Why DEB&I Knowledge is Fundamental in Environmental, Social and Governance Work – And Why Coaching is Crucial

They’ve called in the troops.

PwC just announced it will be spending $12 billion over the next 5 years to increase its work force by one third. This, to deal with the rising need for Environmental, Social and Governance advice.

For anyone who missed it the ‘S’ part is Social.  It’s DEB&I work. Diversity, Equality, Belonging and Inclusion. It measures the social impact of businesses. Both externally and internally. Yes, that’s right. ‘Social’ means diversity, fair treatment of employees and communities, equality, fair access to opportunity and finance. Pay, rewards, recognition.

The ‘Social’ in ESG means creating engagement and cultures of belonging. It means looking out for the welfare and well-being of anyone and everyone impacted by an organization’s operations.

And investors are increasingly selecting those organizations taking care of it.

It means we need to pay attention to DEB&I.

When the ‘social’ is taken care of corporations, communities and societies thrive. It appears astute organizations like the World Economic Forum, the United Nations and the World Health Organization have known this for a while.

Luckily the business world finally cottoned on. In business circles that usually needs to be quantified. So, we talk about performance metrics, quarter end results, financial returns.

The cynic might say money talks and finally people listened. The optimist hopes that people recognize that people matter. A big part of that means making sure people feel valued, seen, heard. When organizations do that, they save money. And make money.

Investors like that.

So, coaching the talent that’s everywhere has never been more necessary.

The Challenge

But many people think DEB&I is an off-shoot. Work for social activists. Fighting for so-called minorities and women. They haven’t grasped yet that it’s simply become an umbrella term for ‘everything that is to do with people’. Or it will be very soon if we grasp it’s the ‘S’ in ESG.

Left brain stuff packaged by management consultant-types is so much more palatable in business circles. Numbers? They work. Engagement and emotions? Tricky.

But that tricky human stuff is where coaching skill is needed. Because that’s what makes the ‘Social’ happen. ‘Everything that is to do with people’ requires the skills of a coach.

And a coach that doesn’t avoid DEB&I.

The Need

While PwC is already preparing for the ESG wave to truly hit, watch this space as the Big Four accounting firms continue sending signals about just how significant ESG is becoming.

Those sticky topics many people have been hoping to avoid, will continue to cross their path. Why? Because clients are asking more and more:

How can we retain our staff?
How can we incentivize women to stay?
How can we create succession planning for people of color?
How can we convince the board there’s a pipeline problem? (Spoiler alert. There is no pipeline problem.)
How can we improve our engagement numbers?
How can we prevent harassment claims?
How can we reduce turnover and burnout?

For those, (and there are plenty), who still think this is something they can conveniently skirt, think again. This isn’t just an opportunity. It’s an absolute necessity. Everyone must understand DEB&I.

But if it helps you let’s call it the ‘Social’ in ESG.

What Leaders Lack

Re-purposing management consultants, gleaned a decade earlier at milk rounds from the finest universities in the land, won’t necessarily move the needle on DEB&I work. Nor will finding yet more number crunching theorists, to pad out the work force at PwC and its equivalents. Indeed, much DEB&I ‘work’ itself hasn’t moved the needle on DEB&I work. Why?

Because few of these people have coaching skills.

‘Suits with solutions’ have been the supposed holy grail for every change management initiative known to man over the last 40 years. They create great spreadsheets. Show the checks and balances. Tell the organization there’s a huge deficit. Genius.

For those of us with a background in consultancy we recognize the inefficiencies all too well. The tedious, oft impractical, management theories. The advice that doesn’t turn into action. Not to mention the ludicrously expensive, (‘lucratively expensive’), price tag.

And with the job ‘done’, the suits leave. But not much changed.

It’s ironic that this business model is liberally sprinkled with “do as I say, not as I do” rhetoric. Afterall, the Big Four have had their own ‘fair’ share of challenges on the Social, DEB&I front.

