Beyond tokenism: building leadership that lasts

The visible part of leadership diversity is the easy part. The photograph, the board page, the conference panel. The harder part — and the part that determines whether anything actually changes — is what happens in the rooms the photograph never sees.

Tokenism is what you get when an organisation has fixed the visible part without fixing the rest. A small number of people from under-represented groups are placed in senior positions, often without the structural support or genuine authority that makes those positions effective. They are then expected to be both the proof and the engine of change.

This rarely ends well, for them or for the organisation. The individuals carry an unreasonable load. The organisation, having ticked the visible box, often loses interest in the structural work that would make the next appointment easier rather than harder.

Leadership that lasts looks different. It has more than one person from any given group at any given level, so that no individual is treated as a representative. It has hiring and promotion processes that have actually been examined, not just described. It has senior leaders who take responsibility for the pipeline rather than outsourcing it.

It also has the patience to accept that the work is slow. Building leadership that lasts is a multi-year project that does not generate many photo opportunities. That is part of why it works.