Show notes
The more diverse your organization, the more successful it will be Today I bring to you a most fascinating and consequential woman leader, Melissa Andrieux. Born and bred in Queens, New York, Melissa became a prosecutor, then Queens District Attorney, then civil litigator. She is now Chief Diversity Officer at the law firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer. She is also Chief Client Relations Officer, and is tapping into her extensive experience in marketing, business development and recruitment to drive business growth within the firm by establishing a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. What's more, she helps other firms bring DEI&B into their own cultures. Melissa is not only a trailblazer but a beacon for others to emulate. Do enjoy. Watch and listen to our conversation here Key takeaways from our podcast It's never too late. Don't let people tell you that you're only good at one thing. Just because you're good at it doesn't mean you should keep doing it. Yes you should have a plan, but don't get so fixed on it that you miss the opportunities that come. You need diverse perspectives within your organization, because the clients out there are so diverse. They can pick and choose who they want to work with, who they want to give their money to, and if they're not seeing representation at your organization or at your business, they're going to go elsewhere. Diversity is a reference, a representation of different cultures, different backgrounds, different races, sexual orientations. Diversity can also be the differences in education, socioeconomic background, marital status. People often think that it's just racial or gender, but that's not it. There are so many different aspects to diversity. It's what makes us different and unique. Equity at its basic level is about fairness and leveling the playing field. Contrary to what some people think, it's not about taking from one group to give to another group. It's about making adjustments to imbalances. It's really about fairness. Inclusion is related to belonging. Inclusion is, you're being invited to the party to play, you're being given a seat at the table, you're being considered. And as a decision maker, as a colleague, your voice is being heard. If we do not start with the basics, the foundations, and understand why people feel a certain way, why people think that they need to gravitate towards their own groups, their own culture, then we're never going to get to where we need to be. It's all about knowledge, education and understanding. When it comes to DEI, the leader is instrumental because nothing can be done without the leader's buy-in. You can connect with Melissa by LinkedIn or email: mandrieux@dorflaw.com. More stories of women making DEI a reality, not just an idea Maureen Berkner Boyt—Diversity and Inclusion: Let's Go Beyond Hoping and Make Inclusion Really Happen Rohini Anand—Can Businesses Create Cultures Based On True Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? Andie Kramer—Can "Beyond Bias" Take Your Organization To Great Heights? Maria Colacurcio—Stop The Revolving Door. Help Your Employees Embrace A Diverse And Equitable Workplace. Businesses Must Sustain Diversity And Inclusion For Women Additional resources for you My two award-winning books: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights Our new book, Women Mean Business: Over 500 Insights from Extraordinary Leaders to Spark Your Success, co-authored by Edie Fraser, Robyn Freedman Spizman and Andi Simon, PhD Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants Read the transcript of our podcast here Andi Simon: Welcome to On the Brink With Andi Simon. Hi I'm Andi Simon and as you know, as my frequent followers who come to watch our podcast, I'm here to be the guide and the host to take you off the brink. Our job is to help you see, feel and think in new ways. And in order to do that, you have to listen to people who have changed. Change is painful. Your brain hates me. But don't run away. Today we're going to have a great, great time. I have with us today Melissa Andrieux who's an attorney whom I met at a wonderful party. And she has really given me some perspective on something that I think is important for us to share. She's smiling at me. Here's a little bit about her background and then she's going to tell you about her own journey. Melissa is an experienced litigator. She leveraged her background in law to lead Dorf Nelson & Zauderer, the law firm, in their initiatives as chief diversity officer. She's also the firm's chief client relations officer, and she's tapping into her extensive experience in marketing, business development and recruitment to drive business growth within the firm. But what's really important is, she's gone from being a litigator to being an expert in the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging professional space. So she's helping the firm help other firms begin. And this is my world: see, feel and think in new ways so they can begin to understand why having a lot of diversity of all kinds, including cognitive diversity and listening to each other is