Diversity & Leadership: Human Rights and the Challenges for Community Leadership Programs

07/09/2006

by Fiona Smith
Chairperson
Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria
Community Leadership Australia Meeting

I‘d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we meet on today- the people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders and their customs and wish to acknowledge their continuing spiritual connection to this land.

I also wish to thank Leadership Victoria’s Executive Director, Richard Bluck, for inviting me to begin this discussion today about diversity and leadership and I congratulate you as members of Community Leadership Australia for your commitment to diversity in your practice.

Today I would like to talk about the benefits of recognising, respecting and valuing diversity in the workforce and in leadership roles in particular. I’d also like to discuss diversity in the broader context of human rights and equal opportunity as well as some possible strategies for providing leadership opportunities to capture our community’s diversity.

Before doing so I’d like to tell you a story about my first brush with community leadership. When I was about six years of age and growing up as the third daughter of my farming parents, my father became the president of the local agricultural society. His committee was made up of all anglo-saxon, private school educated male farmers. Each year the Committee Members’ spouses (many of whom were also farmers) were required to coordinate food and refreshments for the Committee on the day of the Show and the President’s wife hosted the judging of the Miss Seymour Showgirl Competition. I remember my mother refused to be involved in the Showgirl Competition. At that age I knew it was significant but I’m not sure I fully understood why. Later of course I did understand this public and private struggle and it also gave me food for thought about who the true leader might be.

What is diversity?

There is no doubt that we live in an increasingly diverse community. We often hear this said but let’s take a minute to remind ourselves of this diversity.

Victoria is one of the most culturally diverse states in Australia, with a population made up of people from more than 232 countries, speaking over 200 languages, and celebrating over 100 faiths. However when we talk about diversity it is important to remember that Victoria has been a diverse place for thousands of years- home to many different Indigenous nations, languages and beliefs. Victoria’s Indigenous communities today continue to radiate diversity- living in urban, rural and traditional communities. We also need to remember and plan for people with different abilities, people of different ages, different genders and sexual orientation.

The population of Australia is just under 19 million people, 53% are women and they make up 45% of the workforce. Indigenous people comprise around 2% of the population. About 23% of Victorians were born overseas. Some 18% have a disability and it is estimated that around 10-15% are same-sex attracted. Many of Victoria’s population were drawn here, either in the past or more recently, by a belief in the quality of life and opportunities available. Fundamental to both is the notion of a fair go, and this notion resonates with all Australians. Your organisation and the people you represent have a vital role in making sure all Australian’s have a fair go in shaping our future.

I’m reminded of an article I saw recently about Mr Sam Sullivan of Vancouver. Vancouver, as I’m sure you’ll remember, recently threatened Melbourne’s esteemed position as the world’s most liveable city. And Sam Sullivan had just been elected the mayor of this liveable city, thus becoming Canada’s first mayor with quadriplegia. Mr Sullivan put his election glory down to Vancouver’s remarkable citizenry, and I quote:

“The fact that a quadriplegic could be elected as a mayor says something pretty powerful about who we are as a people. You wouldn’t see this happen in any other city in the world. This is a city that can look beyond disability and look for the ability.”

I would like to think that could happen in Melbourne too, that a leader could be chosen for their leadership ability, and could lead a diverse range of people, regardless of whether or not they themselves represented a minority group. In fact, our current mayor pays tribute to our society embracing the benefits of diversity.

We have come a long way in the past forty years. Forty years ago leaders were white, middle-aged and upper class anglo heterosexual men, many of whom were members of the Melbourne Club. We must be optimistic that leadership and embracing diversity can shape a better future when we consider that forty years ago:

Married women could not be employed in the public service;
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians were not considered as human beings under our constitution;
We had a white Australian policy;
“Human rights” and “people with disabilities” never appeared in the same sentence
Lesbian and gay men dared not speak of the life and love they shared

Things have certainly changed, and they have changed because community leaders and their followers worked to have their differences not just tolerated but recognised and understood, and to place human rights for all on the agenda. However there are still challenges ahead. Consider:

Recent migrants are 4 times as likely as Australian-born residents to have a higher degree, and twice as likely to have a bachelor’s degree, but 50% of recent migrants who are employed rarely use their highest qualification
70% of non-Indigenous Australian’s own their own home compared to 30% of Indigenous Australian’s.
8% of jobs in Australia are classified as unskilled, and Indigenous Australian’s hold 25% of these jobs.
Women’s workforce participation at 45% is the highest ever and women make up 56% of university graduates. However Australia’s top 200 companies have women in only 12% of senior manager roles, only six have female CEO’s and a miserly 8.7% of these companies have board positions filled by women.

A new approach is required as despite the rhetoric very little has changed.

