Rethinking diversity in the workplace: It’s not a strategy, it’s a way of doing business.
Recently, I was invited to speak on a panel about workplace culture. One topic kept resurfacing: diversity.
It’s a conversation that often divides the room. Met either with energy and enthusiasm, or with a quiet sigh and a glance away. Let's get one thing clear: Diversity isn't a buzzword, trend, or a tick-box strategy. For leaders, it's a way of working that removes barriers and elevates team performance. At my consultancy, we spend a lot of time working with business leaders and boards on building high-performance teams and sustainable growth strategies.
Diversity. One of the most polarising words of 2025. Also known as:
Despite its many shapes and forms. They all have one thing in common: What should be a unifying strategy is, in many organisations, a source of tension.
Why diversity is overdue a commercial rebrand
Leaders still see diversity as a standalone initiative. Something to “roll out.” Something separate from business goals. At worst: a compliance exercise. And that’s precisely where things go wrong.
Diversity is not a thing. It’s how you do things.
One key takeaway from a recent talk I attended from Simon Fanshawe OBE is this:
“Diversity is not a ‘thing’. It’s a way of doing things that removes barriers to talent.” Something I have always preached about as a board advisor.
Diversity was never meant to be a trend. When companies treat diversity as an add-on programme or a PR exercise, it rarely delivers meaningful results. It becomes more about metrics, not mindset. Activity, not impact.
But, when diversity is embedded into the way you hire, build teams, set goals and listen. It becomes a powerful enabler.
It ensures the right people, from different backgrounds and perspectives, bring their professional selves to work together to solve the right problems. Not to tick boxes, but to drive performance.
Why should diversity matter at board level and leadership teams?
The short answer is that the world you’re building products and services for is diverse. If your decision-making table doesn’t reflect that reality, you’re operating with blind spots both strategically and commercially.
But even more importantly, diverse teams aren’t about representation for the sake of optics. They’re about rebalancing what’s imbalanced, so that everyone in the room has the conditions to perform.
Diversity shouldn’t exist in conflict with company strategy.
It should complement it. It should help clarify, not dilute. Why? When done right, diversity leads to sharper decision-making, increased innovation, and stronger financial returns.
Many companies turn to internal surveys to assess how inclusive or representative their workforce is. Done well, this can be a useful tool. But data only adds value if it reflects reality and if it drives change.
Introducing a modern framework to reposition diversity as a strategic commercial asset.
Consider the classic demographic question: Male, Female, Prefer not to say.
If a large proportion of employees choose “prefer not to say,” what then? The dataset becomes too vague to act on, and the initiative risks stalling.
What’s needed is clarity from leadership.
Employees need to know:
Otherwise, you're collecting information for the sake of it and that only leads to more questions, not answers.
Another key consideration: employee resource groups.
When set up with care, these can be powerful communities. But they can also unintentionally create divisions, especially if they aren’t integrated into the wider leadership conversations.
Leaders must ask:
Intentions matter. But so does execution, and who signs it off. Ultimately, your internal culture must align with your external business goals. But most people get this wrong.
Why? There’s a growing discomfort around hiring people because they come from diverse backgrounds. Here’s a more useful framing: hire them because they bring value shaped by their diverse experience. Not because of their identity alone.
A diverse candidate’s real contribution isn’t their “story.” It’s their skill. Their insight. Their commercial sharpness. Their ability to help the business move forward.
Tokenism does a disservice to everyone. Elevating people based on value does the opposite.
True leadership isn’t about enforcing the same things. It’s about enabling every individual to bring their full professional self to the table while working towards a shared goal.
So, how do you create that kind of culture?
Advocating and building diverse boards is what we do. It was never a trend for us. – Lenna Lou, Founder, The L Factor Ltd
At The L Factor Ltd, we don’t believe in doing things for the sake of fashion or trend. We believe in doing things because they work. Diversity, when done well, drives performance, sharpens leadership, and improves company culture. It removes friction and unleashes talent.
So don’t fall into the trap of box-ticking. Instead, start asking better questions.
Start with:
Because that’s the role of leadership: not to divide, but to connect. Not to manage people into categories, but to bring people together for a shared purpose.
Let diversity be the way you do things, not a thing you have to do.
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Resources/Further reading:
McKinsey 2023 – Diversity matters even more: The case for holistic impact
Simon Fanshawe OBE keynote speech, June 2025
Virtual teams 🇵🇭 + AI agents 🤖 for UK founders who value time, trust & results | Founder | ex-Google | Building community over competition
2moBrilliantly put Lenna. Diversity isn’t a side project or a policy, it’s how great work gets done in leadership, in teams, and yes, even in AI. As we build tools designed to serve real people, the human element becomes even more vital and diversity sharpens strategy. This piece is a powerful reminder that who and the way we build matters just as much as what we build.
Powerful post, Lenna. As someone leading across culturally diverse regions, I’ve seen how authenticity can be both a challenge and a catalyst. When we’re able to show up as ourselves, especially in environments where inclusion isn’t a given, we build deeper trust and better outcomes. Diversity works when it’s embedded into how we lead, not added as an afterthought.