Is your network diverse? Or are you looking at a circle of familiar faces? With the world working to shake up their boardrooms and teams, having a diverse network is now a hot topic for professionals.
It’s time for organizations to look inwards at the people on their teams and boardrooms, and at their collaborators and suppliers. If their professional teams or network aren’t diverse, it means it’s time to switch things up! Professionals naturally look to our networks for help with everything from advice, to collaboration, all the way to hiring. Keeping these circles diverse is important for providing opportunities to different groups and helping new talent to enter your space. obsidi.com is a diverse network of professionals and a great community to start your networking journey.
Finding success isn’t just about what you know, it’s who you know. And the more diverse your circle is, the better. There are tons of benefits to diversifying your network, and ways it can take an organization to the next level. Here are a few reasons why network diversification is the right move to make.
Innovate with New Perspectives
New people bring new ideas to the table. Meeting with people exactly like you means you’re all more likely to think and feel the same way—in essence creating an echo chamber, which can in turn lead to confirmation bias. You may not even realize that there are different ideas being left out of your discussions. With a more diverse network, you’ll get to hear viewpoints you might have never heard before.
There are even studies that prove diversity in leadership often out-perform others. A diverse world needs diverse viewpoints, as they lead to fresh ideas and solutions to problems. By building a network with diverse perspectives around you, you’ll be able to get even more innovative.
Grow Outside Your Comfort Zone
When you diversify your network, you grow! Any person trying to reach a goal knows growth happens when you step outside your comfort zone. Meeting with new people may not be easy, and you may find your ideas challenged or questioned in a way that’s unfamiliar. But these kinds of conversations are a good thing. If you can work through the discomfort, you’ll grow your ability to work with diverse perspectives and ideas. And when you make sure you’re always growing, you’ll always be on your A-game.
Attract Diverse Talent
It’s not a bad thing to want to hire from within your network. Everyone wants a candidate that’s been recommended by someone they trust. The flaw here, though, is that if your network isn’t super diverse, there’s a good chance your hiring won’t be either. With a more diverse network of people around you, you’ll have access to pools of talent you may not have seen before. A study by the Boston Consulting Group study saw that companies with diverse management teams were 19% higher in revenue than competitors, linked directly to their innovation. When you bring on diverse talent, you get the benefits of diverse ideas.
Reach a New Audience
You might have an idea of who your organization’s audience is, and the best way to serve them, but there’s a chance you could be missing the mark. If your product or service doesn’t serve everybody, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with new people. With a diverse network helping you, you’ll have a better idea of any consumers you’re leaving behind. When you leverage diverse perspectives, you can reach an audience you didn’t even know you were missing!
Expand Your Network
Are you looking to diversify your network? Our BPTN Executive Networking Pods are here to help! These pods work to bring BPTN members and executives together, helping Black tech professionals and business leaders engage, network, and end the Black tech networking gap. Sign up today to expand your circle, and get connected.
