When hiring for multiple roles at once, evaluators naturally consider the diversity of the group as a whole. This 'set' mindset encourages a mix of backgrounds and skills. In contrast, hiring one-off candidates leads to focusing on individual fit without considering the broader team composition, often reducing diversity.

To accelerate innovation, e.l.f. Beauty's CEO holds product review meetings open to any employee. This radical transparency ensures the company moves at 'e.l.f. speed' and leverages insights from team members who represent their core community. It prioritizes collective intelligence and agility over traditional corporate secrecy.

True DEI measurement goes beyond representation metrics ('butts in seats'). It assesses whether diverse employees feel valued enough to contribute their unique cultural insights to core business functions, like marketing strategy, thereby directly impacting business outcomes.

In a polarized climate, e.l.f. Beauty partners with companies like Target that may have different public stances on issues like DEI. CEO Tarang Amin focuses on aligning on core business values—like customer service and ethics—rather than demanding perfect ideological agreement, enabling broader partnerships and avoiding polarization.

Instead of setting diversity quotas for her male-dominated tech network, Muriel Faberge simply encouraged members to invite their female colleagues, sisters, and even mothers. This simple, personal approach naturally led to a balanced community with roughly equal gender representation, without forced mandates.

Don't wait for a corporate mandate. Any leader, even of a small team, can demonstrate commitment to DEI by including specific diversity and inclusion goals in their personal performance objectives. It would be a brave senior leader who would push back on such an initiative.

To highlight the lack of diversity on corporate boards, e.l.f. launched a provocative ad campaign titled 'So Many Dicks, So Few of Everyone Else.' The campaign noted that more board members are named Richard, Rick, or Dick than represent entire underserved populations. This bold, humorous approach generated 98% positive sentiment, demonstrating how to tackle serious issues in a culture-shaping way.

By adding resilience as a core hiring criterion, Pinterest naturally attracts diverse candidates from non-traditional backgrounds who have overcome adversity. This focus shifts hiring away from traditional signals of success, increasing diversity and bringing in employees who are better equipped for business challenges.

When leaders resist DEI on moral grounds, reframe it as a business necessity. Connect a diverse workforce to understanding and capturing untapped, diverse customer markets. This shifts the conversation from a perceived cost (subtraction) to a clear business gain (expansion).