning how to name biases. There’s a very commonly held decision-making bias called confirmation bias, which happens when our brain reaches a premature conclusion or reaches a conclusion quickly about someone. And then our brain will actively seek out evidence to affirm the conclusion and will exclude evidence to the contrary. We do this all day long.

So, when we start to learn about specific types of decision-making bias, it can be really helpful, because when we’re in our interactions, we can start to clock for it. We can start to look for it.

And then the third thing that I would recommend here is that we actively, on an individual basis, dig deep into engaging in bias disruption work. For us to notice, when we’re in our interactions with team members, colleagues, notice people’s cultural identities because our unconscious brains are already doing this, and then sorting people into us and them, but by bringing conscious awareness to clocking people’s cultural identities. So, this is moving away from color blindness. And if you could see me, you’d see I’m using quotes in the air, like air quotes, color blindness.

ELISE HU: (Laughter) That was very big in the ’90s.

RITU BHASIN: Right, exactly. The whole like, Oh, I didn’t notice that you’re brown. Like, I don’t want you to think that I noticed your race and that because of that, I’m going to treat you less favorably.

We now know when it comes to unconscious bias disruption work, that we need to notice someone’s cultural identities, because if you do not pay attention to someone’s cultural identities, you will miss out on the opportunity to ascertain what’s the message or the meaning that your brain attaches to the person’s identities.

So, for example, noticing that you’re talking to a Muslim woman wearing a hijab is not the problem, or noticing that you’re talking to someone Black or someone who’s trans is not the problem. The issue is, in fact, you need to do this.

ELISE HU: Right.

RITU BHASIN: The issue is what does your brain say about trans people? What does your brain say about Muslim women who wear hijabs? What does your brain say about Black people? So, bias—conscious bias disruption self-work pushes us to be more mindful, thoughtful, deliberate in our thinking. And then you start unearthing your biases, and you can take Harvard’s IATs. It’ll tell you, you have a preference, for example, for white people over Black people. You’re talking to a Black person in your brain. You’re thinking, okay, what am I saying about this person?

And then we start to do that deep work that’s rooted in neuroscience of undoing the neural circuitry that causes us to hold these biased beliefs about people, and replacing it with the positive truths of who people are, and we’re constantly trying to get contact and learn more about people’s cultural identities to help us replace what we hold in our brains.

ELISE HU: That’s lovely, and listeners, we will make sure to include links for some of these resources that Ritu is talking about.

Before we wrap up, Ritu, let’s zoom out because your work is so focused on trying to dismantle systemic racism in corporate places and corporate America. And it is leading to a lot of conversation and changes, not just your work, but the work of so many people and voices. To you, what changes are the most urgent in this space and at this moment?

RITU BHASIN: I think individual ownership of how we behave is so important, but also taking a look at our systems. The ways in which we’re recruiting, including remotely at this time, or allocating work or tracking people’s work or calibrating talent, giving out feedback, mentoring, sponsoring, especially in this remote hybrid world. What are the systems and practices that we have put into place? And within these systems, are certain people receiving benefits and advantages that others aren’t?

If, in a hybrid work environment, some of your team members, you’re meeting with them in person because they’re in the office and so are you, and you’re giving them more hands-on feedback because you’re seeing them and it’s easier for you to do, they’re going to receive the benefit of getting both developmental and constructive feedback as they’re working with you. Whereas for the people who are working remotely, if you’re not seeing them and you haven’t taken the step to proactively schedule weekly check-in calls where you can offer them feedback, they’re not going to get the benefit of receiving that developmental feedback that helps to catapult people’s careers.

ELISE HU: This should go without saying, but just to bring this all home for us, what is the why behind this work besides the social good? What’s the business case for equity, inclusion, and diversity?

RITU BHASIN: So, different people from across cultures around a table in and of itself does not unlock innovation and creativity. That’s just diversity. Remember, we go back to the difference between diversity, inclusion, equity. Diversity is putting people around the table. Inclusion is about, you feel safe to speak, and you feel safe to share, and you feel safe to dissent and more, so that different ways of thinking that are shaped by your experiences help to unlock innovation and creativity.

This is what drives performance. It’s what drives profitability. It’s what drives enhanced employee engagement, feelings of belonging, loyalty, connection, vulnerability in the workplace. We know that when we have workplaces that are more diverse, inclusive, and equitable, there’s a real financial benefit to it, plus the benefit of connection and meaning and purpose.

ELISE HU: Ritu Bhasin, she is a DEI speaker and consultant. Ritu, how can people find you online?

RITU BHASIN: I am very active on LinkedIn. You can connect with me there or Instagram. Also, you can check out RituBhasin.com for a lot of the empowerment tools and strategies that I talked about today and BhasinConsulting.com to learn more about our consulting services.

ELISE HU: Fantastic. That’s where to find her. Ritu Bhasin, thank you so much.

RITU BHASIN: Thank you.

ELISE HU: You’ve been listening to the WorkLab podcast, from Microsoft. There’s a WorkLab digital publication too, where you can find a transcript of this very episode. Check out microsoft.com/worklab for more insights about the future of work, and please rate us, review, and follow us wherever you listen.

WorkLab is produced by Microsoft with Godfrey Dadich Partners and Reasonable Volume. I’m your host, Elise Hu. Our correspondents are Mary Melton and Desmond Dickerson. Sharon Kallander produces this podcast. Jessica Voelker is the WorkLab editor. Thanks for listening.