important, and understand how to include people in things that you might have not thought they were part of. Melissa, thank you for joining me today. Melissa Andrieux: Well, thank you for having me, Andi. It's a real pleasure to be on your show. Andi Simon: Well, it was a real pleasure to meet you when we did the book launch at Josie's. I asked people if they wanted to share their wisdoms and Melissa had a story she wanted to tell. She's going to tell it again today. But first, who is Melissa? Tell us about your journey, please. Melissa Andrieux: Well, when you called me up to tell my story, I was a little shocked. I hadn't planned on being called upon. But I love sharing my story. I was born and bred in Queens. I am a lawyer, as you said. And I came to that profession kind of, I didn't have mentors in my life who were lawyers or judges. I learned by watching TV what was interesting. That's why I chose my profession and what was on TV? You're a prosecutor. You are a criminal defense lawyer. So I chose the prosecution route. I always wanted to be a Queens District Attorney, and I became one. I loved that job. I represented the people of the State of New York, the county of Queens, and as most people in government, we move on into civil practice. And then I moved into civil litigation. I did that for a very long time. You may find that shocking, but I did it for 12 years at a firm and then I moved to Dorf Nelson & Zauderer, which was then Dorf Nelson. Now it's Dorf Nelson & Zauderer. And I did that for a while, and it's kind of sad looking back on it, but I did it for such a long time when I didn't really enjoy it, but I didn't know what else was out there. I had no clue what to do with this law degree. So I just kept on doing litigation, and it got to the point where I started speaking with people at the firm, and I was told that this opening for marketing and business development was available. And I said, well, I've never done either. I'm a litigator, I'm a lawyer. But then it got to the point where I was just candidly miserable. I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to go to work. So I said, you know, let me try the position, and I'm not a failer. I don't like to fail. So I said, I'm going to put my heart and soul into it. And I started learning about the business side of law, which I had no idea that law was a business. I thought you just went to court, the depositions, blah blah blah, but I found it very interesting. I was meeting clients, I was meeting prospective clients, I was learning about the business. And then that developed into marketing, which opened a whole new world for me. And with the marketing, I was looking at other law firms, I was looking at businesses, and the DEI aspect clicked. I mean, as you can see, I'm a woman of color in the legal profession, which another story is really not as diverse as should be, but we'll leave that for another time. So I started looking internally at what we could do to make the law firm better, more inclusive, more attractive to candidates. We wanted to hire people. So what do you do? So I spoke with leadership. I had to get their buy-in or else this would never work. And the first thing that we did is, we started a Diversity and Inclusion Council. And I hand-picked the members, and we just had candid conversations about what was going on at the firm, what they wanted to see change, and I studied. It was not easy. I spoke with people in the DEI space. I found the experts, I read, and it got to the point where I was being called upon to do panels and advise people on their own DEI journeys. I mean, it wasn't a quick thing, unfortunately. It took a lot of hard work. I had a lot of mentors and sponsors in my corner. Luckily, I'm one of those individuals who actually found people who wanted to invest in me, and that's kind of how I ended up here. I know that a lot of people, and I've heard this, think that the law firm hand-picked the Black attorney to be the DEI officer, but I assure you that it's not the case. I wanted this role. I advocated for this role, and I believe that I'm doing a very good job with the role. It's not done. It's hard work. And we continue every day to do the important work. Andi Simon: Let's reflect for a moment, which is how I think our listeners or our viewers want to pick your brain, because there have been a number of articles that have come out about how companies, large and small, are de-emphasizing the work of DEI or the Department of DEI. I'm not quite sure, being an anthropologist, why you need a department of it and who they put there. But, it's a very important part of transforming the way we live together. And it's both inside and outside. It changes how people come to work, what they expect of each other, how we listen to each other. And here, give them some of your own, both learning and experiences, because while they didn't pick you, they were wise enough to select you and to open up a space to let you go. I'm curious about that first group that you pulled together and how you managed to get them thinking. So give us a little of how did Melissa do it and how others might as well. Melissa