The value of diversity

Promoting diversity is in everyone’s best interests- after all, it’s the one true thing we all have in common! The fact that this session, “Recruiting for diversity in Community Leadership Programs” is being held here today, shows this organisation’s good intentions in relation to diversity. However, we know it takes more than good intentions to make the recognition of diversity meaningful.

Diversity has become something of a buzz word. Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis in their book Productive Diversity, say ‘until now, dealing with diversity has been one of those soft edged, low priority business strategies that involves patronising ‘touchy feely’ training on how to be nice to strange people, that is based on the dubious assumption that training can make us nice’.

Social and inter-cultural intelligence is no longer a soft skill owned exclusively by social workers and religious leaders, it is a core competency of both individuals and organisations in our multicultural State, country, international region and global world. Globalisation is not just about the movement of goods and money, it’s also about the movement of people and the increasing pace of change. Leadership programs need to operate in this environment.

Making diversity work is actually about adopting practices that harness the benefits of diversity within your organisation and your community. Diversity@ Work argues that successfully managed diversity is a strategic tool and is the best way for an organisation to gain a competitive edge. Successful management of diversity results in improved innovation and creativity, strategic advantages from incorporating a wide variety of approaches and perspectives, and an environment where everyone can achieve their full potential.

The Equal Opportunity Commission believes that diversity in people who actually hold leadership positions is also about the health of community organisations, businesses and public sector agencies.

Appropriately managing, working and leading in our diverse environment is more than maximising efficiency, and improving the bottom line. It is also different to just learning about some quaint customs or eating some unusual food. First and foremost it’s about really understanding and valuing difference for its own sake.

Perhaps this should be a core mission for Community Leadership Programs because we know it’s about overcoming prejudice and fear and not judging people on the basis of stereotypes. It’s about creating a safe and inclusive community. It’s about changing behaviour and changing attitudes.

What is leadership?

I’d like to share with you my personal thoughts on leadership, and where the benefits of diversity sit in relation to leadership programs.

Although leadership is one of the popular topics of our time, it often gets confused with being charismatic or strategic, for having an eye for serendipitous chance, or for making money.

This is a false image, and a dangerous one.

Even today, textbooks and leadership courses adhere to the criteria for leadership set forty years ago, saying that leaders need vision, drive and dedication and an extensive track record that can probably only be obtained by the already privileged.

I’d say that even if we get vision, drive and dedication, we still need to ask what is the purpose of leadership, because leadership could be for anything, good or bad.

As well as these attributes, community leaders need a heart, courage, and a brain; the gifts of the Wizard of Oz.

The Tin man, machine like and incapable of love, had to find a heart in order to become a leader. Leaders need hearts to care, to empathise, to feel injustice, and to be passionate about righting wrongs.
The cowardly Lion had to find courage- a critical aspect of leadership. Leaders need courage to struggle and fight for their cause. They need courage to stand up for their followers on issues that would otherwise be swept under the carpet.
Lastly, the Straw Man had to find brains, and this is the third critical aspect of community leadership. A leader needs the intelligence to find new takes on tired old problems, to be able to imagine risky lateral moves around entrenched stumbling blocks.

One example of fantastic leadership was the start of the disability rights movement in the late seventies- leadership by a group of people with disabilities who decided to aggressively pursue a human rights agenda and pull down institutional walls and mindsets. These leaders and others like them – the great indigenous leaders who refused to endure the injustice of their peoples discrimination, the early leaders of the multicultural and women’s movements who put equal opportunity on the agenda - used their brain, their courage and their hearts to lead and to effect change.

Which brings us to an important point about the connection between diversity and leadership. If you have been living on the margin of your community or been excluded from opportunities because of your class or human trait , then you are used to fighting hard for recognition of your community’s needs. Such struggles require the attributes of leadership – vision, drive and dedication; heart, courage and brains, in order to struggle and fight, and most importantly, in order to succeed. It is in some of the most marginalised communities where we find some of the best examples of leadership.

Diverse Communities, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity

In Australia, and especially in Victoria we are indeed fortunate that we have, relative to some other countries, extensive legislation protecting our human rights and our right to a fair go. This has been primarily via the Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (Vic) which makes it unlawful to treat people unfairly or harass them because of a number of personal characteristics including race, age, disability/impairment, gender, sexual orientation, marital status and religious belief or activity.

While we may, relatively, have good legislative protection of equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws, when we look at people’s practical enjoyment of these rights another picture emerges.

The truth is that while we are all entitled to fairness, respect and equal access to employment, goods and services, housing, education and medical services, the reality is very different. As we know, however, there is very unequal access to these basics of daily life in Australia. I don’t have time here to recount the statistics but I know they are familiar to you.

