Egon Zehnder proudly believes in the power of authentic, diverse, and inclusive leaders as vectors for growing, thriving organizations. Our commitment to celebrating, supporting, and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community starts from within and is reflected in our client work globally.
As One Firm, we create career opportunities, support leaders, and assist our clients in shaping their culture and transforming their organizations. Through our work, we also enable individuals to reach their full potential, regardless of sexuality, gender identity, or any other personal attributes. This is as true for our own people as for the clients and candidates we spend time with every day.
LGBTQ+ leaders are still underrepresented in organizations globally. We are committed to changing this reality by uplifting their voices and doing more every day to bring their exceptional talents, abilities, and potential to organizations.
We are witnessing a global movement toward DEI at the highest levels of leadership. Leaders know they cannot solve complex challenges alone. They derive strength from the people around them. Only by tapping into the breadth and richness of insights that come from a truly diverse group of individuals and inclusive culture, do leaders have real power. Nurturing and embracing these voices will be critical to building a bright, shared future. That is leadership for a better world.
To advance LGBTQ+ leaders’ interests, the leadership advisory industry needs to act intentionally, designing targeted initiatives and ensuring processes, approaches, and systems are inclusive. There are several challenges to overcome. LGBTQ+ identities are often not visible, and legal restrictions often limit our ability to capture and share this information with clients. Many individuals feel unsure of what they can or cannot ask. Additionally, some of our candidates may not wish to be labeled or identified in a particular way.
Our approach to respond to these challenges and act inclusively includes:
- We create a safe environment conducive of open dialogue, where LGBTQ+ individuals both inside and outside our Firm can be their authentic selves. As LGBTQ+ advocates, we will “call out” behaviors or practices that do not support this or the needs of other underrepresented communities.
- We actively address any direct or indirect discrimination in our global policies that our colleagues across our offices may face.
- We invest in initiatives that raise LGBTQ+ awareness and host broader diversity trainings for ourselves, in addition to partnering with clients to promote their own LGBTQ+ efforts.
- Our ez+ employee resource group actively works to celebrate, support, empower, and advocate for Egon Zehnder’s LGBTQ+ community. It is a place for anyone in the Firm who identifies as LGBTQ+, gender nonconforming, and an ally of the community to come together, support each other, and explore the many ways to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion inside and outside of Egon Zehnder.
Advancing LGBTQ+ Representation in the Boardroom
While inclusion is vital everywhere in an organization, it is particularly relevant in the boardroom. Egon Zehnder has partnered with Out Leadership, the world’s leading global LGBTQ+ business network, since 2020. Since then, the two firms have been working together on advisory and executive search services, thought leadership and events, with the goal of building a more robust pipeline for senior leadership positions and board appointments.
Egon Zehnder is the first search firm in the world to support this effort; none of the other search firms are focusing on LGBT equality or inclusion at the board level, which is something we are trying to change.
