Supplier Diversity For Dummies

Chapter 15

Telling the World About Your Supplier Diversity Efforts

IN THIS CHAPTER

Nailing down how important communication is in supplier diversity

Putting together your supplier diversity communication plan

Increasingly, organizations are recognizing communication skills as a leadership and management imperative. Employees and stakeholders demand a greater sense of purpose and meaning from the organizations they align with. Communicating a strong story is part of that. It tells the story of where an organization has been, where it’s going, and what its challenges are. Storytelling isn’t just pushing out facts or entertaining; it’s an opportunity to engage and empower.

Communication is an essential skill just like the ability to get buy-in, round up stakeholders, plan, organize, and make decisions for the program, and it provides the foundation for you to do those things. As both the leader of the program and the head change agent (one of the hats of supplier diversity I discuss in Chapter 5), you have to use the power of narrative to set out your series of program actions. Because of this imperative, successful programs are placing a higher value on interpersonal communication skills.

This chapter discusses why telling supplier diversity’s story is so important and how to develop ...