Entrenched discrimination and racism result from systemic discrimination. Systemic Discrimination is a bit like pollution – it is everywhere in different degrees and varieties. This term describes widespread practices, laws and attitudes, which are viewed as neutral and sometimes acceptable, however, which entrench inequality and disadvantage experienced by certain groups of people in society. It is often subtle and unintentional; however the impacts are long-term and unhealthy on the individual and community at large. Systemic Discrimination is a barrier to ensuring real, effective and equal access to the requirements of daily life and participation in public life and the community.

This talk of systemic discrimination begs the question – what can be done to overcome barriers to participation in mainstream community leadership programs? And that question begs a discussion about affirmative action.

Affirmative Action has been criticised for relying too heavily on quotas and targets, and for throwing the concept of merit based selection out the window.

However let us consider affirmative action in the context of equal opportunity laws. Equal Opportunity is not about a priority or preference of one group over another – in fact, that goes against the fundamental principles of equal opportunity.

The fundamental reason for equal opportunity legislation is to give effect to the community expectation that judgements and decisions made about people in their public life, should be based on merit alone.

Affirmative action recognises that equality does not always mean equal treatment. Our differences need to be taken into account and accommodated. It therefore assists the achievement of equal opportunity; and is about overcoming current or historical causes of inequality. It was initially developed to overcome inequalities in employment for women but has of necessity been widened to assist other disadvantaged groups such as indigenous people and people with disabilities. Affirmative action is designed to assist people to overcome these past barriers so they can effectively and genuinely compete on merit and gain entry into “traditional” areas.

Affirmative action does not necessarily involve quota’s or targets, although I advocate these for community leadership programs. Affirmative action is about ensuring that people have an opportunity to be equally skilled and qualified and then given the same opportunities irrespective of their gender, disability, race, sexuality or age to compete on merit.

The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities

On 1st January 2007 The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities comes into effect, meaning that Victoria will be the first state in Australia to introduce a Charter of Human Rights. The Charter articulates our civil and political freedoms, rights and responsibilities and enshrines them in Victorian law. All current and future State and local Governments and statutory bodies must observe the rights.

The Charter includes rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of association, protection from cruel and degrading treatment, and other rights that are outlined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that until now, had no formal legal protection.

The most relevant items in the Charter to our discussion here today are those relating to the right to freedom from discrimination, and the right to take part in public life. The right to not be discriminated against incorporates a duty not to discriminate on such grounds as gender, race, disability or social origins. This encompasses both direct and indirect discrimination.

With Victoria now having a Charter of Human Rights, it will be incumbent on state and local public authorities to ensure that they are recruiting for diversity in to leadership roles and coming up with strategies to ensure people have the capacity to fill these leadership roles. In the Commission’s view, affirmative action strategies should be part of this.

As I said in my introduction, the work that Community Leadership Australia Members are already doing with diverse groups is terrific.

However, I wonder if the generalist leadership programs focus on individuals rather than population groups is the best way of approaching leadership development to ensure diversity. For example, one way organisations may address gaps in program participants, is to focus on population groups, instead of individuals. This would enable you to have specific strategies and action plans (including targets) around the most disadvantaged groups as well as the under-represented and I have no doubt lead you to question what may be considered “merit” in emerging leaders. For example is a 10 – 15 year track record of achievement criteria for eligibility to participate in a program fair?

While groups like Leadership Victoria and others understandably have fairly stringent merit criteria to become a participant, it is important to recognise ways of including groups who are not currently represented in “the network” or who have historically been excluded from opportunities that might enable them to meet eligibility criteria.

For example, Leadership programs could offer a small number of positions targeted to young people and/or observer status positions to others. The Victorian Multicultural Commission has used this approach. Another initiative would be to ensure you always hold culturally and socially intelligent events that avoid being exclusionary in any way, and are accessible to people with different abilities – physical or otherwise.

In summary, as I know you are acutely aware, it’s the strategies we have to reach out to all groups in our community that will make a difference. In the Commission’s case, I’d briefly like to highlight three strategies we have that may be of relevance to you.

Through our education and consultancy branch, we work with organisations to ensure that they have discrimination free recruitment policies, which ensure that a workforce will be diverse and reflect the composition of the broader community.
We have 3 outreach workers who work specifically with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, Indigenous communities and people with a disability.
We are also about to release a discussion paper on work/life balance – something we need to achieve in our workplaces and structures if we are to provide true opportunity to those with different needs, family and carer responsibilities. Without Australia ultimately succeeding in this quest, guaranteeing diversity in community leadership program participants will be hard to achieve.

Conclusion

Diversity has a lot to offer leadership programs, and leadership programs have a lot to offer diverse groups of people. Your challenge as leaders is to create an inclusive society in which diversity is understood and ultimately valued for the benefits it brings at individual and community levels.

What we need now is for leadership to go beyond the stereotypes. We need leaders with the heart, courage and brains to make a difference.