by Shaila Kotadia, Morgan Diamond, Matthew Griffith, and Miranda Stratton, PhD
Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock
Research has shown that professionals working in the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) space need more institutional support. In fact, NADOHE’s inaugural “State of the CDO survey report” revealed that many CDOs are understaffed and under-resourced and very few felt the work was “manageable” — findings that echoed a 2019 survey from WittKieffer.
In addition to unrealistic expectations and inadequate support, these individuals often also hold minoritized identities and disproportionately report experiences of isolation, discrimination, and exclusion.
It is clear the problem persists — the question remains, though, how can campus leaders better support the professionals doing this valuable work?
We, the Stanford School of Medicine Human Resources Group Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) team, have witnessed this issue among our own employees contributing to JEDI efforts and are now leveraging a unique but powerful tool to address it. Coaching, a resource traditionally reserved for senior leadership or those at the executive level, allows individuals to thrive in an organization and increases employee engagement and retention. New coaching models seek to democratize this resource for employees at all levels across the organization.
In this article, we will explore how our pilot coaching program is a powerful tool for transformation both for the individual and organization, that we must invest in our employees conducting JEDI work, and with diverse groups, there is a strong need for diverse coaches.
The Pilot: Its Design and Its Outcomes
The pilot program was comprised of 26 individuals from across Stanford School of Medicine, all of whom devote significant time to advancing JEDI within our organization. The participants had full access to the BetterUp coaching platform, including generalized coaches, specialized coaches, on-demand coaching, and a wealth of resources. In addition, we hosted monthly touchpoints focusing on community building and provided our participants the space to share their experiences. Of the 26 participants, 100% had one or more minoritized identities, and the majority were women of color. Our goal was to allow participants to grow critical leadership skills, increase engagement, resilience, and self-awareness, and strengthen the ability to influence, advocate, and advance their career goals strategically.
One hundred percent of pilot participants found the program beneficial to their personal and professional growth. The pre- and post-assessments reported a 39% increase in resilience, a 38% rise in strategic planning, and a 32% improvement in self-awareness among our cohort. Overall, we noticed improvement in all four areas of BetterUp’s Evidence-Based Whole Person Model: Mindsets, Inspiring Behaviors, Thriving Behaviors, and Outcomes. This was further proven by participant testimonials, for example, “I really appreciated having the ability to work with both a personal coach… and specialist coaches on subjects such as DEI and Presentation Skills. I feel like this platform gave me so many wonderful insights about how to maximize the potential of my role and how to feel more comfortable with the challenges I was taking on.”
Lessons Learned
Based on our assessments, coaching proved to be a transformative experience for our participants. We repeatedly heard from our participants that they had never had access to a similar tool and how powerful it was for them to thrive in the organization. Other participants shared that this program was a means of survival for their mental health and wellness.
We learned we have to invest in people who are doing JEDI work. These individuals work to transform the organization and often suffer from the minority tax. Given the large investment they commit to the organization, they deserve to be invested in. This coaching program model is a significant and unprecedented way to recognize and reward our JEDI volunteers, practitioners, and professionals.
A final lesson discovered through the pilot program is that minoritized individuals need minoritized coaches. Many individuals hesitate to fully engage in coaching when their coaches do not understand their identities. Our lived experiences and social identities, although they may be considered ‘personal’ by some, have a direct influence on our professional journey. This understanding allows coaches to better support their coachees and recognize their needs. Yet, the data shows there is a lack of racial diversity among coaches. Out of the current career-coaching pool of 11,502, 67% are White, 14.2% are Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% are Black or African American, and 3.7% are Asian. There is an outstanding need to grow representation within the coaching pool.
Moving Forward
College and university leaders who are committed to advancing JEDI efforts on their campus should strongly consider investing in coaching for their JEDI volunteers, practitioners, and professionals. Given the increase we witnessed in thriving, and in some cases surviving, behaviors, we feel these individuals will be better prepared to make significant contributions to the transformation of the organization. We hope the experience in this program will help our participants navigate future challenges throughout their career and life journeys — and that the success we have seen from this model can serve as a guide for other institutions to better support employees working in the JEDI space.