Though there’s been some change, there are still huge gaps across most organizations. Issues with inequity. Poor performance. Lack of engagement. Homogeneity. Harassment. Low retention. Compromised well-being.

And we constantly forget these issues affect everyone. Not just women and so-called minorities.

DEB&I initiatives in organizations flounder precisely because of this last point. The great danger is these initiatives themselves communicate judgement. Shut down others. Create exclusion themselves. Often by demonstrating the behaviors they want others not to use. With certain groups and individuals. In certain contexts.

By their very nature, these DEB&I initiatives often create far more exclusion than inclusion. Their leaders are then unable to influence senior management. Unable to weave the behavior changes needed into the very fabric of the whole organization. This is because these leaders haven’t learnt how to coach. And so, they are similarly ill-disposed to create a shift.

Crucial Coaching Conversations

Changing numbers doesn’t change behaviors.

Changing behaviors changes behaviors.

Professionals with the coaching skills to influence, strategize and facilitate in this difficult terrain can help drive change. Through crucial coaching conversations. By facilitating feedback and creating accountability. Skillfully and independently.

Because let’s be honest. Change management is always about changing mindsets. And changing human behaviors.

How do people feel? What bugs them? What drives them? How does the behavior of others impact them? What are their own blind spots? And who are they likely to open up to if they have issues with the internal system? The people in the internal system? Or a trusted, independent coach?

If you really want to be on the meaningful side of ESG. Get the insight on DEB&I.

And learn to coach.

Why Coaching Works

Improving the feedback culture is a large part of what coaching in DEB&I work should be about. Daring to discriminate because we capitalize on people’s uniqueness. Not playing second fiddle to antiquated same color, same sex boards. Helping people to be vulnerable and transparent. All people. To recognize, articulate and justify how we intend to honor each other and create shared meaning. Achieved through coaching.

Success in ‘Social’ and DEB&I work is not achieved by changing the optic. Social washing in ESG terms. Tokenism in DEB&I terms.

It’s achieved by coaching everyone. Because we all have blind spots.

And by helping everyone to be accountable. Because we all need to be accountable.

Challengers Who Can Coach

‘You can buy the company, but you can’t buy the people’ used to be the tag line carried by one of the big consultancy firms. It addressed the uncertainty that resulted from yet another company merger. If only more consultants actually paid attention to the sentiment of this phrase. You can count the initial profit. But you can’t mitigate the mid-term loss. Unless you recognize how change effects people.

Unless you’re willing to have those challenging, coaching conversations.

This work requires coaches who can deal with the sometimes-messy laundry of people’s lives. Those tricky things like needs, wants, desires, perceptions, behaviors, jealousy, scarcity, fear, power, low self-esteem.

That right brain stuff that puts context to most of what we do and why we do it.

That sub-conscious behavior we’re not even aware of, but that gives away our true beliefs about who we ‘believe’ in.

Whether we even believe in ourselves. Whether we treat others fairly. 

Great coaches help their clients look in the mirror. At limiting beliefs. At binary views. At tiny behaviors that can have massive consequences. Coaches help their clients see the behaviors that either draw people in to trust, share and collaborate.  

Or push people away, in toxic, destructive, avoidable ways.

Or to that grey place in between. Where the elephant’s ‘hiding’. But apparently only some people can see it.

If only we’d finally understand success in Social and DEB&I is not just about metrics, efficiencies, higher productivity. It’s fundamentally about recognizing the quirkiness of being human. You don’t find that in a spreadsheet. You find that in coaching conversations. Exploring hearts and minds.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to capture a market. And the right way, the long-term way, is to do the right things. Learn the mindset and the coaching skills required to do this incredibly important work. And you’ll capture the market of Social, DEB&I.

An army of heads won’t move the needle on ESG or DEB&I. 

An army of hearts and minds with coaching skills for this human work will.

If you don’t want to become defunct, conscription is the only option.

But join the right army with the right skill set.