So now I'm an executive champion … Help!

Here's a common scenario: As head of diversity, you've been working hard to convey the business case to senior leaders in a way that not only engages them intellectually, but impels them to action. You have succeeded in assembling a cadre of high ranking individuals who are willing to step up and take leadership roles in the diversity and inclusion initiative. They have agreed to sit on the diversity council or sponsor an employee resource group. But once named to these roles, they seem stymied. They are unsure of what to do next. How can you help them move forward and have an impact?

Giving them a written role description is helpful, but insufficient. (See examples of role descriptions in the ORC Best Practice Guide to Getting Support for Diversity.) They need practical "how to" guidance to get them going. And while the business case may give executives a reason to come to the table, galvanizing them to action may require helping them find a deeper, more visceral connection to the issues of diversity inclusion. Here are some suggestions for what you can do:

1. Meet personally or collectively with executive champions. Have a conversation about why they are interested in diversity and inclusion, what those terms mean to them, how they or their friends and family have experienced exclusion, what they would like to accomplish.
2. Help them draw the line directly from business objectives to diversity objectives to actions they can take.
3. Get granular: help champions see the first step and then the step after that.

Examples of concrete actions to get champions started:

• Objective: Raise the profile of D&I among fellow senior leaders Action steps: Include D&I metrics in business reports; invite fellow leaders to ERG events; bring up questions about demographics in talent reviews;
• Objective: Communicate support for D&I initiative to the organization Action steps: Reach out to ERG leaders and offer to speak at events; introduce diversity training session using personal stories; model inclusive behavior by requiring diverse recruiting slates, mentoring women and minority employees and demanding that direct reports do the same
• Objective: Leverage diversity for business advantage Action steps: Identify those markets in company's growth plans that pose cultural, linguistic, or government relations challenges; discuss challenges with senior-level employees representing those markets; ask ERGs to respond to specific issues, (e.g., develop cultural training, provide translators).

Once executive champions take their first steps, they soon find their footing and start to blaze their own paths. At that point, the diversity leader can focus more on providing forums for executive champions to get together to collaborate and share learnings, developing successors to current champions, creating tools and processes to institutionalize some of the solutions developed by individual champions, and so forth.