Andrieux: So the how-to is: I decided to leave leadership out of these council meetings because I felt that in order for me to get a true sense of how people were feeling, I couldn't have the partners in these meetings because then people would feel like they cannot be honest. And that was the first thing that we did. And then I took the feedback. I took the information, and I looked at our policies. I looked at the procedures, the internal information that the firm has. And then I went to leadership and I said, this is what we can do. Let's do X, Y, and Z. Let's look at our policies. Are they gender neutral? Do they apply to everyone across the board? And we started slowly but surely. And as I say to everybody, DEI is in the long run. You cannot expect to finish DEI in a week, a month or even a year. It's an ongoing process. So that's how I started my DEI initiatives at the firm. Andi Simon: You spoke about having mentors and sponsors. Clearly you had teammates because as you think about it, this requires people to stop and rethink their story. And the story of the firm they're in. Their livelihood is dependent upon it, but also their personal experiences and what's happening. So as they were working with you, were there some key issues? I can hear your policy changes, but policies don't do much if people don't do much. So what kinds of things were you beginning to implement? Melissa Andrieux: So candidly, of course, as with any new initiatives, there is a little bit of pushback. So we had to get the team members at the firm on board and explain to them why this was important, why the time was now. And, it's not perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. But people do understand why diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is important. I mean, the thing is, you want to attract talent. You want the firm to continue to grow. And the way that we do that is bringing diverse perspectives into the law firm, bringing different people into the law firm, because neurodiversity, everybody comes from a different place in their lives. Their thinking is not the same as, let's say, somebody who's been here forever. You want to bring in fresh blood. And so when they started to understand the business reason behind this, they started to really buy into what we were doing. And they embrace it and they welcome it at this point. Andi Simon: One of the women I met recently is a Vassar professor who had a bunch of faculty go to court about equal pay for equal jobs. And of course, being a former academic, I remember well how they hired men at different salaries than the women and they came in with less experience. And that's at a female college. Come on. So give us a little bit of a breakdown because there's diversity, equity, equal pay for equal work, equal position, equal opportunity, inclusion. And inclusion and belonging are a little bit different. Give us a little bit more detail. I think it would be helpful. Melissa Andrieux: Sure. So diversity is a reference, a representation of different cultures, different backgrounds, different races, sexual orientations. Diversity can also be the differences in education, socioeconomic background, marital status is diversity. People often think that it's just racial or gender, but that's not it. There are so many different aspects to diversity. It's what makes us different and unique. Andi Simon: Somebody once said to me, we're all diverse. And I said, that's great. We're all unique. Go ahead. Melissa Andrieux: And that's what makes the world a great place to live. Imagine living with everybody who's like you. I mean, I think that would be pretty boring. So that's diversity. Equity at its basic level, equity is about fairness and leveling the playing field. Contrary to what some people think, it's not about taking from one group to give to another group. It's about making adjustments to imbalances. It's really about fairness. Inclusion is kind of related to belonging. But I look at them as two different concepts. So to me, inclusion is, you're being invited to the party to play, you're being given a seat at the table, you're being considered. And as a decision maker, as a colleague, your voice is being heard. Andi Simon: You mean you can say something in a meeting and people can hear you? Melissa Andrieux: Exactly, exactly. They listen to you. They might not buy what you say, but they give you the opportunity to be seen and to be heard. And to me, belonging is an individual's feeling that you feel that you are connected to the community that you belong to, that you can be yourself with the people that you're around you. Andi Simon: You find that you know humans. I'm an anthropologist. Humans are very tribal. Yes, they look at the world that they're moving into, such as a workplace. Do I belong here? And it is everything from the tangible: Am I dressed right? Do I look right? Will people look me in the eye and trust that I make good decisions? Plus all of the intangibles that are there that often I don't hear people talking about, which disturbs me because inclusion without belonging isn…
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